👂IMPROVE ENGLISH FLUENCY with Daily Practice —'English Like a Native Podcast'

Hello and welcome to the English Like A Native podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 40, Day 5 of Your English Five-a-Day, the second season. Yes, it's Friday. We might even call it Fry. Yay! Because this is the day when we bring together all the vocabulary that we've been working on this week in one big story. Learning vocabulary in context is the best way to learn it. So, all you have to do is tune in on a regular basis, sit back and relax, maybe with a cup of tea and listen. If you do want to review any of the vocabulary from this week or any week of this entire series, season one and two, then you can very easily for free by accessing the Vocabulary Vault, a database we've put together just for you so that you can revise with ease. If you'd like to get access to that, I will leave a link and details in the show notes. For now, let's focus on today's story. Now, funnily enough, this story is called The Cat Police. And as I've opened up the story to start reading to you, my little ginger cat, Simba, has jumped up onto my lap. I guess he wants to hear it too. He's purring away. So, for Simba and for you, here's the story. It was one of those things that feels quite upsetting at the time, but becomes a story you laugh about later. You know the kind. Something annoying or unpleasant when it happens, but once a bit of time passes, it becomes just another odd little episode to share. This one happened earlier this year. I was doing my usual walk. There's a quiet residential street I like to go down to reach the river. I often do a loop around the river as a daily walk, and this street leads me to the riverside. That day, as I was walking, I saw one of my friends. She's a bit of a character, in the best way. She's 71, though you wouldn't guess it from her energy or how she presents herself. Youthful, full of life, a little eccentric. She's not what you'd call a typical pensioner, even though she does get a pension. She's lived an unconventional life and still does. She's an artist, though not professionally. It's always been something she's done on the side, and now that she has more time, she's leaning into it more. She also really loves cats. Her old cat, Prince, lived for over 20 years. I think maybe 24, which is incredible. Prince only had one eye, though I never actually asked her why, and she used to take him out on a lead. Honestly, it was adorable. In fact, at the moment, she's combining her passion for creativity and cats by working on an illustrated book about Prince and their walks. It'll be a true homage to this special cat and the unique relationship he had with his owner. Sometimes I'd join her on those little outings. If we went to a cafe or walked around the neighbourhood, people were always delighted to see Prince out and about like that. He became a little local celebrity. Oh yes, my friend is a big cat person and she knows a lot about them. Prince passed away a while ago, sadly, but while she was still walking him, she discovered two other cats that lived on that same quiet residential street. There's an apartment block with a beautiful shared garden and I think it used to be a large house before they converted it into flats. The garden really is something. It has one of the most beautiful trees in the whole city, I'm sure of it. In autumn, its leaves turn the brightest red and in spring, it's full of blossom. It's the kind of tree you stop to look at. Anyway, the two cats often sat in the garden. For a long time, it was the two of them, but one passed away recently. Now there's just one and it's clearly getting on in years. My friend has been visiting these cats for years. She got to know them well and even knows the owners. That day, when I saw her, she was kneeling near the railings feeding the remaining cat. She thought it looked a bit thin and wanted to give it some extra food. The owners were away on holiday, she said, though someone was supposed to be looking after it. Still, she brought both wet and dry food for it, a proper little care package. She was wearing her usual outfit, a long skirt, boots and an oversized sweatshirt. One of those ones that always smells a bit like laundry, fresh and warm, as if it had just come off the line that morning. She's not one to dress up, but somehow it all seemed to go together. A bit eccentric, yes, but it suited her. I always think that she smells faintly of lavender, not a strong perfume, but a light perfumed scent that matches her personality. We stood there chatting while she fed the cat. It was happy purring, rubbing against her, eating. Everything seemed fine. At one point, I noticed a woman inside one of the ground floor flats opening her shutters, looking out at us, then closing them again. It wasn't exactly a warm gesture, but we were just standing on a public pavement chatting, nothing strange about that. Then suddenly things took a turn. A man from another ground floor flat flung his shutters open and began shouting at us, proper shouting, aggressive and loud. He told us to stop feeding the cat, said it wasn't our business and that we should leave. My friend tried to explain herself. She said she knew the cat and the owners. She was worried it looked thin and she wasn't doing anything wrong, but he wouldn't listen. He just kept yelling. There was no reasoning with him. At one point he even threatened to call the police, which is ironic because he was the one behaving in a threatening and intimidating way. Also, I'm pretty sure the police aren't going to come if you tell them that two women are chatting on the street and petting a cat. It was an empty threat, but still. Now, I was just standing there, not feeding the cat, not saying much, and this man was screaming at me too. I'm much taller than him. Not that it matters, but still, it felt ridiculous. He was shouting like we'd done something terrible. My friend remained calm. She kept trying to explain herself, but I could see there was no point. He wasn't interested in listening. He said again. He'd called the police and then added, I'm coming over. He meant he was going to come out and confront us properly. There were railings separating the garden from the pavement, and I suppose he meant to come round and confront us in person. I don't know what he thought he'd do. Before we left, I saw my friend calmly fasten the lid back onto the plastic container she had brought the cat food in, as if she were packing up a picnic rather than backing away from a shouting man. I found that strangely impressive. At that point, we decided to go. My friend quickly packed up the food and we walked away. We ended up going on a short walk together along the river. Eventually, I continued on my own, but the whole thing had left me feeling uneasy. It really was an unpleasant experience, not just for me. I think my friend was upset too. She loves that cat and wants to continue visiting it, but after that encounter, she feels she can't because this man might scream at her again. A few days later, we saw each other again. I was about to go on holiday and gave her my spare key. I asked if she'd gone back to see the cat. She had, but only late at night. She'd gone around 10pm, hoping that by then everyone would have their windows and shutters closed. She didn't want to disturb anyone or deal with that man again. We talked about what had happened and tried to make sense of it. We thought maybe he was annoyed because we were talking outside his window. Maybe he was trying to nap or just didn't like people near his flat. That would explain his irritation, perhaps, but not the way he behaved. And the thing is, it wasn't even his cat. It belonged to someone else entirely. Feeding a neighbourhood cat isn't a crime. People do it all over the world. Cats expect it. It's part of their nature. They go wherever they like and collect extra meals from whoever will offer. He could have just said, sorry, I'm trying to rest. Would you mind keeping it down or something like that? But instead he went full volume, full aggression. Anyway, it's not worth worrying about now. I've walked down that street plenty of times since and I haven't seen him again. That's a relief. I don't think he'd even recognise me if he did. The funny thing is, the other day I passed by that same garden and saw another woman, not my friend, crouching down, petting the cat. I don't know if she was feeding it too, but it made me laugh. It's clearly not just us. The cat likes people and people like the cat. The garden is open to the street. There are railings, yes, but the cat can slip through them easily. It clearly enjoys the attention. It's a gentle, harmless thing. A small act of kindness, a quiet connection between a person and an animal. So yes, being shouted at for trying to be kind felt a bit unfair, but in the end, forget that guy. And that brings us to the end of today's episode and to the end of Week 40. Can you believe it? We've completed 40 weeks of Season 2. Fantastic. Thank you for being here throughout all that time. I really appreciate it. And if you have any friends who are learning English, feel free to recommend that they also listen to The English Like A Native Podcast. Until next week, take very good care of yourself. And goodbye.