Postman refuses to deliver mail to home after he is attacked by a vicious ... cat

from this is london

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When Sarah and Ben Goddard's mail delivery dried up to a trickle, the couple smelt a rat.

But Goddards would have been better pointing the finger of suspicion at their pet cat Georgi, after it emerged a succession of attacks by the vicious moggy left the postman too scared to deliver the mail.

Yesterday the couple told how they only discovered Georgi had taken to catfights after they saw the postie outside and questioned him about him their lack of letters.

He told them he would not be delivering any more mail because the tabby had left him with bleeding fingers after three attacks in a week.

The newly-weds have now paid £25 for a new post box which has been installed at the end of their drive - and have received a flood of back-dated Christmas cards which had been held for them at the sorting office.

Mrs Goddard, 24, a nursery nurse from Derby, said: "We first noticed a problem a few months ago when we got married and were looking forward to loads of congratulations cards.

"In the end we hardly got any. Every time someone asked me if their card had arrived I had to tell them 'no'. It was very odd and pretty annoying.

"From then on we would get just the very occasional piece of mail.

"And then a couple of weeks ago I saw the postman cutting across my drive as I opened the blind and when I waved to him he came to the door.

"When I asked if he had anything for us he said he wasn't delivering to us any more because he had been scratched.

"He said we would have to collect our stuff from the sorting office, or wait for it to be delivered the next day along with a letter threatening the suspension of our mail.

"I thought he was joking, but then he told me our dog was always attacking him whenever he tried to deliver mail and had even drawn blood.

"I sympathise completely with postmen getting attacked by dogs - but the only animal we have is Georgi. I told him: 'We've only got a cat.'"

Fearsome moggy: Georgi the cat attacked the postman three times in one week

The next day, the letter from local delivery office manager Steve Brown arrived with backdated mail.

It warned Mrs Goddard and her 27-year-old husband, a land surveyor: "Animal attacks are a major cause of injury to Royal Mail staff.

"I am writing to you to inform you that if your cat is not kept under control then we will be suspending the delivery of mail to your address."

The Goddards say 18-month-old Georgi - pictured with the scars of battle after a scrap with a local cat - is usually friendly.

But they have now installed the new post box - and have had no further interruptions in their deliveries.

Mrs Goddard said: "In the end I thought I had better hurry up and fit a new box. Christmas is important to us - we couldn't risk not getting our usual load of cards." A Royal Mail spokesman said that the postman had suffered injuries to his fingers, drawing blood, on three occasions in one week.

He added: "We then delivered a letter along with some mail we had for Mrs Goddard asking her to control the cat or we would have to suspend deliveries.

"At no time were deliveries officially suspended - that is a step only taken as a last resort. "We appreciate Mrs Goddard taking action to allow the postman to make deliveries without risk of further injury."

He said that whilst postmen usually fall victim to dogs, cats and birds have been known to lash out whilst protecting their territory.

In January, the Daily Mail told how cat owner Sarah Gregg was left in the doghouse with the Royal Mail after her pet Dipity leapt three feet into the air to swipe an unfortunate postman's hand, drawing blood.

Miss Gregg, 24, a retail specialist from Huddersfield, found out about the attack when the manager at a local delivery office wrote a letter to complain that a postman had been scratched and hurt "quite badly".

The Royal Mail threatened to stop deliveries to the two-bedroom cottage.

We had a cat that was vicious like that. We had to have him put down in the end cos he was so feral around people. These folks should at least lock the damn thing up out the back when things are being delivered or they have visitors.

well the thing about that that gets me is they never went to the mail center to find out why all those letters weren't getting to them, and they didn't realise their cat was vicious. How lazy do have to be? No wonder they went through all that. They'd have known "months ago" if they'd just asked someone.