When Pooh Bear arrived to live with us, he was the ultimate loser. In spite of his bulk, this imposing white tom was timid, untouchable and scared of almost everything. Unlike his two cage mates who came with him from the Kitten Action sanctuary, Pooh Bear could not settle in to his new environment. He went into hiding, first in a box, then in a cupboard, then under the house.

To make things worse, our feisty ginger tabby saw his weakness and decided to make a feminist bid for pole position. Whenever our designated commander of the world sidled into the kitchen for food, she ran after him snarling and swatting. In the end, simply a look from her steely green eyes would send him fleeing to squeeze himself under our bed or hibernate in the cellar.

The poor boy had just endured the torment of a year on the run outside the Ark shelter for the homeless. He was dumped there as a friendly fatcat, but could not handle the territorial ferals and drunken hoboes who hounded him to the extent that he ended up mange-riddled, skeletal and howling up a tree - which was where he was rescued .

But in spite of all our care and a deluge of homeopathic drops, Pooh Bear would not see his new abode as a safe alternative. When the bully even started sneaking up and attacking him in the litter box, he began inappropriate urination and an animal behaviourist insisted that the only solution was to re-home him.

Nuts to that! Out of the blue, this gentle giant decided to hell with bullying and dramatically turned the tables on the ginger tabby. Suddenly she was fleeing and leaping out of windows at the slightest glare or grunt from this one-time nerd.

At the same time, he started to talk, venting loud miaows in his cracked baritone. He started rolling over to be stroked and cuddling up to be hugged and indulging in wild moments of twisting, twirling play - Marlon Brando meets hip hop. He now never stops chirping - and grooming his two charges. He is so protective of them that at the hint of a squeal, he runs off to check on the bully.

Needless to say, Pooh Bear is firmly established as our top cat, proudly patrolling the property with his white fur licked to polar bear fluffiness and his once weepy yellow eyes gleaming with command. Certainly he is the last creature on earth we would have believed to be running the show.

In fact we should not have been surprised. Our first memory of him was at the Ark when one of the ferals was stuck on a roof crying pitifully and Pooh Bear came out of hiding to trot up and down shouting encouragement until the cat was rescued. In his heart, Pooh Bear was always a hero.