WHEN Angelo asked his wife Naaz what she wanted for her birthday, she said a cat.

Angelo reckons great. This is going to be the cheapest birthday present of my life. Hundred bucks. I mean how much can a cat cost?

He asks her where's this cat. What cat you want? She says, no, it's on the internet.

What kind of cat's on the internet? He should have known then!

There are three cats to choose from on this website. So they choose one. A nice, cute, one. Persian cat. With a special colour. It's called Calico Smoked Tabby.

How much does the cat cost? No, it's five grand for this cat! Five grand! What the hell kind of cat costs five grand?

You can go see if you want. There are pictures of this cat up behind the bar at El Dorado in Parliament Street. Five grand. Actually, seven and a half grand!

Because that's not the whole story. The cat comes from this lady in Cape Town who breeds the things. So now, before you can get the cat they make you sign a contract. You gotta agree to have the cat spayed within six months. You got to have all kinds of injections. And you’re not allowed to breed it. It's just the cat.

Then, they gotta fly this cat from Cape Town. You got to pay for a vet to be there at Cape Town airport to put the cat to sleep and sign that everything's okay. It's gotta go in a special cage. Then you need another vet on the other side, at PE airport, to wake her up on this side and make sure everything's okay again. That whole thing's, like, another grand and a half. I mean, if you fly from Cape Town on 1time or whatever, how much that cost you? Three hundred bucks. For a person. This is two-five. For a cat!

In the end, Angelo's down about eight grand on this bladdy cat for Naaz's birthday.

But you must see this thing. This cat comes with a breeding certificate. They can tell you its lineage for the last twelve generations. A family tree!

And they're quite special cats, Persians. They like to relax, those cats. They just stretch out on the couch like they're queen of the whole place. The queen of the household. And you must hear that thing purr! Sounds like a tractor. Her name's Phoebe.

She'll just lie there in your lap and scratch you with her claws until you rub behind her ears. And then she's happy. Then she'll start to purr like the queen of the whole world.

It is a special cat, a Persian.

But it should be – for eight grand!