Another big "wow" as we've surpassed 1,250 signatures! It has been so lovely to see so many positive comments, especially from many of those original O.G.H.S. girls who painted the original cats mural 35 years ago.

In addition to articles in the ODT and Star newspapers, Doug was also interviewed on National Radio about the mural! So the reach of this petition has gone nationwide.

The image for this update is a "word cloud" of all the comments we have received so far. (The bigger a word is, the more frequently that word was used.) Those words say it all. "History." Love." "People." "Iconic." "Beautiful." Folks, you got that right!

Here are some specific comments:

• B. wrote, "Signing on Behalf of myself and my children who all love this artwork."
• S. wrote, "I painted the last cat on the wall. It makes me proud every time I drive past..."
• R. wrote, "I'm a born and bred Dunedinite and love the city's street art. Keep it!"

We continue to be hopeful of a positive outcome. If we are successful, the original mural may need a bit of touching up, and perhaps a fresh anti-graffiti overcoat. We already have $1000 pledged, if and when that need arises. But, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, because the first step is to convince the "Keep Dunedin Beautiful" group that keeping the mural is the right call.

If you feel strongly, you could also email them at keepdunedinbeautiful@dcc.govt.nz. Do remember to be pleasant and positive, because they are our friends and we think they do a very good job in making Dunedin a great place to live.

We also don't want to say anything negative about the proposed new mural. Our only objective here is to "save the cats." And there are plenty of other walls in the area that might be suitable for new murals!

Thanks for taking the time to read this update, and have a great weekend.