Day 243 - Sidney the Cat

This is a picture of Sidney.  

Sidney is the only cat of my youth to survive to adulthood.  I believe he made it to the ripe age of 11.  He was a great cat.  

But he was odd.  

I talk about him to clients all the time - especially when they tell me stories of things their cats do.  Because I have never ever heard of another cat doing what Sidney did.

He brought an offering every time he came to eat.  An offering of socks.

Silly cat.  He was an indoor/outdoor cat who had food available to him all the time.  Cats like to be 'grazers' and come and nibble throughout the day.  He was no different.  Except, every time he came to eat he dragged a sock into the kitchen next to his bowl!  

He must have been particularly hungry this day and frequented the food trough quite a few times.  There are even a pair of tights in there!  He did not discriminate.  He brought socks from every family member - clean or dirty.  Never underwear or shirts.  Socks.  Always the socks. 

He meowed a specific meow every morning to request his daily microwave-warmed up milk.  He would not drink it cold.  

He also meowed a specific meow when he had brought us a present of another kind:  vermin.  He had this lovely habit of catching mice, moles, birds, and my favorite: fully grown rabbits!  He would bring them through the doggie door in the basement, eat the head off, then come and get us proudly to share in his plunder.  

He would come upstairs and utter his meow of accomplishment and we would turn to each other and say 'oh, no!'

He was thanking us.  My parents disliked his gratitude greatly when he had to be sedated to clean out his impacted colon of rabbit skull fragments and teeth.  THREE times.  

He loved to lick. He would licks hands, legs, furniture.  My face was the only face he licked, though.  :)  He was friendly, a purr-bucket, and a masterful hunter.  I'll never quite figure out how he caught full sized rabbits and managed to haul them over a 4 foot fence and then through a doggie door.  Quite a cat, he was.

But I will forever remember him as the cat who said thanks for his food by dragging socks to the kitchen.  

Miss you, Sid-ro.