This is the cat. I found him one autumn evening as I went to the store around the corner to pick up some food. A girl who worked in the store stood on the sidewalk holding three screaming kittens someone apparently left there in a cardboard box. They were so small and she was desperate. And I just grabbed the black one and went home.
I didn’t even look at it, if it was a boy or a girl, if it was normal, healthy, I just grabbed it because it (he) was black. Fortunately, he was a healthy, male kitten, although definitely too early parted from his mom. He didn’t know how to eat on his own so we had to come up with strategies for feeding him. At first we’d put some milk on our fingers and as he would start licking the milk we would slowly lower the finger into the bowl and he would continue drinking from the bowl. And this was always followed by a big sneeze because he would usually stick his nose into the bowl and accidentally inhale some of the liquid. For the next few months although he was eating and drinking on his own he would always stick his nose into the bowl and sneeze first and then proceed to peacefully drink.
For the first few years of his life he was a beast. He’d scratch and bite us, he’d push things off desks and chewed our umbrellas. We were kind of thinking he pretty much hated us but we loved him. As spring came, it felt sad to keep him closed in the apartment as he sat by the window his eyes wide open trying to inhale the outer world. So we finally took him to our parent’s house where he could roam freely in the back yards and socialize with neighbourhood cats (it is a very cat friendly neighbourhood). At first he wouldn’t come out of his crate but once he did we didn’t see him for two weeks except for meals. I believe he was a very happy cat. He had us, but he liked being on his own and when he needed company he would sleep next to our feet though minimal to no touching allowed.
In past couple of years he became more tame, he purred and wanted to be petted and sit on your lap, and of course we were happy to accpet this change. I believe that as he got older he got to be more mature than us, kind of a wise old guy, so he decided it’s time he adopted us. And for a while he was so nice to us.
He’s gone, now. Just disappeared, nowhere to be found. But I do believe he did like us so it’s something, ‘cause he was a strange but a really great cat…
