Here is a brief story on how I acquired a cat…

About 7 months ago someone in our apartment complex must have moved out and like many people could not take their pet with them (or so I am assuming). About this time is when we started seeing this bi-colored blue and white British Standard shorthaired lurking around. He was understandably standoffish to everyone, but being a handsome cat some of the people in the area would leave out tuna or whatnot that he would enjoy when absolutely no one was looking.

After about 3 months of this lurking I was finally able to approach him and pick him up. No one in the complex could get close to him, but I have a way with animals. This is when we decided to get some proper cat food for the poor guy and leave it for him on the porch. It was not long after that he was poking his nose into our apartment. This is when I had to make a decision, let him in or keep him out. Not an easy choice because I am (or at least was) allergic to cats. For whatever reason however, I do not seem to have a problem with this cat. I let him in and that was all she wrote as my new owner made himself comfortable.

For the record his name is: Socks, Lord Marbury, Emissary of Jeff and Nan, the Dignified. The Socks was what Nan originally named him because of his wonderful white socks. I though he acted more like Lord Marbury for the character on The West Wing so we added that too. The Emissary part was because he seemed to announce himself and us wherever he goes. The Dignified is for this way to prominent ego that he exerts whenever he is caught being kittenish. We call him any of the four but usually Socks.

This is a well trained cat. He does not seem to be destructive and any way, he rarely scratches and when he does, it does not seem to be damaging anything (although the tree in front of our apartment is just about bare of bark.) He now lets us pick him up whenever we like but he complains about it very vocally (purring the whole time) pretending to be indignant. In the mornings and evenings it is thunder-paws through the apartment (very cattish) and he love his “Pounce”, Catnip Mouse, and dangly toy. He is not a “high energy” cat which is good, because I am not sure I could handle I high energy pet. In other words; he’s a great cat.

Nan says he is my cat mostly because he will stay with me more often than not. I have not had that kind of companionship since I was in high school and our family dog Bandit would stay with me all the time. I had a cockatoo who was attached to me, but it is not the same as a dog or cat, there is that cage thing at night where as cats and dogs can jump on your bed and be foot warmers. Recently he has taken to jumping up on an ottoman that I put my laptop on and looking at me over the screen. It is really very funny, especially when he thinks he needs more attention and walks all over the keyboard. Yeah, he’s my cat.

Now being mostly a blue cat I think he thinks he can be invisible. He will find a place to sit and stay real still and dissolve into the background watching us all the while. When we do approach him he gets miffed and finds a new spot. Earlier this week he took “Stealth Kitty” to a new level. I had to take out the trash rather late in the evening and as I left I left the front door open. This is not a problem for the cat, we leave the patio door open all the time so he can go out whenever he wants. As I left he stuck his head out the door. I turned the corner and there he was following me. As soon as he saw that I saw him he bolted for the bushes. As I walked to the dumpster he followed me moving from bush to bush, “out of sight”. I decide to see if he was following me or just going out for a romp, so I went around the building. He followed. Eventually he was walking right on my heel, it was a funny sight. I got back to the apartment and he followed me and that was when I first “walked the cat”.

Now I take a few cat treats along with me and when he get close I drop one and wait for him to eat it. He looks up to me and on we go. He stays behind me, runs 15 feet or so ahead of me, but stays within a short distance waiting for another treat. This is how I am training our cat and it seems to be working. Someone saw me walking the cat this evening and I told him I was walking the cat, he busted up laughing at the sight of a cat doing what you might expect a dog to do. It is rather comical.

So far we have only tried this late at night when there are no other animals around so there is more work to be done. So far however the “walking the cat” has been fun.