Cats can have friends

by Arlene

Mr Cat has a best friend. This best friend is a cat we call Kevin, aka Mini Mr, since he is a little mini version of Mr Cat. He belongs to someone who lives in the street, but he follows Mr Cat around all day. When he follows him in through the cat flap, which is in the back door, I just put him out the front door and that seems to flummox him for a while. When he is waiting on Mr Cat coming out to play he sleeps in the back garden, under Amy’s swing seat, in the long grass.

Mr Cat did not want a best friend. Mr Cat was happy being quite grumpy and a bit jittery. He liked Purr and he liked me and that was more than enough liking things for him, thank you very much. But then Mini Mr turned up and decided that he liked Mr Cat, so that was that. He just tagged along behind Mr Cat until eventually Mr Cat gave in and started liking him as well. Because Mini Mr was around so much we decided to give him an actual name: Kevin.

Kevin is not my cat and I do not feed him or look after him. He has a home, and I found out about a month ago that his real name is Ollie. We have been calling him Kevin for so long though, that it has stuck. Mr Cat and Kevin now spend most of their time outside together, doing whatever cats do outside.

Enemies

Cats can also have enemies. Mr Cat has an enemy. An arch nemesis. The personification (in cat form – the felinification?) of all evil. This cat we call Colin.

I’m not sure exactly what Mr Cat hates about Colin, but he really doesn’t like him. Colin – which is not his real name, and I don’t know what his real name is – has been around for a few years, and the dislike originally started with Purr.

Purr would spot Colin and take off hissing and chasing him. She would see him, two gardens away, or on the other side of the street minding his own business, and she would be off like a ball of fury. Mr Cat served as back-up muscle. Now, Purr is an older lady of refined years, and she waits until Colin gets quite close before she unleashes the crazy on him. No point in using up all your energy running to your enemy, let them come to you, right?

She has passed her dislike on to Mr Cat, who has taken up the mantle of ‘Defender of the garden, the cat food and the comfy sleeping places from the evil that is all things Colin’. Colin seems like a perfectly nice cat to me.