King of the Driveway

The cat who came to our door.

Paddy first came into our lives somewhere around  2005 or so.  We'd one cat at the time (Casey), and I suppose the news got around the neighbourhood cats that there was cat food available at a particular location.  Anyway, a hungry, meowling cat began hanging around our door.  We gave him a meal, and he decided we were worthy of his adoption.

He was a suspicious cat to begin with.  Evidently, he'd been in a fight or two because there was always a little cloudiness in one eye, even as a young cat.  He lashed out whenever we brought the food dish to him, so we really had to be very quick to whip our hand away quickly so that we didn't get scratched.  But over time, the trust built up and his instinctive response faded away.

Paddy at his overweight best.

Paddy became the king of the front driveway.  Even when other cats started coming in, it was clear that they entered his territory on sufferance. When he was younger, he was less dominant, but as he grew older he became more intolerant of the new arrivals.  His fights were aplenty and he kept on getting wounded, requiring us to nurse him. Finally we got him neutered (we did the females and young males first) and the fighting generally stopped.   He gained so much weight that some passer by once asked whether he was pregnant!

Paddy in his younger days, being fed.

Paddy was my father's special cat.  He fed Paddy every morning and every evening, and often gave him a night snack as well. Paddy came running when my father called, and would rub himself around my father's legs raising his head up to be stroked.  He loved lounging on my car roof, and would slide down the windscreen to get down - something I didn't really appreciate, but he never left a scratch.

Other cats came and went (many in traffic accidents) but Paddy seemed immortal, a cat who knew how to cross the narrow road in front of our house.  But one day, he used up all his nine lives.  On 2 July 2013, my father came home to find Paddy lying in front of our front gate.  That day, he was just not quick enough.

We miss our dear Pads, our big fat cat waddling towards us whenever the door opened, or rubbing his back against our legs to greet us when we came home.  So bye Paddy, may you have a good time in the big rat-catching dreamland where all good cats eventually go to :-)

Our battle hardened warrior taking a rest.