An unlikely friendship

From the drain he came.

I estimate  he had lived there for five years at least.  Always on the run. Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible in order to survive. Foraging for food when not being fed by the Cat Lady of the complex.

We called him DrainCat.

From Alberton he came, we called him Oscar, our adopted kitten with the short tail.

It wasn’t long before Oscar started hanging out at DrainCat’s place. At dusk, when we came back from work, Oscar would be sprawled out on top of the storm water drain with Duke peeping out from the drain itself.

They became mates.  Inseparable.  Then the Cat Lady left and not everyone has time for a feral cat.

The DrainCat who became a Duke

We took DrainCat in on his own skittish terms in 2013 and renamed him Duke, aka DrainCatDuke.  We give him as much time, space and food as he likes.  Duke follows Oscar around 24/7.  They play together, sleep together and eat together.

Mates. MainCat and DrainCat.

It has been special to watch this journey of trust and acceptance. To witness the communication between these two cats  is special.

There are intonations for greetings and other cadences for discussion about the modus operandi for the day.

There’s so much to learn from the animals who are sent to enrich our lives.

 

Update: September 2020

So Dukie has been with us for 7 years now.

Theirs is a bromance unparalleled. Oscar and Duke.

We still to this day cannot touch Duke or make sudden movements near him without him doing his paranoid scuttle to safety. He is much more relaxed and very talkative. He also has new nickname from me: Gesiggie (Little Face).

A hunch from 2005 – maybe just an uncanny ‘feline’?

In 2005, I visited the UK. At that time my two previous kitties were still alive and ruling the roost. The were both grey and looked nothing like Oscar and Duke. I was, however drawn to a greeting card (pictured below), and have it framed in the kitchen.

It almost looks like the two boys I have now. So uncanny.

“What greater gift than the love of a cat.” ― Charles Dickens