On August 18th, my beloved feline friend, whose hijinks I frequently feature on my social media accounts, turned nine years old. Yay!
After years of having only interacted with the cat from afar, he suddenly infiltrated our home and became a bonafide member of the family in 2017. Even my mom, who previously hated and feared cats, completely fell in love with him.
In honor of my little buddy’s birthday, here are five facts about the cat.
1. His name is Oreo.
Obviously the cat’s name isn’t “the cat.” It’s Oreo. The name comes from his black-and-white fur pattern, which is reminiscent of an Oreo cookie. Funnily enough, his coloring also caused the neighborhood kids to mistake him for a skunk one time.
In the tradition of that Twitter joke from earlier this year, I rarely call Oreo by his name. I usually call him some variation of “Boo,” like “Boobie” or “Boobers.” When he’s getting on my nerves, I call him “Sir” or “Your Highness.”
2. He’s not my cat.
Despite the fact that Oreo spends roughly 80% of his time at my house, he actually belongs to my upstairs neighbors. This fact often surprises and confuses our visitors, especially when they see how comfortable he makes himself here.
Why did Oreo end up “living” with us? Because his penchant for nighttime roaming constantly got him locked out of his real home. We keep late hours, so we started keeping an eye on him. The next thing we knew, we were feeding him and he was napping in our beds during the day. Nowadays, he often stays for an entire week before he decides to go home.
The neighbors aren’t thrilled with this joint custody arrangement, but they’ve accepted it. They had to. They tried keeping him in, and we tried keeping him out. We both failed. Oreo goes where he wants when he wants.
3. His favorite foods are liver pate and KFC chicken.
Of all the canned cat foods we’ve given Oreo, his absolute fave is the Friskies liver-and-chicken pate. He’ll eat other flavors—salmon, mixed grill, and anything with gravy. For a while. Then he throws a “liver fit,” which involves climbing, biting, fasting, and otherwise acting the fool until he gets his liver.
Oreo also loves KFC chicken. My dad made the mistake of giving him a piece of breast once; now he thinks he’s entitled to chicken every time. He’ll come sit by the table, alternating between pouting and glaring, until one of us caves. If KFC’s not on the menu, Oreo will accept whatever chicken we have, as long as it’s white meat and skinless.
4. He’s uniquely potty-trained.
Since Oreo isn’t technically our cat, he doesn’t have a litter box in our house (yet). Believe it or not, it’s rarely been an issue.
You see, Oreo has a system. He lets us know when he has to go by walking to the door (or a window). We let him out, he does his business, and he comes back inside. I guess his owners trained him like that. Personally, I like this setup because it allows us to keep some mystery in our friendship.
5. He loves my dad.
Although Oreo is fond of me and my mom, my dad is clearly his favorite person in the house.
Oreo shows his love for my dad in many ways. He escorts my dad home from the parking lot most nights. He runs to my dad for comfort when there’s a thunderstorm or the maintenance people are afoot (his two biggest fears). He often “talks” to my dad when he won’t talk to anyone else. It’s adorable.
I think the extra love stems from the fact that my dad was one of the people who found Oreo and his newborn siblings, who were abandoned beneath a stairwell. Maybe Oreo remembers him. Or maybe he’s just trying to get in good with the guy who brings the food.