Mocha is on the left,
Midnight in the middle,
& Morgana on the right

I live in The North East of England, with my fella and three cats. This email is reassurance (I think!) for all the other cat owners out there with beasties. I'd like to tell you a little (trust me, it's abbreviated!) about Midnight, my 4-1/2 year old neutered tom cat.

I support Darlington Cats Protection League branch by selling handmade cat toys in my local vets surgery & donating the profits to them. So far, we have raised enough to neuter about 4 cats.

I got Midnight when he was 9 months old, he is my eldest, he will be 5 on October 31st. We felt a Halloween birthday would be appropriate! Midders is a gorgeous, big, black, tom cat, (Ex Tom!!) with a serious attitude problem. He was rescued by the Cat Orphanage in Stockton (NE England) when he was found stray. Apparently his old Mum & Dad had moved & left him behind. How could anyone do that to a beautiful big tom like that??? He was roaming free for some 2 months before he was captured, and has probably sired many kittens! (Heaven help us!)

When I was looking for a cat to adopt he decided that I was the one for him, even though I was just looking at that time! He climbed into my cat basket & sung a "take me home" song. So I did!

Once home, I was left with the problem of naming my new beastie. I had a list of names & I had decided that I would award him one of them once I knew his character a little. He went mad, sniffing his new home, & kissing everything in an "I live here now" manner. This continued until the bells from the church at the end of the road struck midnight when he curled up, contentedly on my knee. It stuck! He chose me, he chose his name, and he's had rule of the roost since then!!!

He is quite a character. It all started when he was first allowed out. I had a cat flap installed, and after 5 days of intensive training (pushing through the flap from either side) he got the hang of it. There has been no stopping him since!

The first person he really annoyed was the butcher up the street. He had sneaked in, and managed to grab himself a string of sausages, about 30 in total, and ran for his little furry life! I was on my way out, and what a sight, I saw midders heading towards the house from the top of the street where the butchers was, with his string of sausages. He had one in his mouth, and the rest were trailing between his legs on the floor. As he ran, we wore out the links between them & was leaving batches of 2 or 3 sausages here, there & everywhere! Behind him ran the butcher with his cleaver! It was just like punch & Judy, The butcher had his stripy apron on & was waving his cleaver whilst shouting obscenities at my cat! I ran into the house & denied everything! When Midnight came in with about 4 sausages, (all he had left!) I cooked a couple for him to eat. He'd earned them. This happened several times, various neighbours commented that they had seen him & the butcher running about the street!

Next came the bird phase. It was fledgling season. Every Sunday morning for some 6 weeks he brought me a freshly killed fledgling & placed it on top of my just delivered, Sunday newspaper to bleed! (I only got a newspaper on Sundays, and Co-incidentally only got a bird on Sundays! Did he know?) I stopped ordering the Sunday paper, so he waited about 3 weeks, then started bring me daily birds, and placing them at the bottom of the stairs, with the beak pointing upwards, hidden just enough that when I came downstairs in my bare feet every morning I almost stood on it! Urgh!

Soon after this I moved house to be with my long distance boyfriend, some 350 miles away. Within days he became violent. The one & only time he was violent with me, Midnight attacked him, and ripped shreds out of his leg. We moved back up north that night. My hero.

I got myself a flat in Darlington, in the North East, and started again. Midnight was soon settled and was allowed out again. I had a lady who did some cleaning for myself & my flatmate & she commented that it was my cat she had seen in the town! My Midders! He had crossed 2 main roads, and walked several hundred meters of busy road to go to a pub! He had also been barred by the time I found out! (Whether it was because he was under age or he didn't have any money, I don't know!)

Midnight then found a new fish & chip shop. It started all over again. He brought me various fish remains from their bin, and even stole a whole side of cod whilst I was in the shop. He had sneaked round the back, over the 7ft high wall, and into the back of the shop. The lady cursed that there was a big cat in the back of the shop, and I knew it would be him. He moved over to the side of the shop where he could see me, gave me a look of "sorry but it has to be done" and off he went with his side of fish! I chased him down the street, but he went off to one of his hiding places & when he came in that night he was incredibly proud of himself & fishy. I had to go back to the shop & pay for the fish.

This kind of behaviour continued, and he became known as Mr Fishy Trousers with all of the locals. He was known by most of them, making himself a prominent member of just about everyone's family!

When my fiancée & I decided it was time to buy a house, we moved again. by this time I had 2 more cats, all rescue cases & much better behaved than Midders! Once settled, he was allowed out once more. He terrorised the new neighbourhood within a week. I had received complaints about a cat in pain, it turned out to be that Midnight was pleased with himself for some reason & was rolling about squealing! He had also let himself into 5 houses in the next street. In each one, he had helped himself to food, done his business & gone to sleep in the owners beds, just in time for them to come home from work & find him!

Just 3 weeks ago, Midnight came in with some painty-sticky-stuff on his back legs, from the "elbow" down. He had obviously sat in it. We still don't know what it was but we know it would have been bad for him if he had eaten it whilst washing. As it has a solvent smell to it, the vet said that it may have been highly toxic. We were advised to bath him. He hates baths!!! We did our best at the kitchen sink with the fairy liquid, but it wasn't shifting. We then took out my fiancée's beard trimmer & shaved his legs!!! He looks soooooooo silly!!! He has his big fluffy bottom, and then these tiny stick legs! He looks like he might snap!!! Co-incidentally, I'm covered in scratches, and I have a very interesting scratch-bruise on my collar bone where he really meant it. Little swine.

Recently he has taken to attacking parcel delivery men & post men. He sits up on his back legs, and waves his front legs about in a threatening way. I had to apologise to one yesterday. It was the second time this chappie had come back. we weren't in the other day so he was going to put a card through in the post box to let us know we had a parcel. Midnight wouldn't let him near! He had to come back with the parcel when I was in to control Midnight!

He has cost me hundreds of pounds in vet fees, he keeps fighting & getting himself injured one way or another, I have even set up a direct debit with the vet now, because he will cost me the money sooner or later, so I might as well pay monthly!

The good news is that in the last year he has calmed down considerably. He will sit on my knee of an evening, he like cuddles, and he has friends too. He calls for a cat down the street every morning, mewing until his friend comes out to play! He doesn't attack as many things/people/cats/etc now, he has really mellowed out with age. The only problem now is that I have a 1 year old little cat which Midnight has taken under his wing, and is training him to be a terror too! Just another 3 or 4 years to go with this one......hopefully!

Copyright © Liz Bet
September 18, 2000