Fredcat's friends - and a famous cat has many of those!
Fredcat's best friend ever was Forby. Fredcat met Forby when Fredcat joined Cathie's household. Forby was a tabby cat. He could be friendly (ish) and was quite prepared to snuggle - but no cat EVER took liberties with him. Forby was Fredcat's protector when Fredcat was small. But hey, let's allow Fredcat to tell the tale, in his own words.
Fredcat's friendly mentor with little friend
When we first met, Forby followed me everywhere. He did not particularly like being photographed and this is one of the few decent pictures of him, taken with little Frankie who stayed with us for a short while.
Initially, Forby was puzzled by my sudden appearance on the scene but after a while we both learned to live side by side. Sadly he is no longer with us but he was a very good friend when he was alive. Even though cats are naturally suspicious creatures, I considered Forby to be not only my friend but also my mentor. As I had no mother to bring me up it naturally fell to Forby to teach me how to hunt and catch things. I was not particularly good at it at first but with excellent teaching and lots of patience I learned a lot from Forby and became the famous cat that I am today.
If you read my page about foes you will see that Forby was a great help in getting me started as a hunting cat.
You may be aware that cat flaps (or cat doors, as our American friends refer to these useful things) can have a set of sliding tabs to allow cats to go through the doors, (a) both in and out, (b) in only, (c) out only, (d) neither in nor out. Our home at that time had several of these clever devices to restrict my Forby friend and I from roaming at will throughout the house (and subsequently setting off the burglar alarm!).
But Poof!, such devices presented no problem to Forby. With one casual flick of his mighty paws, he was easily able to undo the settings (what a master craftsman he was) and he and I were though the doors each and every time. Those humans had no chance against a master like Forby. He was an excellent mentor and I learned a lot from him.
I had another friend called Charlie who stayed for a while. He was a dear lap cat, quite black all over. He just seemed to sleep all day and refused all attempts to wrestle (every cat must wrestle occasionally). If he saw a lap, he was onto it and was fast asleep in very short order, usually before the owner of said lap realised what was happening. And, after all, who can disturb a small sleeping cat, fast asleep in one's lap?
My list of other human friends (apart from Cathie, of course) is headed up by Jane. Jane has enormously long and strong nails which are always used to good effect on my back and head. I always like it when she turns up at my home as I am guaranteed extra attention and scratching from Jane. Jane even takes over mothering duties if Cathie is absent from home, and always tells me that she, Jane, is my bestest friend. Hmmm! She does feed me well, though. And Jane has a family who all also seem to like me - and why not? Am I not famous?
Other friends live far, far away and it used to be that I could only see them occasionally but now, thanks to my travelling skills and the clever Frednet system (I think you humans call it the internet) I see them all, all the time. So, special thanks to Laura, David and Margaret, and to GEB, of course.