Meet Socks

Socks is a black cat, with white bits on three of his feet. He has the personality of every black cat you hear about in a story book. He is suspicious and reserved, always watching from a distance. He came into our lives by accident really or by default I guess. He was left on the property we purchased and was rather feral at the time. I’ve never had much time for cats.  I’ve never understood them or their ways. Socks is definitely a barn cat, he’s not much for lying around the house, apart for the porch at times. You won’t ever catch him curled up on a chair sleeping and the times he is found on the porch wall, he is in a position ready to escape when the moment calls for it. I guess that’s from previous years of neglect perhaps and probably a lot of his personality. The few cats I’ve come across have always seemed to be aloof to me, not caring one way or the other to be petted or fussed over. Now I know that a lot of people will disagree with me, especially cat people, but this is my experience with the cats I’ve met in my life.   Socks’ has come so far in the past three years and his subtle influences on my day have really grown on me. I have grown to love this old boy and I understand him better these days. I have gotten to know his personality and he has gotten to know mine. He has gone from appearing only in the dark to retrieve his dinner to spending some of the day on the front porch. From time to time, he will enter the kitchen while I’m cooking and preparing a meal to rub his face against my legs purring and I guess have a conversation with me in cat language. I doubt he will ever be one of those cats like the one at the feed store, which lies around all day on top of the food bags, content to let the customers and their children stroke him. Socks’ is as perceptable as an infrared camera, seeing all and sensing all new arrivals here on the farm. He knows the presence of strangers and disappears for the duration they are here. When I tell folk I have a cat, I think they disbelieve me as he rarely makes an appearance but as sure as the daylight follows night, once they leave he is there again meowing and reminding me he’s back.   

He has settled in here at Pine Haven and is a regular on my porch these days.  I expect that in years to come, he may become the cat you can stroke and pet and perhaps even pick him up.