Kosmos aka. Cosmos was a feral stray adopted as a skinny kitten by Kassiopeia's best friend. Literal skin and bones living on the streets of Alameda. They took him in and got all his medical necessities sorted. They saved his life by feeding him high a protien/fat diet. Cosmos' family had to move to Hawaii. The long quarantine required for all animals emigrating to Hawaii wasn't humane to a recovering kitten.
Kassiopeia's best friend was hugely upset having to give up her kitten. The only consolation would be that Kassiopeia adopt Cosmos. I relented, cat allergies and all. Well, Kosmos was renamed with a "K", an important letter around here. I consoled myself that He is a Russian-Blue and allegedly hypo-allergenic--loud sounds of feet dragging.
As animals go I appreciate the practical over emotional. We continued his strict diet and finally got him up to a healthy weight. He grew and grew. He was always aloof but would greet me when I woke and came home. He's weird like that. Also, he seemed super smart, a little too smart, opening closed doors and the like. I liked him, he exhibited strong signs of being a natural hunter and I am not allergic to him.
Then the hunting started in earnest. He has killed several animals. One of them was an obviously offensive song-bird. Nonetheless, he started killing rats. Rats are the scourge of Berkeley gardeners and orchard owners. Both of which we aspire. Berkeley has rat super-highways of bamboo and ivy along dividing fences.
We also have chickens which bring the rats from blocks around. Allegedly, our neighbor's house was also inhabited by a few rats. So a few weeks ago, I heard what sounded like cats fighting in the middle of the night. Kosmos is a muscly, big cat so I wasn't too worried about the outcome. In the morning there was a huge dead rat sitting in the backyard on the trash can lid--good kitty.
A week later he killed a juvenile rat and left it in Georgiana's dolly wagon--pretty good kitty. The following morning there were two more juvenile rats DEAD just outside the back door.
All the neighbors love him and sing his praises. He has left them little prizes too.
As I write, as if he knew, he just scared the crap outta the kids because he brought a barely alive rat into the house chasing it around. Everyone was yelling "DAD KOSMOS HAS A RAT IN THE HOUSE" I said just tell him to take it outside. He did.
Good kitty
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