It is the story (fable?) of 'Leo the Lion' where the boy removes the
thorn from the lions paw and they become friends, is it not?

My somewhat 'similar' story ...

I was living in a small 'mother-in-law' apartment in West Palm beach
about 12 years ago. The neighbors that lived in the house in front of
mine obtained a small - somewhat 'wild' female cat who of course,
promptly had a litter of kittens. They were all beautiful, a white one,
a black one, a simaese marked one and so on .... but there was one that
caught my eye right away.

'Bandit', as he was later named, was a six-toe, with the most unique
markings I had ever seen. Kind of 'siamese' with white tipped paws,
exquisite blue eyes and a very distinctive, perfect brown 'mask' that
went across his face and over his eyes (hence the name 'Bandit'). He
was very lean and muscular, a short tail with a brown tip. He was quite
a small cat. He was one of those 'ctitters' that if you saw him romping
in the yard you'd say 'What the hell is that?'

I had watched this little guy grow and kept asking the neighbors if I
could adopt him. He was the only one they wanted to keep and managed to
give the rest of the litter away ...

The neighbors had been planning to move for quite some time, and when
the time came, 'Bandit' was no where to be found. They knocked on my
door and said they couldn't wait any longer, that they HAD to leave
and that I can keep the boy if he showed up.

Sure enough, a couple of days later he was in the yard. He had grown
into cat adolescents as an 'outside' cat and was actually kind of
'wild'. I somehow coaxed him into the house where he went ABSOLUTELY
nuts - running ... no ... FLYING through the house, LITERALLY climbing
the walls trying to get out.

I decided to give hime some space and leave him alone to calm down and
get used to the INSIDE of the house, and went into the kitchen to wash
some dishes. For quite a while I could hear Bandit tearing through the
house, making scratching sounds on the wall as he was going crazy.

Then, it suddenly got very quiet. I waited for a minute, thinking he
was either under the couch or, hopefully, curled up somewhere in a spot
in which he found comfortable.

Then, in the through silence, I heard a very low, very deep, guttoral
.... "mmmmrrrrrrooowwwwwwww" ... "mmmmrrrroooooooowwwwwwww" which in my
experience I've learned means either ... "I am very pissed off and you
need to step off" or "Uhhhh ... I'm in trouble" ...

I walked around the corner, and there was poor Bandit, hanging by his
'hips', upside down in the loop of the chord that opens the blinds. He
had climbed the wall and fallen back into the loop of the chord,
hanging himself UPSIDE DOWN ...

After I cleared the tears out of my eyes from laughing so hard, I eased
over and pulled him out.

From that point on ... I was his best friend.

JR

A side story - Bandit was unique in one other (somewhat gross) way as
well ... it seemed that no matter what I fed this cat ... good food ...
cheap food ... expensive food ... people food ... no matter what ... If
he used the litter box at night (doing a No. 2) ... the 'aroma' would
RIP me out of a deep, very sound sleep .... making my eyes water ...
HOLY COW ... never figured that one out ...