Roadie came to us at four weeks old, the son of a local feral female. We snagged him early and weaned him ourselves. He was one of three kittens. The other two didn’t make it. A raccoon found them a few weeks after we took Roadie in.

He turned out to be a freak of nature. Confident. Personable. The most dog-like cat I have ever lived with. He is harness trained and loves a walk. He sits on command. He has taught himself to reach out and tap me with one paw when he wants something, which is almost always pets. Given the choice, he would rather hang with his people (me and Eric) than do just about anything else.

But the thing I want to tell you about is the food.

It started at the farmers market when he was maybe six weeks old. A produce vendor asked to meet him. He was cautious about the whole thing until she broke open a cherry tomato and held it out. Oh my. He went in face first and could not get enough.

Once he was big enough to hang outside with me, he found the little mushrooms that pop up in the garden. I went straight inside to look up whether they were poisonous. They weren’t. Whew. Now he hunts them like a bloodhound.

The full list, as best I can keep up: tomatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, pea blossoms, snow peas, string beans, strawberries, raspberries. If I am harvesting it, he wants his nose in it, and he wants to try it at least once. Meat too, of course, but a cat eating meat is not exactly news.

I can say with confidence that Roadie is my most invasive garden pest. I have a genuinely hard time growing peas, because he finds the blossoms and eats them before they ever get the chance to become peas.

I love that he is so food motivated. He knows that if I call him while he is outside, a treat is involved. If he is within earshot, he comes running. If he doesn’t come, I can usually guess what happened. He has let himself into a garage or a shed or somebody’s shop and gotten stuck. Thank goodness for tolerant neighbors who go check and call to let me know they found him.

A freak-of-nature cat, and a garden I mostly get to keep. I wouldn’t trade either, peas included.