Farmers’ markets are brimming with great produce now that summer is well under way, and one cat couldn’t be happier that peach season has finally here.
Ozzy doesn’t actually want to eat the sweet fruit. The 5-year-old tabby’s favorite bed is a mound of fuzzy, juicy peaches. Every time his family takes the downy fruit home, he even finds various applications for it.
Lydia Coutré, whose parents own Ozzy, said, “He nuzzles them, uses them as a cushion to rest, or just hangs over them guarding them.” His human sisters, Lydia and Lorraine, have been thoroughly amused by the cat’s peculiar behaviors for years.
“He was introduced to them the first peach season our family had him,” Coutré said. “He found them on the table and immediately started rubbing on them the first time he was around them, so we think it’s probably the feeling of the peaches that he likes.”
Ozzy’s owner places the peaches on newspaper sheets to mature, which is the ideal circumstance for Ozzy to build a nest. Ozzy’s family must take drastic measures if they wish to preserve their crops free of cat fur.
According to Coutré, “My mum once put the peaches in the basement to keep them away from Ozzy.” He nonetheless discovered them, leaving a cat-sized hole in the center of the formerly orderly rows of peaches.
Ozzy has lived with the Coutré family since he was adopted in the fall of 2013. Lorraine and her mother were volunteering at the Harbor Humane Society in West Olive, Michigan, when they decided to take a peek at the cats available for adoption.
They weren’t planning on expanding their family at the moment, but when Lorraine spotted Ozzy, it was love at first sight.
According to Lorraine Coutré, “I spotted Ozzy in the main lobby at the very beginning (his name was Blaze at the time) and couldn’t get my mind off of him.” Right before we left, I finally got to meet him, and the moment I had him in my arms, he simply melted. We brought him home because it was “Free Kitten Friday,” and partly because I was pleading with Mom, who couldn’t say no.
Ozzy is a playful, cuddly cat in general, but his love doesn’t extend to all circular fruit. In fact, citrus has the opposite effect on him.
“Ozzy hates clementines,” Coutré said. “He smells them, makes a face, turns up his nose and runs away. Ozzy doesn’t cuddle any other fruit — just peaches.”
Ozzy’s strange love affair with the summer stone fruit has since become a running joke in the Coutré family. Ozzy’s owners will delight their daughters by sending pictures of Ozzy sleeping among the peaches to the family group chat.
