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.
Ozzy’s owner Lydia Coutré told The Dodo that Ozzy “nuzzles them, uses them as a pillow to rest on, or just hovers over them guarding them.” His human sisters, Lydia and Lorraine, have been endlessly 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.”
When Ozzy’s owner places peaches on newspaper to ripen, Ozzy has the ideal place to build a nest. Ozzy’s family must take drastic measures if they are to keep cat fur off of their produce.
The peaches were formerly kept out of Ozzy’s reach in the basement, according to Coutré’s mother. Even so, he discovered them and left a cat-sized hole in the center of the once-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.
“I saw Ozzy in the main lobby at the very beginning (his name was Blaze at the time) and couldn’t keep my mind off of him,” Lorraine Coutré told The Dodo. “When I finally got to meet him right before we were leaving, he just completely melted in my arms.
Mom couldn’t say no, partially because I was begging, and partially because it was ‘Free Kitten Friday,’ and we brought him home!”
In general, Ozzy is a friendly and affectionate cat, but his affection does not extend to all types of round fruit. Citrus really has the exact opposite impact on him.
Ozzy despises clementines, according to Coutré. He rushes away after turning up his nose, making a face, and smelling them. Only peaches are the only fruit that Ozzy cuddles.
Since then, the Coutré family has been making fun of Ozzy’s odd obsession with the seasonal stone fruit. The owners of Ozzy will make their daughters happy by uploading images of Ozzy napping amidst the peaches to the family chat room.
At some point, Coutré realized she couldn’t keep the humorous pictures to herself and posted them on Twitter.
The post has received over 100,000 likes and over 60,000 retweets in only a few short days. Ozzy is more worried about peach season ending than he is about how well-known he has become.
Coutré continued, “I’m simply thrilled the internet loves him as much as we do. And perhaps to keep him company, we’ll buy him some peaches that aren’t in season.
