The "Taking Our Friendship To The Next Level" Story

My friend needed some attention so I had to take a
break from typing this story to scratch him.  Nice to have
 friends that only require a scratching to make them happy.

It was an ordinary day.  Had just run some errands and was arriving home.  Put the garage door up, but didn't pull the car into the garage, since I wanted to get the hand power mower out and go around the parts of my lawn that are hard to mow with the riding mower.  After completing my chore I put the mower away, closed the garage door and headed into the house to catch the last half of "The Price Is Right."  After the show I grabbed a can of beans and franks from the pantry and popped it in the microwave.  As I turned around I saw my friend standing at the back door.  Hadn't seen him since I fed him earlier this morning.  Creamsicle is our outdoor/indoor cat that we kind of adopted a few years ago.  Or, maybe I should say, he adopted us.  One day we looked out our rear door and there was this orange and white tabby cat standing on our rear steps.  Walked to the door and it scared him away.  Figured someone had dropped him off in the neighborhood and he was afraid of me.  Carol put some cat food out for him and the next morning it was gone.   One thing led to another and then one cold snowy night two years ago we opened the door to see if it had stopped snowing so we could start to shovel.  In runs this orange cat, hustles through the house and down the basement steps.  I took a dish of cat food down the stairs, put it on the floor and came back up.  In no time I could see that he was eating it.  He finally came tearing up the stairs and tried to get out so we opened the rear door and he was gone.  Over the next couple of weeks we tried to coax him into the house and finally one day he must have trusted us enough so he came in the door.  He enjoyed the touching and petting, but wasn't ready for much more.  Finally, a few weeks later, we managed to pick him up, put him in a pet carrier and take him to the vet to be checked.  Had already been neutered we found so we had the vet give him his shots and brought him home.  Over the past year we have invited him in quite often and he has accepted.  Then one cold rainy evening, after sitting in our laps for over an hour, we decided he was going to stay in the house.  He wasn't happy, but managed to get through the night.  One night led to another and he now enjoys staying in with us in bad weather.  Well, last night he spent the night laying stretched out next to Carol on the bed most of the night.  And ...... in appreciation of our hospitality, he decided it was finally time to reward us with a ...... dead bird.  Yep, as the microwave was heating my beans and franks, I opened the door to let Creamsicle in the house.  He walked pass me and as I was closing the door I saw a pile of feathers on the floor mat.  Grabbed a paper towel and went to gather them to throw away.  Under the feathers was the head of a sparrow with fresh blood on it and one small foot next to the head.  Right away I knew he didn't need lunch.  I gathered the mess up in the towel, turned around and there he was looking at me with his "thanks for the evening" look.  I knew I was going to be angry with him, but it wasn't possible.   For, you see, he was only taking our friendship to the next level.  And, giving me a gift was how he did it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.