Fred the Banjo Cat

Everybody has pictures of the cat sleeping in the inside of the banjo case. I had the only cat that I know of who picked the banjo. Fred, who passed away in 2015, lived to be 22 years old, began picking the banjo when he was not much more than a kitten. He would come into the living room when I was practicing, and after listening patiently for a half hour or so, would jump up on my lap, push my right hand away with his nose, and try to pick. At first he tried to pick the strings with his paw, but he learned quickly that that he would get his claws entangled in the strings. After a few attempts, however, he figured out that he could get sounds by biting on the strings. For years, until he got old, he would do it about once a day, and some weeks, he would practice more than I did!

Fred enjoying some banjo picking from his personal manservant.

Fred the Cat (1993 - 2015)