I was blessed by Mr Spock at 8am and it was the best morning of my life

If you don’t know who Mr Spock the wandering cat of Marchmont is, then you clearly have not been living your best Edinburgh life.

Spocky is an Edinburgh icon, with 3.6k likes on his Facebook page. He’s always wandering around Marchmont and getting up to mischief, often following people back into their flats and making himself at home.

While Mr Spock was Marchmont born and raised, his family moved to Blackford a few months back. However, this hasn’t stopped him from heading back to his old territory and making a name for himself as a wanderer.

Despite living in Marchmont for a year now, I still hadn’t been blessed by a Spock sighting. I had numerous friends who had seen him and would watch their social media posts with envy, but still had no luck myself.

However, at 07:55 this morning that all changed:

Our early morning meet-cute

It was just another dull Thursday morning in Marchmont. I’d just got up and was opening my blinds, when I spotted something grey and fluffy coming out of a bush across the road.

At first I thought it was just a severely overweight squirrel, but soon realised it was the one and only Mr Spock.

Suddenly, I was wide awake. I grabbed my bag, whacked on my Crocs, and ran out into the street hoping Spocky would still be there by the time I’d made it down the two flights of stairs.

What followed was like a scene from a film; we ran towards each other and embraced.

However, our interaction was short lived. He soon realised a bird hiding in the bush was more interesting than I was, and left me all alone kneeling on the street.

I didn’t care though. I had just met Mr Spock.

Seeing as I was already up and about, I headed off to the Co-op to buy some groceries, thinking about how lucky I was to have finally met the Spock.

The best type of stalker

But as it turned out, our story didn’t end there.

As I left the Co-op and headed back home, I had a sense that someone was following me. Sure enough, I turned around and realised I was being stalked by Spock.

It was at this point that I made the decision to try and get him back to my flat. I didn’t force him, but I definitely didn’t discourage him.

He willingly followed me to my front door and even ran past me into my building, but I do admit to walking slowly and checking he was still following.

Once inside the building, he followed me up the stairs to the second floor, and once again ran past me into my flat.

Getting the word out

While I’m an early riser, my flatmates don’t exactly prescribe to my 7am wakeup times. However, a visit from Mr Spock overrides any desires to sleep in.

Spock headed straight to the kitchen, and I headed straight to my flatmate Nik’s room to wake them up. At first, Nik looked alarmed and distressed, as my dramatic entrance made it seem like the flat was on fire. But as soon as they realised Spock was here, we quickly headed to the kitchen to soak in his fluffy goodness.

Knowing my other flatmate Helena wasn’t the biggest cat fan, I decided to leave her alone out of fear.

I also had to text everyone I knew, including The Edinburgh Tab team group chat. Sophie and Iona were so excited that they even decided to sprint over to our flat to meet him.

My dad is also a huge fan of Mr Spock, despite living 175 miles away, so I also FaceTimed him to spread the Spocky joy.

Of course, I also messaged Mr Spock’s parents to let them know where he was.

Our fourth flatmate

Spock quickly got a lay of the land by going into all the rooms in our flat and seeing which one he liked best.

After going under a couple of beds and navigating a box room full of balloons, he decided the kitchen was the place to be and settled himself nicely above the washing machine.

It soon became apparent he was after some breakfast, and at one point he even sat himself as the kitchen table waiting to be served.

However, all we had to offer him was some water, which he graciously accepted.

His visit was full of fluffy cuddles and strokes, and he even started purring for us at one point. It was at this point I realised I couldn’t deny my cat allergies any more. A recent visit to the cat café had left me with itchy eyes and a runny nose, and Spock was causing a similar reaction.

However, I decided it wasn’t too bad and that I really didn’t care.

Scared that he would get bored and leave us, we brought in Helena’s Ikea toy rat to see if he’d play with it, which he did. Ratty was soon the object of Mr Spock’s affection, as he continuously tried to grab and kill it.

We also took this opportunity to get in some Mr Spock promo.

The breakup

But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Almost exactly one hour after we had met on the streets of Marchmont, Mr Spock headed back out to find his next lucky human.

I think he realised we had no food to offer him, and that Ratty was never going to transform into a real rat.

We bid our farewells at the door, and Iona let him out into the garden, where he ran off into his next adventure.

A final reflection

What started off as just another dull and boring morning, soon turned into one of the best days of my life.

Some might say he’s just a cat, but he’s not. He’s Mr Spock.

His visit was proof that the universe works in mysterious ways, and that you never know what’s around the corner.

I was convinced that after not seeing him for a year, it was just not meant to be. However, I was wrong.

He might’ve left me slightly broken-hearted with itchy eyes and a runny nose, but it was all worth it.

Recommended related articles by this writer:

• Here are the 12 most annoying people you’ll meet at Edinburgh

• Here are Edinburgh’s most underrated Instagram spots

• How to get over someone, according to Edinburgh students