COEUR d'ALENE - Brandy Fletcher was worried on Sunday when she saw her cat dragging his body across the carpeting, his shape contorted in a way that something was bothering him.

She suspected what was wrong. She told her friend on the phone she had to go.

"I said, 'Oh, Millie, something's wrong with Hachi. I think he ate my hair again,'" the Hayden woman said.

She grabbed a napkin, she said, and wiped the Siamese cat's rump, figuring whatever he had passed was causing the problem.

It was.

When she glanced at the napkin, she saw thread, attached to her two-inch sewing needle.

"I was thinking, 'Oh my gosh,'" she said. "He ate a needle."

Apparently, it's not a dangerous dessert.

For this cat, anyway.

After eating and passing the pointy fare, the 1-year-old kitty was in no pain on Monday. He was running around, Fletcher said, eating (regular) food without a problem.

"There was no blood. Nothing," Fletcher said. "It doesn't look like he's hurt."

She's not surprised.

Hachiko, or "Hachi," is an adorable, furry vacuum.

The cat eats anything in front of him, Fletcher said. Grapes. Chips. Salsa. Hamburger. Bell peppers. Glazed blueberry doughnut.

And yeah, the cat loves to play with Fletcher's hair, which he licks and occasionally slides down his gullet.

"He's like a dog," she said. "He ate beets a couple weeks ago."

At this point, she doesn't worry when she sees the cat gorging. He has never had any problems from his omnivorous diet, she said.

"I just think, 'It's just Hachi,'" she said. "He's really hardy."

Fletcher doesn't know when the cat devoured the needle.

She had seen Hachi playing with it about a month ago, she said, so she put it on top of a Kleenex box in the bathroom, out of the cat's reach.

Apparently when her husband, Brett, cleaned the bathroom later, the needle ended up on the floor, and then in Hachi's stomach.

"I will never figure out how he got it down his throat," Fletcher said. "I think he was eating the thread, and the needle went down with it."

Dr. Bruce King with Lakewood Animal Hospital in Coeur d'Alene said it's very unusual for a cat to eat and pass a needle without it poking through its intestine or causing chronic vomiting.

"For every one cat that a needle successfully makes it through, there's probably 100 cats that it would cause them to be ill," King said.

It's dangerous for both dogs and cats to gobble up people food, he added.

Raisins and grapes can be toxic, for instance. A stick of gum with sugar substitute can put a pet into a coma, and onions and garlic can break down cats' red blood cells.

"They're safe for humans, but in animals, they can cause them to die," he said.

This cat has just been really lucky, is King's best explanation without examining the cat himself.

But larger portions of certain foods will be more harmful to animals, he cautioned.

"This cat, if it keeps doing what it's doing, some day will come across something that he will meet his match," King said.

Hachi has always been a survivor, Fletcher said.

The Fletchers adopted him after a neighbor found him wandering as a lone stray at just 5 weeks old, she said.

He had ringworm at the time, a fungal infection that required the cat be quarantined in one of their bathrooms.

"He had to be in there for 45 days, with no contact. We had to wash the floors with bleach," she said.

But Hachi pulled through.

"He is the most amazing cat," she said.

Hachi has been a blessing to the family, she added. Beloved by Fletcher's 9 and 7-year-old kids, Bryce and Brea, the cat has also been a source of comfort to Fletcher as she has dealt with multiple sclerosis.

He lays like a baby in her arms, she said. At night, he sleeps on her pillow.

"He has been like my little comforter," she said. "If I'm in pain, he's there to make me feel better."

The family is keeping an eye on Hachi to watch for any signs of injury, Fletcher said.

But she is convinced he's fine.

After all, it's Hachi.

"He's a weird cat," she said. "He's a miracle, is what he is."