Pumpkin

This is Pumpkin....he is 6 years old and he is an indoor only cat. We rescued him from the side of the road in a patch of briars and trash. My husband spotted him and I fed him water and canned food every day for a week making sure he didn't belong to the house nearest where he was hiding or that his mommy cat wasn't hiding somewhere near. He was so scared I had to use a drop trap to catch him. I was afraid if I tried too hard to catch him, he might run into the street. Once I got my hands on him, he was calm and purred as soon as you picked him up. I had to take him to the vet to be checked out before he came in the house. They bathed him and got MOST of the dirt and grease off him. His foot had been broken and healed so he looks like 2 of his back toes are shorter than the other. It doesn't seem to bother him. His eyes are a little crossed and quiver, but that doesn't affect his site and I think its pretty cute. He loves all my cats, even Sissy who doesn't care too much for him! When one of the kitties doesn't feel well, he will snuggle up to them. When Mr. Spock was really sick he laid right behind him the whole time. I knew Mr. Spock was feeling better when Pumpkin decided to get up and leave Mr. Spock to himself for a while! He definitely isn't a lap cat. I would love for him to snuggle in my lap one day, but after about 3 or 4 months old, he stopped sitting in my lap. The only way to hold him is to stand up or put a basket in your lap and put him in it. And he might sleep on my feet. That is as close to snuggling with him as I can get!

A lot of times when people see that he is solid white with blue eyes, they want to know if he is deaf....no, he isn't deaf. He hears just fine. But it is more common for white cats to be deaf and even more likely if they have blue eyes (or one blue eye). I have had 2 solid white cats and neither were deaf. I had a friend in college whose grandma has a solid white cat that was deaf. I SO wanted to pet that cat, but he would only let her grandma pet him!!

When Pumpkin was less than a year old, he swallowed a string. I saw it hanging out of his mouth, but he has already swallowed some. I took him to the vet and she gave him peroxide to make him throw up. He didn't throw up and I brought him home. Later that night he started to throw up blood, a good bit of it. I called the ER vet and had to take him right away during a tornado watch!! They said he had a reaction to the peroxide, but I suspect he had too much because he got several doses. (This is not my regular vet that treated him.) He had x-rays to make sure he didn't have problems from the string. We stayed isolated from the others for 6 days because he was so sick. I honestly didn't think he would make it. I had to force feed him and he took medication to help his the lining of his stomach. When he finally pooped after a week, string & all, he started to feel better and eat on his own. His regular vet took really good care of him and checked on him regularly. He even stayed the day there for them to observe him and partially so I could sleep! He hasn't had any problems from that since. They think maybe he was sensitive to the peroxide. I don't know, but hopefully we won't run into that problem again. I am extra, extra, EXTRA careful about keeping things put away he could eat. He is bad about that. He is part of the reason I started wanting my art studio separate from my house, so I wouldn't constantly worry about what he could get into. All my paint, etc. are non-toxic, but I sew and am paranoid about dropping a pin, needle, string, etc. I guess i have Pumpkin to thank for my studio!!!