Losing a Pet

My cat Pumpkin had been having problems the past year, nothing too serious but enough that I was concerned. After 13 years of never getting in a vehicle or visiting a Vet, I finally had to take her in. It was a terrible day. We arrived at 2pm, sat in the car for 20 minutes because they were doing curbside pickup due to the pandemic. At 4:15pm, she was put to sleep.

I acquired her back in 2007, an adopted stray who had been dropped off in the wild, pregnant and not even a year old. They fixed her and put her up for adoption. My friend Debi brought her over at the end of March and this was the first picture I took of her...

She was not feral, but had come from a home who apparently did not want to have kittens. She was a mix with lots of Maine Coon. I did not like that she had long hair but her colors were beautiful. I gave her the name Pumpkin because of her orange belly. It did not take long for her to get comfortable in my home. She was my only cat after a three year hiatus with no pets. One of her favorite spots was watching the outdoors sitting on the window sill.

Soon, she knew where the king's chair was and she knew who was queen. I guess she liked me...

Being an only pet, items were purchased for her. Many by my friend Nancy who bought her this stand. This would become her primary scratching post that she used her whole life, up to the day she left. She would scratch on other things but it usually was to get a rise out of me. I yell and then she come sit or lie with me...

Another scratching post bed was acquired and she like to use it too. I kept this one in a different room.

When I redid the guest bedroom and added a new Tommy Bahama bed with new sheets and bedspread, the queen Pumpkin made it her spot...

She liked lying oh her back on the old wood parquet floors...

And when the parquet was replaced with new wood, she made that hers too. Yawning was her favorite thing to do to let me know all was well. It was one of her weird characteristics.

Lazy Boy for Lazy Cat...

I bought her a new bed (actually for a small dog) and she instantly made that her spot. She loved to cat knead while in this bed.

I knew something was wrong when she started to want to drink from the sink. I bought her an expensive cat bowl with running water fountain, but she never took to it. She would see on the edge of the sink, waiting for me to give her a dripping drink...this was one of the last photos I took of Pumpkin...

She was a great cat. Thirteen years is a long time. She was my best friend through this pandemic. I am still not use to not having her around. But as time continues, I realize how lucky I was to have her, and I know she felt the same about me...Rest in Peace my feline friend!