Pumpkin
(the cat from the wrong side of the tracks!)
Eighteen years ago, when I started at PHP, I was introduced to Pumpkin. Pumpkin was a longterm patient, a feral kitten with ringworm and cat flu and had been rescued by a member of the public. A tortie and white short haired cat; a cat with definite catitude who was not in appreciation of her captivity….even if it was for her own good.
Whenever anyone walked near the cage, Pumpkin could be heard miaowing loudly, swearing her street language in her feline tongue.
At weekends, staff would take turns to feed her and check she was ok, after a while this became my job as I lived locally.
I had just acquired a pedigree kitten, a birman called Demelza, of whom I was totally enamoured, and having my older cat Tom, was not expecting another cat at this point in time. However, as weeks went by, the other staff members thought Pumpkin would be very happy living with me……
My husband Nigel was very sure we had enough animals, my daughter had five guinea pigs and two rabbits and as mentioned, we had two cats. Nigel would take me to feed Pumpkin at weekends and knowing his stance on possible vacancies, knew I needed a different tack…..When he asked me who Pumpkin actually was, I sighed and said sadly, “just a little cat nobody wants….”.and waited……
After several minutes of digesting this fact, Nigel said,”lets take her home with us then”. I smiled secretly to myself and so it was, cat number three joined our home.
Initially we had to crate Pumpkin in our kitchen as she was still infectious and although our other pets were vaccinated, the ringworm could be transmitted. We treated her with an anti- fungal shampoo and eventually she started to look more normal. Her fur had recovered and the flu had subsided, her language however, was still definitely fruity and very much ‘street talk’.
Coming from an inauspicious background, Pumpkin took no prisoners and quickly asserted herself as top cat, Demelza was pretty but far too pampered to compete and Tom being our elder statesman ignored both new kittens whenever possible. If there were any mice that dared to enter our garden, pity help them, likewise the birds were very wary when entering the bird table…
Every month we had to do the flea treatment for our cats, and Pumpkin always was the challenge…..we would chase her round the house with an opened pipette, until eventually we would corner her into the kitchen where she scratched and miaowed and wriggled, until the deed was done……it was always debatable who was the most stressed at the end of this. Flea Time every month was dreaded by all concerned!
After many years of this rigmarole, Pumpkin decided enough was enough and took herself back to live in the garden, bedding down in the empty guinea pig hutches that had become vacant when my daughter and guinea pigs left home. We begged Pumpkin to come back but she absolutely refused, preferring her life away from pipettes.
Mr husband ensured the hutch was full of soft warm hay and we monitored it to make sure it was habitable.
Two years elapsed, until one day I brought home a new product, an edible flea treatment for cats, this and a crushed up wormer in tuna, had a seismic affect on Pumpkin and gradually she started to want to come home…..
She was an easier temperament now and would sit quietly in her chair, or on my lap and slipped back into home life, still top cat with my other two cats (a change of cast now, I had a new birman called Babooshka and another tortie and white cat called Cobweb). Cobweb, another stray from the vets, looked like Pumpkin’s younger sister and had arrived at my work about ten years after her at Halloween.
Nearly eighteen years later, on New Year’s Eve our Pumpkin left us to catch mice and rats in heaven and as I sit here on my Reception Desk I am looking at the beautiful bouquet I have received in remembrance of her. I remember her life and her spiky little character and remember how gentle she was with our little baby granddaughter, Marigold. Pumpkin was a special cat, and left her mark on all of us.
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