This cat always looks ticked off…bless her little Pumpkin head.
It’s been almost four years since Pumpkin Kitty graced us with her presence. It’s been a bit of a rocky road between her and me. She’s definitely a Daddy’s girl, but when he’s not around, she loves to mark me as her own with lots of head bumps and rubs against my legs. She’s still finicky about touch. If she’s in the mood, she wants you to pet her…but she kinda wants to bite you, too. I really don’t get cats. Now dogs? They speak my language. “Love me, love me, love me!” Cats are more like, “Oh, look. The can opener is back.”
The very first photo of Pumpkin Kitty…Halloween 2019.
When we were gone, the Former Mrs. FixIt came to check in on Pumpkin and make sure she was happy and well fed, had clean water and litter box. According to Daughter #2, Cat Mom Extraordinaire, cats only know two people…Mom and Not Mom. Or in Pumpkin’s case…Dad and Not Dad. When Not Dad shows up to feed her and love on her, she’s not havin’ it. Food, yes. You wanna pet me? I have two moods….1. Namaste 2. I will cut you. Former Mrs. FixIt still comes and feeds her…God bless her.
She is the Queen Kitty of Marshmallow Ranch!
The night after we got home, there was a break in the rain and I went out during the golden hour to take some pictures of the leaves changing. Somewhere along the way, I turned around and there was Mr. FixIt watching me. Where Mr. FixIt goes, Pumpkin is not far behind. We were commenting about the bumper crop of walnuts this year and walked down toward the end of the far field to check them out. The further we got out in the field, I notice Pumpkin was getting more and more agitated.
This is the only time she laid on me and slept. She’s Miss Independent!
I’ve never seen her act quite like this. She was standing straight as a pointer, staring into the hedgerow. Her tail was flicking and she kept looking back at us. When we got closer to the hedgerow ourselves, she came straight at us with the hair up on her back, hissing at us. I knew something was wrong so I told Mr. FixIt, “Don’t try to touch her or pick her up. She’s not having any of that. She wants us out of here.” So we backed up and headed back to the house. The closer we got to the house, the more relaxed Pumpkin became and by the time we were at the door, she was head butting me and rubbing on my legs.
Watching the world go by.
I puzzled over this for a while and came to the conclusion there was something out there that she felt was threatening. When she was very young, she got in a fight with a neighbor cat and ended up in the Kitty ER getting a hole in her side fixed up. It occurred to me I never see her down at that end of the field. I called Daughter #2 to get her take and she agreed…Pumpkin was decidedly uncomfortable with us being down there. She had been trying to alert me with the tail flicks and the staring with her head held high and the looks back at us. She was saying, “Let’s not go down there. It’s kinda scary and I don’t like it.” When we didn’t pick up on that, she elevated the conversation to, “HEY! I’m telling you…we do NOT want to go down there!!!” Finally, she flat out came lunging at us, spitting and hissing with fur flying screaming, “GET OUT OF HERE!”
Licking her chops because Dad just gave her a treat!
Yes, cats are much more complicated than dogs. Higher maintenance, to be sure. But I’m beginning to understand her better. Maybe it’ll be more of a “Love…Kinda” relationship when I learn how to speak Cat.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I had to do some work in the camper and on the computer. And at 4:00 Eastern, Big’s swim meet started. I watched on the computer in the office. The Women’s team won the meet, which was exciting. And Big got second place in two of her four events, which made this Nana proud!
It’s so fun to watch Big compete!
It was a really good day. The sun came out. Mr. FixIt still can’t figure out the furnace problem, but I have faith in him. He’ll get it done…not to worry!
🍁
“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”
Proverbs 12:10 ESV