The Cats Part 4: Pumpkin and Squall

These cats are no longer with us but have a story anyway...

Pumpkin

A few years ago we noticed a large orange and white cat that kept appearing on our deck outside the bedroom. He would run off if you approached or opened the door but kept coming back several days a week. I asked Jerry what we should call him since "orange and white cat" seemed a little long. He said we should call him Pumpkin because it would be October before I caught him. October came and nearly went and the cat hadn't been caught. I went out to feed the horses on Halloween night and there was the cat-in the barn. Surprisingly he let me approach and pet him and so I scooped him up, locked him in a cage and neutered him the next day. Once he allowed us to catch and pet him that first night he was a very sweet and docile cat. However he wasn't meant to be our cat. Shortly after I got all his vaccinations boostered he began wandering off. A few times we picked him out of someones yard and brought him home but he wouldn't stay. I guess he just found a place he liked better. Every once in awhile I still see him wandering the neighborhood. I don't know where he lives but I hope they appreciate the free neutered cat!




Squall


A few summers ago Squall was left at the clinic as a tiny kitten weighing 1.3 pounds. The tiny screaming kitten was pretty hard to ignore and I thought a new barn kitten might be fun-I'd never had a tiny kitten of my own before. All the other cats were older kittens or young adults when we got them. So she came home to live with Barney and Lefty. We were very careful to keep her locked in a cage in the barn and started letting her out gradually over the course of a few months so that she would get used to staying in the yard and not be scared off.





Squall was very entertaining-she helped with all the chores and especially loved gardening-she liked to chase the weeks we pulled up and threw out in the yard! She was also an excellent bug hunter. She was very sweet and social-she'd let me carry her around anywhere and would come running (always meowing) at the sound of the back door opening and she would always lay in the windowsills and look in whatever room we were inside of if we were in the house. Sometimes she would also climb the screens.





One evening in the fall we came home from dinner and did not see her. The next morning she did not come running when the back door opened. A short search ended with me finding her little body across the street-clearly hit by a car. She was just barely 6 months old. We buried her in the middle of the yard between the house and barn so she could still see everything that goes on. Squall's death left our yard quiet and our windowsills empty. We were very sad but it left a place in out house for a kitty that very much needed some help...