Our time with The Pumpkin Queen

Sometime in April 2014, my wife was getting the itch to have another kitty join our household. Our grey tabby boy kitty, Chester, was almost six years old, and he'd been an only cat for all of that time. Laura stopped by Austin Pets Alive to meet some of the cats who were hoping for a home. While she didn't bring anyone home from that visit, in September 2014, she wanted to go visit the kitties again, so we made our way down to the shelter's 'cattery'. The cattery is several very large enclosures with 3-6 cats in each one. I entered one of them and sat down on a bench to talk and pet the residents. Once I sat down, an orange kitty immediately got up and came over to me, and walked right onto my lap, and sat down. Naturally, I started to pet this new visitor, who started to purr loudly, and Laura noticed her on my lap, "Oh, that's Pumpkin Queen. She was here when I came to visit in April."

I continued to pet Pumpkin Queen, and after a few minutes, it was time to stand up for a bit. I picked her up, and placed her on the bench next to me. Before I could even lift myself off of the bench, Pumpkin Queen was back in my lap where she immediately sat down again.

Laura took this as a sign. That Pumpkin Queen had been in the shelter for at least six months prompted her to ask the volunteers about her. They told her that she was universally loved by the staff, but she had probably been overlooked by potential adopters because of her mouth and her age. Her mouth was agape, mainly because she had to have so many teeth extracted. Because of this, her lower jaw lost a lot of integrity, leading to her inability to really close her mouth. We soon learned that Pumpkin Queen came from a hoarding situation, with dozens of other animals. Her teeth were in bad shape because of what she was forced to eat, competing with all of the other animals in the 'house'.

We made the decision that we would adopt her, and the volunteers took us to speak to the medical staff about her. They believed that she was 7-9 years old and they provided us about 7-10 sheets of paper, printed front and back, on everything they knew about her medical history. Considering where she came from, this wasn't much, and most of it consisted of describing her oral surgeries, and her persistent digestive issues.

We brought Pumpkin Queen home, and slowly introduced her to Chester. There was hissing from him, which Pumpkin Queen didn't really understand, considering she'd been in an enclosure with many other cats, and none of those cats were treating her like Chester was.

The first few nights were very difficult, as Pumpkin Queen didn't really sleep, and was often yowling. We thought about why she might be upset, and settled on the fact that she'd been with those other cats in her enclosure for so long, she was missing their company. On top of the yowling, her the reports of her digestive issues were not overblown. She had constant diarrhea and was regularly throwing up. Neither myself or Laura was sleeping well, and there was discussion that maybe we weren't the best family for Pumpkin Queen. Soon, though, after we changed her diet from who knows what to a diet of really high quality cat food, along with daily probiotics, her belly finally calmed down, and the digestion issues that had plagued her all throughout her stay at APA finally resolved.

Another issue that we had noticed, but had not been mentioned in her medical papers was that Pumpkin Queen was an excessive groomer. She almost constantly, obsessively licked her fur. We're not sure exactly why that was, perhaps anxiety, but it didn't help that her mouth and saliva did not smell all that great, considering she was never able to really close her mouth. To help alleviate her anxiety, we got her a Thunder Shirt. This was a vest we could put on her that wrapped around her tightly, secured with Velcro. When we would put this on her, she would immediately become completely sedated and relaxed. We did this off and on for several years before her anxiety became manageable.

Chester slowly started to accept that he wasn't the only cat in the house now, and we even caught them sharing spaces, like blankets and spots on the couch and in window sills.

Within a few months, Pumpkin Queen started to thrive, but she still had some chronic health issues. Our vet took note of her extremely small kidneys during an ultrasound. Other than occasional kidney problems, she was a healthy middle aged cat.

Pumpkin Queen never met a stranger. She would quickly pop up into the lap of anyone who sat down near her. Her purr was loud and very strong - you could feel it when she was on your lap, even without touching her. She was also a hugger - she loved to climb up your chest and put her whole head next to your face. She was so happy to be in a place where she could eat good food and give good hugs. One of her quirky vocalizations was a quick 'merr' when she'd jump on the couch or when she'd jump into bed with us.

A few years after we adopted her, my wife and I bought a house outside of Austin, and we had to leave our neighborhood, along with our neighbors Bill and Mary Lou. Bill and Pumpkin Queen had a wonderful relationship - he was one of her favorite persons. Whenever he would come over, she would hop in his lap and he would oblige her with endless petting. Bill and Mary Lou visited us in our new house many times over the last seven years, and Pumpkin Queen never got tired of Bill's endless petting.

Eventually, we had to separate Chester and Pumpkin Queen during the days when we were both at work. I seem to remember this probably happened after we returned to work after the first few months of being at home during COVID. Normally, she and Chester coexisted just fine, but occasionally, we'd notice Chester would get a little rough with her, and sometimes we'd find tufts of orange hair when we'd return from being out. It was easier just to keep them apart when we weren't there.

In the last five years, our team of vets (she saw several different cat specialists) let us know that her kidney numbers weren't great, and that eventually, she would be in kidney failure. They also recommended pulling a few more of her teeth. After the extractions, she was left with just nine teeth, but her jaw 'looked' a lot better, and she was able to close her mouth more.

We could tell when she wasn't feeling great, and we'd take her in, and the vet techs would give her fluids, and she'd bounce back in a few days, and she'd be fine for months at a time. Those time intervals became closer together over the last two years, and her bounce-backs would take longer, and were shorter lived.

In the spring of this year, 2024, our vet began to prepare us for what end stage kidney disease would look like, and that we would eventually likely need to make a choice about letting her go. When Pumpkin Queen didn't respond to a fluid infusion we gave her in early August, we knew our time with her was short.

Just prior to Labor Day, we made the decision we'd wish we didn't have to make, and on August 26th, we told her we loved her for the last time.

We are so thankful for our vets at Zoot Pet Hospital, Dr. Davis & Dr. Gillespie, who were both so compassionate, who along with their staff of vet techs, cared for Pumpkin Queen over the last 7 years of her life. If APA was right, Pumpkin Queen lived a life of 17 to 19 years - and the last ten, she got all of the love.

Pumpkin Queen was cremated, and we had some of her ashes blown into glass by Salado Glassworks with the colors of her fur. The orb, about the size of a baseball, sits on our mantle, along with an impression of her paw, and her collar and tag.

We will miss her forever, along with anyone who ever met her. She was a creature that was made up entirely of fur and love. I've never met another cat like her, and considering the number of cats I have met in my life, it will likely be that she will hold a unique place in our hearts.