Meet little Pumpkin

Pumpkin is one of the most retiring, 'scaredy cats' I ever had.  He was the 'odd man out' in a way, the only kitten in his litter with his colouring.  Although at birth I thought he would become a little male mirror image of his mother, he does not have her 'marmalade' colouring, nor does he have any markings.  He is a uniform tawny colour.  Furthermore, his body and especially his paws have a delicacy that is not apparent in any of his family members.  His paws are tiny, quite different from the fat paws of the Himalayan/Persian.  He has the fabulous golden eyes of his brother, Temujin, but that is the only characteristic they share.

The first Puttikins were four in number: three were almost identical little white balls of fur with flame tips on their ears, paws and tails.  The fourth was Pumpkin who, as his name suggests was orange.  Cupid was one of the three flamepoints.  The other two were Leo, aka Scruffy Little Leo and Apollodoro.  Apollodoro appeared to be a girl at first and Freya named 'her' 'Dora the Explorer' because she was the most intrepid of the four, entirely without fear.  It was only months later that her male genitalia manifested, showing her to be quite definitely male.  I changed her name to Apollodoro, feeling that the name should be one containing the kernel of the original name in order not to confuse the poor Putti any more than necessary.

Freya still continues to assert that 'Dora' is a girl.  Apollodoro is the most handsome cat I ever saw actually but this piece is not about Apollodoro.  It is supposed to be an introduction to my darling little Pumpkin.

If there were 'Cat Angels', they would look like Pumpkin.  He has an extraordinary innocence to his face, a purity that almost breaks my heart.  It is very difficult to take a good photograph of him because he is so very shy.

If one can win his trust, however, Pumpkin's love is intensely rewarding.  He snuggles into my arms, burrowing beneath one arm, purring passionately.    I rather suspect he views me as his second mother and is trying to recreate the infant's sense of security when nursing.  He does not try to perform THAT action in any sense, but it is the way he moves that makes me feel he is dreaming of those days.  Cupid does the same thing on occasion but not with half the frequency of his brother.

When Pumpkin was a young kitten, he almost died.  He was being pushed out of the way by his more aggressive litter=mates and was not receiving enough milk from his Mum.    I had to feed him myself using a feeding syringe.  It gave him a special bond with me, I suspect.  Freya drew a wonderful sketch of Pumpkin lifting his little head to receive milk from the syringe.