Pumpkin

My grandma has a cat that is roughly 15-years-old. We adopted the cat from the shelter a couple years ago as a companion for her other cat. Both cats are about the same age but they have completely different personalities. The one we adopted is a tortoise-colored cat that looks like a skeleton with fur but she is the sweetest thing and loves on everybody who will give her the time of day; her name is Pumpkin. Minnie, on the other hand, is a demon spawned from hell and will viciously attack anybody who walks by her if she’s in the slightest irritated of moods. Ironically, it was Pumpkin who completely surprised everybody when it came to meeting my dogs.

There are three of us in my house and we are definitely dog people. We have three dogs right now: a Chihuahua dachshund mix, a husky mix, a pitt bull and black mouth cur – pitt bull mix. At some point in time, all of my dogs have met my grandma’s cats and it comes to the same result every time. When we got Dracula, the Chihuahua, I decided that I was going to walk him a few blocks to my grandma’s house so that I could pick something up and see what Dracula would do about the cats. I honestly didn’t think it would be a big deal because when I was younger Minnie was best friends with my dog, Mickey. For the record, they were, in fact, named for the Disney mice. Both of the cats were outraged about a dog in their territory.

Minnie was just as grumpy as usual and sat in a corner to yell at us. That wasn’t surprising because that’s what she does to everybody and everything that she meets. Pumpkin, on the other hand, shocked me because she reacted with more venom and energy than I thought was possible for her. Her yelling at the dog was funny enough but then she started chasing Dracula around the apartment trying to physically attack him. Dracula, on the other hand, had the time of his life as he thought that she was playing with him like other small dogs would. He kept running back at her to keep the game going.

It was funny enough watching Pumpkin chase the small dog, but that was not the end of her tormenting the dogs. When I got my Cur puppy, Skadi, I took her with me to the apartment for the same reason. I also wanted to get her used to cats while she was young so that, if need be, she wouldn’t have a problem being around cats. Pumpkin cornered Skadi under the dining table chair and sat there guarding the dog like she was a prison guard. I was shocked that the puppy had no instinct to fight back or urge to be aggressive. To be honest, I felt really bad that Skadi seemed to be scarred for life by cats. I know it was the case because a few months later when I took Skadi and Misti, the husky, to my grandma’s for Thanksgiving, Skadi was very careful to give the cats a very wide personal bubble.

A couple weeks after Thanksgiving, Zoey, the adult Pitt Bull, and Misti got into a fight so to reduce stress we had to keep the two big dogs separate. There was one day that I took Zoey over to my grandma’s house to hang out in the backyard. When we were leaving, both of the cats were in the living room and started fussing the second that they saw the dog. Zoey’s reaction out of all the dogs impressed me the most because she didn’t react to the cats at all. It was really surprising since Zoey freaks out and chases almost every small animal she sees. Although Zoey was only in the house for a short time, it was still impressive that she showed no interest in the cats at all.

My grandmother does not like Pitt Bulls, so after Zoey was over once, it was agreed that Misti would be the one taken to grandma’s while I was working. Misti loves small animals and tries to mother them as if they were her own. Cats are no exception so I was not worried about Misti going after the cats. It was for that reason that I took Misti inside because it was cold out and she was being loud. I figured since Misti was a low energy dog that Pumpkin wouldn’t have a big problem. I was wrong. It took about five minutes of Misti laying calmly on the floor before Pumpkin decided that was absolutely unacceptable and went after Misti. Watching the little skeleton cat chase my 60+ pound dog around was great. I felt bad for laughing at the time because Misti was genuinely terrified of the small cat.

Pumpkin chased Misti around the dining room and living room without mercy. When Misti tried to hide from the cat between the coffee table and the couch, she didn’t realize the cat could and did crawl underneath it. A 60-pound husky is not very agile when trapped in a corner by a 5-pound cat. It was really sad because I had to stick my foot out in order to physically stop Pumpkin from attacking Misti. For the rest of the day, any time Pumpkin started meowing, Misti looked ready to bolt because she was utterly terrified that the little cat would go after her again. It just goes to show that animals can always surprise you, whether it’s good or bad.