I was talking to my best friend from Airways Junior High School today and somehow we got to talking about our pets and I told her about my little kitty cat that I loved dearly. My wife found her at the Humane Society in Gatlinburg around 1993. She was in the shelter in her own little cage when my wife saw her and told me that she sat there so prim and proper while all the other cats looked like barn cats, all scruffy and without any manners. Then she noticed the cat’s name on the cage and it was Pumpkin and she knew we had to have her. There were two reasons why. One is that for every female in my family, I will use the pet name Pumpkin and two, she had the brightest orange colored coat when she was a young kitten.  She was the most loving and cuddly kitty cat I had ever known. 

I remember one time I had gotten Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and was extremely sick, and I do mean extremely sick, Pumpkin would not leave my side. She would either be in my lap or laying on my legs the whole time I was sick. Pumpkin knew there was something wrong and she loved me dearly and I loved her dearly too.  She was a very quiet cat with a little petite meow.  One day while playing with her, I noticed a lump and I was concerned so I took her to the vet and he confirmed my worst fears, she had breast cancer. The doctor, of course, operated but unfortunately did not get all of the cancer and he told me so.  I knew it was only a short time before I would lose my precious cat.  I knew she was in a lot of pain. She didn’t want to play anymore and she ate very little. The day came that she didn’t eat or drink anything. She just wanted to lay in a box that she had now claimed as her home.  The next morning my wife carried her to the vet and went on to work.  I was working a night shift at that time so, as usual, my wife woke me up when she came home from work.  She woke me very gently and said “it’s bad”, “what’s bad” I replied. She said “Pumpkin” and I said “I know it’s bad”. She said “no you don’t understand, she’s gone”.

I had lost my little darling. She passed away as the doctor was preparing to put a feeding tube in her to get her strength back but it was too late.  I bawled like a little baby for that wonderful little creature that had woven herself into my heart so deep.  Even though I was crying all the way through it, I built her a small square Coffin and my wife took a table runner that we had bought at Big Lots that was for a prayer table. It was made of silk with flower patterns woven into the cloth and with two tassels and a sharp point at either end. She folded one end over and sewed it together and removed the tassel from that end and folded the other one down and sewed the two sides together to make a sort of sleeping bag with a pillow at the head of it for her head. I had put a pillow in the small square coffin and we laid her to rest in a small rose garden beside our house.  I still miss that wonderfully sweet cat even today.

We eventually got over the heartache of losing Pumpkin and decided we should get another cat. On our way to Walmart in Knoxville,  we saw an animal rescue center that was a no kill animal shelter.  When we were in Walmart we happened to find the Mike Douglas interviews of John Lennon and Yoko Ono on DVD.  We purchased it because my wife is a huge Beatles fan and we had decided to stop at the animal shelter on our way back through.  When we got into the room where all the cats were at, we saw this one frightened little kitty cat. She seemed so very sweet and when we asked what her name was, they told us it was Yoko. So I’m asking you, what could I do. Was this not fate that we had just found that DVD of Yoko Ono and a cat named Yoko. Of course, we took her home.  Cats being exactly like people, this one had a completely different personality than that of Pumpkin. She doesn’t let very many people pet her. I’m one of the only people that she allows to pet her.  I even think she’s actually mean compared to Pumpkin but I fell in love with this cat from the first time I saw her and always will love her.  She’s not even much like a cat and we found out why she was named Yoko. She can scream at the top of her lungs just as if she was “singing” like Yoko Ono did.  She would, as soon as we went to bed, start screaming at us.

We finally found out that she wanted to play. We bought her some little nerf golf balls and she plays fetch just like a little dog with a stick. I will toss the little golf ball several times and she has to have my wife toss the golf ball several times as well before she will let us go to sleep.  She also has woven herself into my heart. She seems to be getting a respiratory infection and is not as much as she used to and is not “singing” as loud anymore. She too is now getting some age on her and I’m afraid these are probably the last few years I will have her. It’s so hard to say goodbye to these little creatures. I love them as if they were one of my own children.  My wife has asked me how dogs and cats became so dependent on humans, but I’m asking you how did we become so dependent on these little lovely creatures we call our pets.