Knux's Cat-Related Anecdotes [pet death mentions]

[knux400]

Why this thread? My cat Pickle passed away recently and I mentioned in the Discord chat that there were a lot of good stories I could share about him. I figured it might be a decent way to process things, and also give other people a bit of a laugh in the process. I'm doing this here on the forums because I don't want to clog the dangerzone channel, and the format here makes people feel less obligated to respond. I'm not necessarily looking for people to respond to this thread (although you can if you like), it's more meant for people to read through and enjoy, myself included.

THE CAST:
Rossinante- Rossinante, or Rossin for short, was my mother's cat. By the time I was born, she was already rather old and set in her ways. She was a longhair siamese cat, and lived to the age of 22.

Pickle- I got Pickle when I was 4 years old, and we were friends for his entire life. He was timid around strangers, but gentle and kind to those he knew. He was a grey tabby cat, and lived to the age of 16.

Cucumber- Cucumber came in 2010 after Rossinantae passed. He was an energetic and playful kitten, but has since become somewhat whiny and aggressive. He is white with orange splotches, and is currently 10.

Olive- Olive was found in our backyard, presumably left by one of the stray cats in out neighborhood. After raising and bottle-feeding her ourselves, she has become a playful (if somewhat frenetic) adult. She is a black mediumhair tabby, and is currently 5.

The Cricket [cw: bug violence]

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When Pickle was young, he was an avid hunter of bugs. He would catch and eat any flies or spiders he could get his little paws on, and we often encouraged this behavior by directing him towards any bugs we found. One night, my mother had gotten up to go to the bathroom, and found Pickle on the floor chasing a cricket. He caught it and began to eat it, but as my mother watched, he let it go again and it began hopping away. Pickle just sat as the cricket slowly turned around and ended up back in front of him again. Upon closer inspection, it turned out Pickle had actually chewed off one of its back legs, causing the poor thing to hop around in a big circle- and clearly Pickle knew what was happening, since he just sat and watched. The cricket did eventually get eaten, but not before doing a few more laps around the bathroom floor.

Pumpkins

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As most people tend to do for Halloween, we bring home pumpkins. Some pumpkins are carved, of course, but other, smaller ones are left on a side table as decoration. We were puzzled to find one such pumpkin lying on its side on the floor every morning. We would put it back in its spot on the side table, but every time we looked away it seemed that it had fallen down due to some mysterious, unseen force. We suspected it was cat-related from the beginning, but we were shocked and amused to find Pickle on his side, snuggling and gently chewing the stem of the small decorative pumpkin. He seemed to really enjoy rubbing his face on it and rolling it around, and he didn't seem to be harming the pumpkin at all, so we decided to let him keep it. Every year since then, we've picked out a small pumpkin specifically for him, to be left on the floor and rolled around with as much as he pleases- but even though we did this for several years, he still seemed embarrassed whenever we would walk by and catch him playing with his pumpkin.

Rhotuka

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In 2005, Lego released a new wave of Bionicle sets, all of which revolved around a special launcher called a Rhotuka Spinner. These spinners would launch from various appendages on a Bionicle's body (generally their back) and consisted of a hollow ring with three helicopter-like blades inside. When a rip cord was pulled, they would fly into the air. Pickle, naturally, loved playing with these spinners, chasing them as they flew through the air and batting them around when they hit the floor. I've lost more than my fair share of them behind furniture, under the fridge, and what have you. I eventually built a custom launcher to use with Pickle, complete with a folding handle and room to store two extra spinners. And, of course, I spent a large amount of money on extra spinners, which Lego thankfully sold in small booster packs.

Namesake

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I first got Pickle when I was around 4 years old. At the time, my favorite bedtime story was The Little Kitten by Judy Dunn. It featured a kitten named Pickle, so named because it kept getting itself into trouble. Naturally, my first instinct was to name my new kitten Pickle after the one in the book. We got another cat a few years later, this time when I was around 10. I thought the idea of naming this one after a vegetable would be funny, and it would match Pickle's name- so our second cat was named Cucumber. By the time we got our third cat, the naming convention had become a sort of tradition- I wanted to name her Kiwi, but my parents insisted on Olive instead. In a sense, Pickle's name ended up inspiring the names of two other cats- and perhaps even more...

If I think of any more good anecdotes, I'll add them to this post, behind a spoiler for easy browsing. Thank you for reading!