Finally...It's My Turn

Hi, my name is Punkin'. I came into this world on August 9, 2009, along with several brothers and sisters. I can't remember how many or what colors they were anymore, but eventually I was the only one that survived.

My mother, who the lady human called Mini-Me because she was exactly like her mother (my grandmother), found a great place to keep me dry and off the ground: underneath an overturned pickup truck bed-liner on a trailer full of landscaping blocks. My home, when my mother left me for a few hours, was on a board and that is where I slept till she would come back.

When I was 5 weeks old, Mother went on her usual adventure one rainy Saturday after feeding me and saying she would be back for the next feeding. She liked to walk alongside the road to get wherever it was she was going. The humans left that Saturday in their truck and were gone most of the day. Mother didn't come when I called for her and I was hungry. I cried. And cried. And soon I couldn't cry anymore because my vocal cords stopped working. I tried to sleep but with an empty tummy it wasn't easy.

Finally I heard the human's truck pull into the driveway and they were only a few feet away from me. I kept quiet because I didn't want them to know I was there, just like mother taught me. Oh, she and grandmother would let the lady human pet them but Mother told me, be careful, son.

The humans went into their house but soon one of them came out and walked by me. When she came back from what she went to do, I decided enough is enough, I am hungry, so I made a few chirps because that's all I could muster up by then. The human went back into the house and I felt I was not going to be rescued. And then a great thing happened...they both came back out and while one lifted my shelter up the other one scooped me up and put me into a soft warm blanket inside a box. And the lady human comforted me with her warm soft hand...it made me feel so much better. I didn't know that some reckless nogood swerved for Mother while she was walking alongside the road and left her to lay in the rain. The humans found Mother and cried while they buried her.

That box became my bed for the next several weeks in the same room the humans slept. I would be brought out in the morning and would play till I got sleepy.  I have since been told that when the lady human awoke she never heard me and was always afraid to look in the box.  I just sat there like a good boy and waited for her to pick me up and feed me.  

Here I am in one of the many things the humans had at that time:

This is my older brother. He always cuddled with me and took good care of me. He and I spent a lot of time on this ledge looking out the window at the birds:

The human lady tells me this is her favorite picture of me. I'm a little poser, can't you tell?

This is pretty much how I look today. Quite the good-looking man wouldn't you say? I think I turned out pretty good for all that I went through.  This was taken almost a year ago and I have grown a tad since then, but not much:

I'm told I was a very sick kitty and the humans were so worried that they thought I wasn't going to make it. But after what they did for me how could I let them down? Of course, I had to visit that place that had what they call a vet and the first visit wasn't so bad because I didn't know what it was. Actually the ones that followed weren't too bad either, but I was young...what did I know? Now? I let them know in no uncertain terms that it is the absolute last place I want to go. They don't listen, though.

The vet said I was carrying a nasty parasite inside me from when I was outside and I probably would have died eventually. The medicine I had to take (yuck!) chased the parasite away but it didn't happen for quite some time. I know the humans were worried sick over me and I tried my best to get better. And then one day it happened: the parasite was gone and the vet said I was going to be all right. I know she was worried too because when I made my first visit to her she just shook her head and had a sad face.   She said I was very tiny for my age.

But I am here today and I will be having my second birthday in a few weeks and I will be celebrating with my sister, Dakota-Sioux, and my brother, Junior, who were born August 8th of 2006 and adopted by my humans when they were both 13 weeks old. And, oh yeah, the lady human? I now refer to her as Mommy.

(Mommy's note: to this day, Punkin' does not "talk" due to the overuse of his vocal cords on that damp, rainy Saturday in early September.  He will always be my baby no matter how old he gets.  My miracle baby.)