Thursday 05/18/00 @10 pm on the petloss.com msg board

Bunnicula is my sweet old gentleman orange tabby cat. Bunnicula would always talk, not a traditional meow it was more of a long chirp and a cat bark. He and I would have conversations. I would say "Heya Mr. Bunny, how are you doin'?" and he would respond right on queue. I would reply with "You don't say." and he would pipe up with his response. We could keep this up for quite a while... until I ran out of things to talk about, he never seemed to though. He would talk to himself and talk to the other cats too. He had a very loud raspy purr. He was such a sweet little man, you could just say "Hello Bunny" and he would start purring. He *never* ever hissed, not once, I don't think he knew how. When Taliesin (another one of my diabetics) starting having trouble with his colon, I started feeding him packed plain pumpkin at the direction of my vet. When Taliesin was done eating guess who finished what was left. :) Bunny didn't really care too much for treats or catnip but he went wild (well as wild as a sick 18+ year old cat with arthritis, sinusitis, nervous colitis, and diabetes can get) for the pumpkin. When the bowl got low he would dip his paw in and scoop out the rest. When he got what he wanted from his paw he would flick his paw and pumpkin would fly everywhere. Some how he flung it across my kitchen and it stuck to the wall and dried there. Whatever was left on his paw after his snack and his paw flick would end up dried to the floor where he stepped. There would be little pumpkin blobs all over my kitchen floor. Occasionally, when he wanted to be petted, he would gum me. He only had 4 teeth and they were all grinders so he would put his toothless little gums on my hand and gently squeezed. My boyfriend got so excited when Mr. Bunny gummed him. He had repertory problems (the sinusitis) which made him sneeze constantly. He would get right up to you and sneeze in your face. He would wrinkle up his nose right before he sneezed. I loved to run my hand from the very top of his old man head to the very tip of his old man tail and I would love to kiss him on his old man head and behind his old man ears. He had sort of matted mangy fur as a result of his diseases but I always thought it felt soft like the fur on a well loved teddy bear. Once you got Mr. Bunny purring it would take a catastrophe to get him to stop. He would even purr while he was falling asleep. Around the time I adopted him I took him to my local vet for a check up. While we were in the room waiting for the vet, I put Mr. Bunnicula on the metal table and petted him so he would feel more comfortable with the situation. Well he started with his very loud raspy Mr. Bunny purr. He was still purring when the vet came into the room. She couldn't listen to his heart and lungs because he was purring so loud and she had a really hard time to trying to get him to stop. He would also scoop the hard food pellets out of the food bowl. I would be falling asleep and I would hear him jump up on the table I keep the food bowls (whenever he did anything he chirped, that included jumping up or down on things). He liked to knock the food onto the table so he didn't have to put his face in the big bowl. I would bolt out of bed so I could get a handful of pellets and put them next to where he was eating so he wouldn't kick food out and all over my kitchen. I would still find pellets everywhere. When Bunnicula wanted to keep me company on my bed he would walk into my bed room and sit in the entrance way. He would stare at me until I acknowledged his presence and patted the bed for him to join me. My adoption of Bunnicula was an "accident" (as were the next 5 after him, I started out with 2). :) I was at the local no-kill animal shelter visiting friends who volunteer there. The woman who heads the cat adoptions showed me the cats waiting for adoption and pointed out my Bunny (his name at the shelter was "Digger" because he dug in his litter a lot). When I saw him at the shelter, he adopted me... I didn't even want to adopt him when I first saw him... he looked in pretty bad condition because he was getting over ear mites and his mouth was swollen from the gum infection he picked up while living on the streets and the surgery to remove his teeth. In other words he wasn't very pretty, but he taught me that not everything beautiful has to look beautiful. He asked to live with me and I said I would love to have his company. He was just a gentle sweet little attention slut of an orange old man tabby cat. I love him very much. I miss my sweet Prince Mister Bunny. http://www.shadowcat.net/memorial/bunnicula/