When allowed to reside by myself–without all those feline “friends”–I can have a pretty good time. Mom published this video about me on Youtube on March 9, 2013.

Mom was obsessed with documenting every stage of my acclimation to my new home and fellow felines. I was not happy AT ALL about the other cats I discovered. My preference was to hang out alone in the kitchen/bathroom area, where I could do my thing undisturbed. Nevertheless, Mom kept trying to integrate me. Mom published this video on Youtube on February 27, 2017.

I spent a little over two months at Gasow, my temporary new home. Life in a cage was not what I would deem exciting, but it sure beat the cold winter weather in Michigan and scrounging for scraps of food. I was content to be warm and on the mend. I ignored the other cats in the holding area where I was and even slept through some of the nice lady’s visits.

Finally it was January 19, 2013. The vet said I was ready to go to my new home. If I had an “old home,” I was not sharing that information with anyone. One of the vet techs took my out of my cage and carried me down a long hallway. Down at the end of the hall was the nice lady who had visited me. She had some strange little gadget up over her face. It was pointed at me. The vet tech put me in a small rectangular hard plastic box with a wire front door. The lady put down the gadget (a camera), picked up the box I was in, and carried me out,

In a little while the box stopped moving. The nice lady said she was my new mom and opened the wire door. I was in a strange place. It smelled different. There were dishes of food and water, and a litter box. I examined my new surroundings while Mom aimed that camera thing at me again. She said my name was Pawscar Awesome, and I was home. I believed her.

In case you want to know what kind of lady it was who became my mom, I think the picture below will tell you all you need to know. Although it comes from a time B.P.A. (before Pawscar Awesome), it reflects her character and interests purrfectly.

Rescued in Birmingham

I was rescued and safe, The Birmingham Police knew just where to take me: Gasow Veterinary Hospital. The kind people there isolated me (because of my flea infestation and unknown health status) and started to clean me up and mend my wounds.

Safe at the Veterinary Hospital

Shortly after I arrived, I had a visitor. A lady came, looked me over, and asked lots of questions about me. She told one of the vet techs that she wanted to adopt me if I did not carry any diseases that would threaten her other cats. Tests revealed that I did not have FIV or feline leukemia or any other life-threatening condition, but I was weak and needed time to recuperate.

The lady came to visit me in the hospital quite often, She spoke to me and petted me and watched me get better.

I purred a lot and took life easy. I did not even mind being in a cage, because I was warm and had enough to eat. Finally, I felt safe.

My past is shrouded in mystery. Mom has often asked me questions about the time before she adopted me:

Where did I come from?
What was my name?
When was I born?
Why am I tame?
Who gave me love?
Where did they go?
How could they leave me?

My humans don’t know…and I’m not telling.

As far as my family knows, my life began in mid-November, 2012. I was found in Birmingham, Michigan, in the alley behind Beyond Juice on Maple Road, west of Woodward Avenue.

The Birmingham Police captured me in an alley behind the business. I did not put up much of a struggle. I was malnourished, skinny, and full of fleas. I had burns on my feet and sides, probably caused by steam coming up from the manhole covers I stayed close to, trying to stay warm.

I realize now that the police were trying to help me stay alive and safe.

[one_third]

Best friends can come
In lots of shapes and sizes.
That’s why they’re always
Such wonderful surprises.
Mine has four legs
And a lot of orange fur.
He tells me life is great
With the world’s loudest purr….

Well, they’re not in it for the food
Not in it for the money.
Just give their chin a scratch,
Let them sleep where it’s sunny.
You don’t need a turtle
Or a gerbil or a bunny
‘Cause orange cats
They make the very best friends.

[/one_third]

Such was the opinion of Norm Hacking (1950-2007), who–according to his website–was “a determinedly-independent folk singer-songwriter from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who for more than thirty years has been winning loyal fans and critical acclaim for his beautifully crafted songs, with moving and often humorous insights into life, love, songwriting – and cats!” Norm’s “Orange Cats Make the Very Best Friends” is a very appropriate theme song for me.

I know that my mom has always had a special place in her heart for orange cats. In her earliest childhood, her parents had two cats, one of whom (Tangy) was orange. In 1976, she adopted a pair of siblings, Boop’m Honker and Chipitts. Honker, the male, was orange. Mom’s next orange cat was Snickers, who came from a family at church and lived to the ripe old age of 19, crossing the Rainbow Bridge early in 2005. Eight years later, I joined the family. I am special in another way as well: I am a polydactyl kitty, Mom’s first one ever.

My website was dedicated to orange cats–whether apricot or peach, buff or copper, marmalade or ginger, butterscotch or caramel, cream or some other shade of orange–everywhere.

P.S. Since I crossed the Rainbow Bridge in November 2016, Mom did not have the heart to keep up a website in my name, so she brought the “guts” of it here to my feline family’s website. This way I will not be forgotten.