Meet Eliza and Pumpkin!
Name: Eliza and Pumpkin
Breed: Both Eliza and Pumpkin are American shorthair tabbies
Likes: Eliza likes perching proudly on the top of cat trees and having her silky fur gently brushed. Pumpkin likes perching wherever she takes a catly notion to perch and then enjoys depositing copious fur gifts thereon.
Dislikes: Eliza definitely dislikes for Pumpkin to be the center of attention. Pumpkin massively dislikes for Eliza to be the center of attention.
About Eliza and Pumpkin!: When we adopted our adorable senior tabbies, Pumpkin and Eliza, two years ago from Seniors4Seniors rescue for mature cats, we kept their names, even though Pumpkin has absolutely no orange in her coat, and Eliza, in contrast, has beautiful orange fur on the back of her tail. This color mix up causes wonderful confusion for everyone. Eliza’s original name on her adoption card was hard to pronounce, but it started with “E” and had a “z” in it toward the end, so we settled on “Eliza,” and she has graciously accepted the name. Pumpkin is now bumping her head against my leg to tell me that is quite enough talk about her rival Eliza. Alas, although the tabby girls both immediately warmed up wonderfully to their humans, warming up to another almost-twin tabby was definitely not part of their plans….no, nay, never. They don’t fight, but if one gets too close to the other, there is always an ears-back standoff until one or the other backs down. Eliza says that it is Pumpkin who backs down.
Although they do look like tabby twins, they are completely different furry babies, and we love all of their quirks and differences: Size: Pumpkin is chunky with short little legs and an active whiptail that she uses expressively to bang, whap, whap, on the floor or on your leg. Eliza is lithe, with long legs and a graceful, soft, furry, orange-back tail that she waves majestically. Meows: Eliza screeches loudly, and Pumpkin has a soft little mew. Both are impossible to ignore. Food: Eliza will only eat wet food, and Pumpkin, of course, will only eat dry food. Never the twain shall meet. Company: Pumpkin loves visitors and moves from lap to lap. Eliza hides. Perches: Pumpkin likes laps and any chair that you were just planning to sit in. Eliza prefers the top of the cat tree or the back of sofas behind her humans’ heads where she sometimes assumes a picture perfect sphinx pose. Oops…Pumpkin is telling me again that is quite enough about Eliza and the silly sphinx business. Nesting: Pumpkin, a fur shedder supreme, loves to nest in piles of freshly folded laundry, while Eliza has made a messy nest of packing paper that now permanently decorates our living room. Pumpkin whaps my leg with her whiptail and says she is glad I said that she is a top-notch shedder and that Eliza is messy. Tricks: Someone must have taught Pumpkin the word “roll.” We discovered early on that when we said “roll,” Pumpkin began a rolling frenzy. We absolutely love to see her do this, and she has graciously performed this trick for our Sit-a-Pet sitter too. Eliza, alas, does not know the word “roll,” but she definitely responds to the word “treat.” Eliza paws my arm gently and says that, yes, accepting treats is much more graceful and dignified than Pumpkin’s boisterous rolling act. These tabby rascals have added a wonderful dimension to our lives, and we are so glad that we adopted them. And we are glad too that when we go on vacations Sit-a-Pet is always there to take special care of these precious fur babies for us.