Today, July 3rd, is Sparky Fuzzypants' NINTH gotchaversary. It's furry hard to believe that he's been alive (and botherin' the heck out of me) for nine long years.
Back in 1998, July 3rd was on a Friday. Mom was in the middle of her "summer vacation" and plannin' was underway for the new house. Cocoa Puff was about a month away from his first gotchaversary an' he was furry happy to be the littlest Feline American in the house.
At about 4:25 PM, Israel ... a little boy who lived across the street ... showed up at Mom's door with a tiny brown-striped kitten clutched to his chest. Israel told Mom that he'd found the little fellow on a neighboring street and he was afraid for the kitty's life 'cuz there were big woofies that had gotten loose.
The kitty was furry frightened and hissed loudly at Mom when she tried to take him from Israel, so Israel held the kitty while Mom got the pink PTU. Mom intended to call the animal shelter an' take the kitty there 'cuz the kitty looked malnourished. Mom called efurry agency that she could think of, but all of 'em were closed early for the 4th of July weekend.
Mom decided to keep the kitty over the weekend, so she opened the door of the PTU and took him out to look him over. The kitty hissed, but it was only a half-hearted hiss. He had exhausted himself bein' terrified and just didn't have anymore "hiss" left to give. He cuddled near Mom's ear, purred like an Evinrude, and fell asleep.
Mom brought him into the house. She gave the poor little fella a bath in the kitchen sink, and then combed off all of the dead fleas.
After she dried him off, she fed him a bunch of stinky goodness kitten formula that she had leftover from Puffy's kittenhood. She had to help him eat 'cuz his back legs were too weak to hold him.
Grandma wanted to name him, so Mom let her call him "Sparky" 'cuz he was so close to July 4th an' the fireworks. Mom added the "Fuzzypants" later from an episode of "Veronica's Closet" where Olive gets a kitty.
Efurryday, Mom or Grandma would exercise Sparky's legs and try to build his strength (Grandma would sit with all of us when Mom went to work, so she was in charge of "the baby").
It didn't take long for him to grow into a healthy hunk of bounce! He turned out beautiful an' I'm proud of who he's become.
Happy Ninth Gotchaversary, Mr. Pants! You're a heckuva guy and I'm glad that we're Feline Americans together! Here's to many, many more gotchaversary celebrations!
DMM
Only Sparky Fuzzypants could convince us to dress up with dorky lion hats to celebrate his birthday! I feel like an idiot.
29 comments:
Happy Gotcha Day Sparky! Dat's a wonnerful Gotcha Day story. Yoo look surprised dat fing is on yur head. We'd put da bitey on it if we wuz yoo.
yay! Happy Gotcha Day Sparky!! We're so glad you found your forever home so early!
Ps-DMM-we think the lion costume is GRRRRREAAAAAATTTTTTT!
My human thinks you look very cute in your lion costume. She would like to know where she can get one for me and my siblings. Please don't tell her!
Happy 9th Gotcha Day, Sparky!! So glad you found a home with Mom and Grandma. They took very good care of you and you grew up to be a very beautiful cat.
Your FL furiends,
Samantha & Tigger
Happy, happy gottcha day Sparky!
You found the bestest forever home. I hope that little Isreal grew up to be as good a big bean as he was a little sticky person. I think he knew where a good place for you would be. Sometimes its the little sticky people who know best.
---Beezer
What a great story! Happy 9th Gotchaversary Sparky. Wearing those fabulous hats is a great way to celebrate, too.
Happy Gotcha Day, Sparky! What a wonderful story. I love to read success stories like this. You turned out to be so gorgeous!!
CalicoMom Toni
Happy Gotcha Day, Sparky! And fank yu soooo much fur the wunderful Secret Paws goodies yu sented me. I posted pikchurs on Pumpkin's blog so come see. Huh, I let mine bruthurs share in the loot, and Tiger chewed frew the string on the fev-ver wand toy! At leest we still get to plaw wiff the fev-ver toy part but I'z going to whap him fur that!
Happy Gottcha Day Sparky! You are gorgeous. It was awfully nice of your sibs to dress up in the lion cub costume. They might try to get you back when their gottcha days come along though...so, I'd be careful about humiliating your sibs with costumes.
Happy Gotcha Day Sparky! I really love yore lion costume and love dat you made everycat wear it. It's the least they could do for Gotcha Day, a furry special day for you!
Mom said that she got the lion hat (and a giraffe and an' elephant, too) at TARGET in the pet department and that they were $2.99 each. I think that I look sexiest in the giraffe hat, but Spark voted for lions. Sigh.
Don't you love how Charmee is winking?
DMM
Happy Gotcha Day, Spark! You're very lucky to find such a great forever home with the lovely DaisyMae as your big sister. And, DaisyMae, you certainly don't LOOK like an idiot with the lion hat--just a tolerant and loving sister. I wish my sister were as nice to me!
Smooches,
~Jake
And happy gotcha day wishes from me too, Sparky! You're a gorgeous fluffy hunka boycat. What a wonderful family you have.
~Bathsheba
Gotcha' Days are the very best days! You and my oldest sisters are the same age!
Happy Gotcha' Day!
Smooches!
Happy Gotchaversary, Sparky! It's superduper that you found such a wonnerful forefur home.
Kittyhugs and purrs from MaoMao!
Happy Gotcha Day! We love the lion hats, it is almost as good as Daisy's wig!
I have tears in my eyes!!! What a great story.
WW
aka: Skittles' pet human
You guys look so cute in that hat!
Happy Gotcha Day Sparky! That is a great story. We're glad it had such a happy ending.
Happy Gotcha Day Sparky Fuzzypants! Yoo are a grate Feline American and we think yoor lion hat is furry kyoote - on all da kitties!
happy gotchaversary Sparky!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! that was a great story
Hooray for Sparky and your Gotcha Day! Your lion hat is very cute but our Food Lady would get hurt if she tried to put a hat on either one of us!
Purrrrrs, China Cat & Willow
Happy Gotcha Day Sparky Fuzzypants!!!! That's a totally great story and we're so glad that your mom and grandma found you at such a young age!!! We luf the look you are giving the flashy box with that lion thing on your head...
Luf, Us
I hope you have a happy 9th gotchaversary, Sparky, and a very nice 4th of July.
Dee
Hope you had a great gottcha day! What a wonderful story, and you all looked fabulous!
Have a great Fourth!
Tara
Happy Gotchaversary, Sparky!! What a lucky day that was for you!
I hope you got lots of treats and nip and scritches!
(And good job on convicing everycat else to wear the lion-hat!!!)
Yous have a good mommy too! Yay for the good mommys. My mommy rescueds me too. I am sooooo happys that there are more good beans out there.
happy gotcha day sparky! we finks yu looks kyoot in the lion hat.
yuki & kimiko
(belated) happy gotcha day, mr pants. we're glad that li'l israel was brainy enough to bring you to your mom!! we wish you many more happy, healthy gotcha days.
we think you look furry noble in the lion hat, and you were nice to share it wif the ofurr FAs.
I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!
Happy belated gotcha day Sparky! You (and the rest of you) look great in that outfit. I really hope you had a wonderful day. I'm so glad you had your mommy and grandma to take care of you.You certainly are a handsome strong mancat now!
sorry we're so late in wishing you a Happy Gotchaversary! that was a furry great story. our gotcha days were: Midnight & Cocoa - July 3rd, and Grr - July 5th.
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