Gascap

As several friends have noticed we do not get normal animals. All of them have been rescues and pure breeds. Did we try to only adopt pure breeds? No, it just worked out that way. I encourage people to adopt from a shelter. They are just more loving.

Our first cat was Hershey, a Chocolate Siamese cat that we rescued. Siamese cats are very smart and vocal. Thom and Hershey would hold conversations all the time. He could tell time too. Whoever had him first had him declawed on the front AND back. No we do not encourage declawing. We knew he would only be an indoor cat and thats fine. Declawed cats also have a problem with different litters, pieces too big and it hurts and too small and it gets stuck in their paws. Sadly he passed away about 2 yrs ago.

The dog we had in Florida was a Short Haired German Pointer. Grommet was also a rescue. We had to sign paperwork to verify that we knew he was 'morbidily obese' when we got him. His legs could not even touch when he layed down. We got him down in weight and was working with the vet when we had to move. We could not take him with us so we had to take him back to the shelter. Both of us were quite heart broken we had to do that. The shelter ended up making him the office dog and worked with the vet even more and found out that he had a thyroid problem. They took him off the adoption rolls so that he could never be put back into a bad situation. They did inform us that if we wanted him back that they would allow us and only us to adopt him since they know that we were doing what was neccessary to help him.

Our current cat's name is Gascap. Now when people hear the name they usually ask "How did he get the name?" We rescued him from a shelter with the name of Max. Well ..... we were playing an online real time war game called Travian (do not play unless you don't want to do almost anything else for about 10 months). The guild we played with (and won with) is Purple Dragons. Of course in the game everyone goes by a "handle". One of the guys we were playing with went by Gascap. One night while doing some stuff in the game and talking back and forth to some of the guild members, Thom (also a few beers involved) turned to where the cat was and said "Hey Gascap" he answered back with "Meow" and has answered ever since. Honestly if that's what he wants as his name than that is what we will call him.
If you can see the feet on Gascap he has 7 toes on each foot. He uses them as hands, lol. He is considered a Hemingway Polydactyl cat. Not sure what other breed he is besides the fact he has so many toes. We think he was abused from some of his actions. I tell people that when they meet him they HAVE to treat him like a strange dog. Let him come to you, do NOT try to pet him without him letting you know he wants it. Not that he bites but he will tell you he's not happy. It took him about a month for him to even let us pet him past his head down to his back. We did not even realize he knew how to purr until about 2 months after we got him. He is very happy and relaxed with us now but it took time.
He was also declawed but only on the front. Trust me that those back claws are still sharp. He could take care of himself if he got outside but while he is a very large cat he is also a very scared cat. He jumps at a sound or movement that he is not expecting.
He does go thru a 'dance' with Thom everyday with getting treats. Gascap begging for treats is only about 1 1/2 mins long but usually the dance is about 5 mins. I only caught the last part of it. There is another youtube of Gascap and a very "special" squirrel friend he has - his squirrel

Here are 2 pictures of Gascap and his favorite way to drink water. Not sure where he would learn this but he would rather drink from the toliet. That's probably the only thing he doesn't like about the MH is the fact that he cannot drink out of the toliet.




I know it looks more like he is "praying to the porcelin god" but nope. We've tried several things to not have do this but as all of us with cats know it is very hard to change a habit they have that they like.