Archimedes the Cat

June 17th 

Archimedes is in the vicinity of 5-6 years old. We adopted him when he was about 2 or 3, I can't remember exactly. His breed is flame point, ragdoll. He has blue eyes, orange ears, a cream colored body and a tuape tipped tail. He is completely without claws (not our doing.) The funniest part to me is that he has freckles on his nose, which from what I've read is a trait of cats with orange fur.

The day before my birthday one year, I'd decided I had gone too long without owning a cat. I had grown up on a farm in Ohio that would always have an abundance of felines. There were always at least 14 cats prancing about the barn yard, and they would often multiply. They would go on walks with us, play with us, and comfort us when we were sad. They were always there and loved us without judgement. There were always babies born in the springtime, which was very fun for us. I miss seeing kittens all the time!

My husband didn't really want a cat. But, I persisted and I looked on our local free animal listings on an app similar to Craigslist for Utah. I found a picture of a cat that was so pretty and looked like he would be a gentle kitty. So, I texted the owner. He said that they were giving him away because constantly fought with their other cat. We went to their house to meet the cat (at the time, named Stuffy), and I picked him up right away. He pretty much flopped and became limp when I picked him up. That's where the "ragdoll" breed comes in. He is very docile, squishy, and floppy when lifted up. I knew would be perfect for us when I had discovered how gentle he was. My son was only 1 at the time, so I wanted a benign cat.

I was sad to see that all of his claws had been removed. He can't even scratch himself properly. He had also never been outside. And he had lived with another cat he didn't get along with, so he was living in a high-stress environment. The owner also said that they had given him away before but the people returned him because they discovered one of them had a cat allergy.

We were happy to take him home! He has been with us for a few years now and he happily goes on adventures outside every day. He doesn't live in fear of another cat attacking him (only the occasional roughness from a toddler.) Unfortunately, I can't give him his claws back but we give him a lot of chin and back scratches. He makes us laugh every day and my husband is happy that we got him after all. His favorite activities include sleeping on clean laundry that I haven't gotten to folding yet, climbing onto the top shelf in the pantry and not being able to get down, giving my husband full body hugs and sleeping in awkward positions.
We renamed him Archimedes, although he isn't very smart. But we love him all the same.