The Roadside Artist

Oh, Hammie the Cat - the hamster cat, is all too real. This is just a cartoon-caricature of him…

Get the Hammie tshirt for only $9.99

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know about my rescued feral kittens. I wrote about them here and here, and you’ll see this little guy in both of them: The first rescued feral kitten from last year was the orange no-tail I named Hamster cat. Well, here he is today…

Hammie The Cat tshirt for $9.99

He isn’t exactly tail-less, as you can see - he has more of a POOF-BALL for a tail. I guess you could call it a bobtail ..sort of… More after the jump, including a close-up photo and a the truth about Hammie’s future…

Such a sweet little guy! And life seems so unfair at times.

Hammie “Hamster Cat” is alive and well, thanks to some quick intervention. He is very affectionate, but I think he’s a bit traumatized and has abandonment issues. For instance, he likes to/needs to have a “binky” (a piece of cloth to chew on while he falls asleep), perhaps because he was alone for many days before I rescued him. He was only about four weeks old at the time so I’m sure he was starving. I fed him on a bottle for a while, until he learned to eat solid food. He was really too young to lose his mamma. But then, that’s why I say that life is so unfair at times.

Hammie is always in a good mood, now. Well, he gets lots of attention, so why shouldn’t he feel better? In the cartoon, I imagine Hammie thinking that people are pretty stupid, because he tells us what he wants and we can’t figure it out. How can anyone misunderstand “meow” for petesake?

He is about 7 months old now and has really blossomed since his days as a nearly-dead four week old feral kitten. For his sake, I may do a whole series of Hammie The Cat cartoons. You know, just to help pay for his room and board.

Truthfully, it’s a difficult situation because I have a few other rescued ferals, too, and this gets to be more than a handful after a while. Hammie is sweet enough to be adopted out but homes are few and far between AND his little emotional issues would certainly get in the way.

It can all be very stressful: I already spend more on cat food than many people spend on their own meals for their whole familes. Nevertheless, as long as I am able I will continue to take care of Hammie and his friends. If you get a shirt, though, it will help.

Tags: Art, Cartoons, Feral Cats, Kittens, T-shirts