Peppermint – Ragdoll of Week
Peppermint’s Tale
In 2005, after two months since my husband and I purchased our first cat, Caramel, a short hair tabby, we decided he needed a companion and someone to divert his silly ankle attacking skills.
My husband researched online the gentlest and friendliest cat breed. And, lo and behold – Ragdolls came first on the list. We were both unfamiliar of such breed and very curious to have one. We called the pet store where we
got Caramel, Scamp’s Pet Center in Portland, OR. It was such a coincidence that on the same day that we decided we wanted a Ragdoll, the store have Ragdoll/Siamese kittens. So we rushed to the store and see what they looked like. When we arrived, we saw kittens all piled up inside a glass enclosed area. There were two breeds, orange tabbies and Ragdoll/Siamese kittens. We asked for the Ragdoll/Siamese kittens. My husband picked up the female kitten and looked at her face. He mentioned that there was an expression on her face that he didn’t quite like. Then he picked up her brother. I remember my husband looked at the kitten straight in his eyes for a few seconds and decided – he’s the one. Sometimes I wish I had that experience, to look straight at an 
animal’s soul through their eyes then have that connection. I trusted my husband’s judgment though. And my! Peppermint was the best birthday gift I ever had.
Picking the name wasn’t tough for our second cat. We named Peppermint after a kitten’s name in Dorothy Grider’s famous children’s book, Peppermint. In the book, the mother cat’s name is Candy, who’s living in a candy store. When she gave birth, the owners named all her cats with candy names: Lollipop, Caramel, Peppermint, and Chocolate Drop.
Sometimes I call Peppermint – Peppy, Pepito, Sweetie, Pep, and Puti (white in Tagalog).
We’ve had Peppermint since he’s a kitten. We don’t know his exact date of birth and his birth place. According to his warranty papers, his approximate date of birth was April 15, 2005. But we celebrate his birthday on the first day we brought him home, July 19, 2005.
Since we got our cats, our lives have never been better. I cannot imagine a life without cats. Peppermint has weird habits and addiction though. He loves cotton buds, plastic bags, and my expensive sheep skin boots. He gets easily amused by the cheapest toys or things such as tiny crumpled papers, laser pointers, shoe boxes, long strings, and paper bags. His favorite sleeping spot is on our bed by my feet, which can be uncomfortable sometimes. The vacuum cleaner is his nemesis. He hates it when I bathe him and when I kiss his nose. His annoyingly cute habit is sitting right next on my side of bed
early in the morning and meowing his lungs out just because his food bowl is almost empty. He drinks more from his Cat It Fresh Drinking Fountain. In regards to food, we try to give him real slices of meat, which he seldom eats. He prefers his Purina One dry food, cat snacks, and any cat canned food. There’s one weird food that he’s addicted to: corn. Whenever we are preparing corn for our meal, he will always go to the counter, which does not happen when we cook meat.
I’ve never experienced such affection from an animal such as what Peppermint gives me every day. He always responds when I call him. He always shows great affection and love whenever I pet and cuddle him.
Someday I would like to have a pure bred Ragdoll. But for now, I’m savoring every moment I have with my Peppermint.
Hi, I’m Jenny Dean, creator of Floppycats! Ever since my Aunt got the first Ragdoll cat in our family, I have loved the breed. Inspired by my childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags, I created Floppycats to connect, share and inspire other Ragdoll cat lovers around the world,
Lu,
You mentioned that you think Peppermint likes dry food because it has mostly corn in it. That may be true for some brands of dry, but not all brands. If he loves dry find one that has no corn in it or veggies, fruit or herbs. Kibble or dry food must have one type starch in order to hold it together, however, that starch can be rice instead of corn and it should certainly not be potato as that is toxic to cats. I admit I personally feel cats must have food available 24/7, to prevent kidney damage, so for most people that means using some kibble, which I do use. However, they also get chicken, eggs, fish, wet food, pumpkin, krill oil, Vit E,Bifidus,etc.
I’m so glad you found Peppermint and he is so lucky to be so loved. I don’t want to be a downer, but I am a little OCD about certain foods for cats. In the USA almost all corn is GMO, thanks to Monsanto. I recently heard this info regarding GMO corn when I was discusing corn litter with a very experienced cat breeder. Eating it as food applies to people and animals, so it’s very frightening.
Over the last several years, USA corn has become 100% genetically modified Monsanto Frankenfood. This will include corn used in litter and anywhere else except organic corn.
It’s known that GMO corn does severe damage to the gut lining so that it becomes friable and leaks like a sieve.
This will be progressive damage over time, and very hard to beat.
To give a description of what happens:
You may know that sausages for human consumption are usually made using “hog casings” as the sausage skin, Hog casings are cleaned pig intestines, so nice and edible. However that can no longer be used as the pigs are fed GMO corn and their intestines fall apart and can not be used any more.
Over time, cats will groom in a significant amount of GMO toxin from corn litter.
So even if your cat loves corn I would try not to feed it to him as eating it in food would be in much higher concentrations than that consumed from a litter.
Thanks for the info Nan. I will try my best not to feed Peppermint any corn. I’m actually trying to feed him wet food so he can have a longer life and better health.
OMG Corn! I was removing kernels from about 6 cobs to make corn chowder and places the cobs in a plastic bag. The bag was placed by the back door to be taken out to the compost pile. Within 30 seconds of the bag hitting the floor, my three Raggies had each taken a cob out of the bag and were chewing furiously on it! I have pictures of “Cornfest”! Totally hilarious! I love the closeup of Peppermint!
JLSW
I would love to see the “cornfest” pictures. My theory behind my Peppermint’s addiction to corn is that he loves dry cat food. And dry cat food are made mostly of corn meal.
http://gallery.me.com/jlsw#100151&bgcolor=black&view=grid
Here you are! Cornfest and the resulting soup!
Thanks for posting! I love the pictures. They are so hilarious and beautiful cats too.
Peppermint is adorable… and from the sound of it, your baby is just as sweet as his name! 🙂 Lovely story…
He is beautiful!
Thanks Lisa! He is the joy of my life. He’s turning seven this year. I love him so much!