Pico, Our Flower Loving Cat

If you follow me on Instagram this furry fellow has mayyybe just maybe stopped your scroll once or twice in the last little while. This is our little cat Pico and he loves flowers, which is oh so conveniently on brand for me…THANKS PICO! A couple of years ago the thought of posting a CAT photo on social media would make me blurt out laughing because there was no way I would ever be that person. Well, here I am writing a whole dang blog post filled with cat pictures! Thankfully, it turns out I’m not to only cat person out there. I get asked so much about Pico over on Instagram so I thought I would share his story and how I wound up being a (crazy?) cat lady.

So, Where did Pico Come from?

My sweet sister Stephanie owns a vet clinic in Niagara-on-the-Lake and one day a young boy brought in a HUGE air conditioning box holding a TINY kitten that he had found at the back of his property (the kitten, not the air conditioning box). The kitten looked like it was in need of some veterinary care so he brought it into my sister’s clinic. The kid was just doing his moral duty in dropping the little kitten off to get the help it needed and then getting the heck outta there, sans air conditioning box and sans cat. Honestly Kid, I get it.

So, just like that my sister had a kitten on her hands. He was super cute and tiny and, as much as I didn’t have much of any interest in cats at that point, who doesn’t LOVE a kitten?! Everyone loves kittens. So she texted me this photo:

OMG SO CUTE RIGHT?!

I immediately responded that I loved him, I wanted him, when could I come see him etc. etc. She then texted me a photo of his face. YIKES. Pico had been badly attacked and his eye was nearly falling out of his head. Along with this he was covered in fleas and mites. Our poor little guy!

My sister got him all fixed up – she got rid of the bugs, and opted for an intense course of antibiotics and creams for his eye to see if maybe, just maybe, she could encourage it to heal and not have to remove it (success! and isn’t his one blue eye just the cutest?!). He needed a fair bit of care, so Stephanie brought him to live with her in her apartment while his eye was healing. At the time Steph and her husband Jack were living in a small apartment with 2 big dogs while their house was being built around the corner. Adding a cat into the mix was a tad hectic. So, Dan and I decided we would help them out and take care of Pico. Who knows what we thought the outcome would be but I was thrilled to help get him healthy and find him a home (especially while he was still an adorable kitten). So one day, much to Jack’s surprise, we showed up at their apartment to take Pico. I thought we were doing them a favour but Jack still talks about the night we came and took his kitten…heh, sorry Jack.

So, I’m sure you can guess where the story goes. We took the cat, we named him Pico, we became totally obsessed with him, and we kept him forever and ever. THE END.

but Why does he like flowers so much?

Because I do, duh! The first weekend we had Pico I had a big event so I brought him to work in the studio with me. He was terrified and hid in the corner all weekend but whenever a leaf came close to him he would take a huge leap and pounce on it – his first toys (cue the REAL TEARS). Ever since that weekend Pico has been obsessed with flowers. Whenever he is at work with me he sleeps in my pile of greenery garbage and the minute I bring a box of flowers home he is meowing to lie in the box with them. Honestly, it’s pretty annoying and half of these photos are me trying to take photos of flowers and Pico insisting on getting in the shot but it is also pretty damn cute.

So, there you have it friends! The story of Pico, our flower loving cat!