A cat named Pepe roamed the streets of Denton, Texas, for some time before two girls picked him and his two sisters up and brought them to a shelter. At first it seemed as if the cats were sick of something, having sparse hair of varying lengths and growing unevenly. But then it was decided that they were mestizos of a sphynx and a regular cat.
Pepe was still very young, barely a year old. He was covered with fleas and got very dirty, but at the shelter he was treated and washed like his sisters. He then spent three whole months at the shelter, as no one wanted to take in this withdrawn cat. His two sisters were taken quickly, they were very sociable and affectionate, though they looked just as strange.
But then Shia Daspin and Joshua Tucker showed up and they immediately fell in love with Pepe.
“Pepe looks so unusual, like he fell off the moon. Basically he’s just like us,” Shia laughs.
When Pepe’s two sisters were taken away, he became even more unsociable and sat huddled at the far end of his cage. People who came to pick up their cats often just didn’t notice him.
Shia and Joshua, who flew all the way from New York to get Pepe, have two other sphinx cats living at home. They used to have another cat living with them, but she had recently passed away and the saddened couple was looking for a new companion.
“We went through lists of shelter cats day after day, looking for one that would be perfect for us. Suddenly we saw a picture of Pepe. He looked like a hodgepodge of parts of cats of different breeds. Then we read that he matched up well with other cats and realized he was probably our candidate.
The very next day, Shia and Joshua flew to Texas.
“When we met him, after a couple of minutes he was already poking his head into our hands to be petted. And then he purred. That’s when we knew he was definitely coming home with us.
Pepe survived the flight to New York and quickly settled into his new home. According to Shia, he instantly changed from the reserved, frightened cat he had been in the shelter to a bright, blooming guy.
“I’ve rarely seen cats as sweet and trusting as Pepe. He became very attached to us.”
Pepe has developed an especially close relationship with one of his new girlfriends, named Iggy, and they now sleep next to each other. Shia and Joshua also decided to find out exactly what kind of breed mix Pepe has and decided that it is most likely a cross with a Don Sphynx or a Peterbald.
“Maybe he’s just a mixture of different breeds of sphinxes and regular cats. Or maybe it’s just a genetic mutation. We haven’t seen cats like this before, so we couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion.
