🐾 Pumpkin: From Cat to Panther

Just a fun fact from behind the scrolls of Vacari…

There’s a black panther in the books—graceful, fierce, and fiercely loyal. Her name? Pumpkin.

What some readers may not know is that Pumpkin is based on someone very real: my own little black cat, also named Pumpkin. 🖤

Her personality—the sass, the sharp glances, the soft purring when she’s pretending not to care—is entirely her own. I didn’t invent her character… I just gave her claws a little more size and a forest to roam in.

Pumpkin, the panther, has become a beloved companion to Keisha and a small but mighty force in the story. And every time she curls up beside the fire or takes down a threat twice her size, know this: she’s channeling a very real cat who thinks she runs my house. (She’s not wrong.)

—T.A. McEvoy 🐾