RIP Sammy

Our oldest cat died in the wee hours of the morning. We really don't know how old she was but guess around 16. Sammy was always a difficult cat - a very bizarre creature. In a household of others, she always wanted to be an only cat and, for many years, have only me as her human.

Sammy's life with us began one cold late January eve. Ed had gone out to his school to pick something up over a weekend. As he came out he heard a car door slam, a truck roar out of the parking lot and then a pitiful mew. He tried to catch the little cat but she ran into a locked storage area, snuck under the chain link gate. When he came home, he said - "I probably shouldn't be telling you but..." Within minutes we were out the door with the cat carrier. I was able to bribe the little thing out with treats. She must have been starved. And she sure was shaken.

Sammy. Samuel Clemons - take a look at that mustache and wild hair and you'll realize how she got that name. She was a very unique (read: weird) looking cat. Her hair was so long that when she'd clean it she could never get her head back far enough to get to the ends. Her eyes were the most slanted I've ever seen in a cat. Ed said she looked like a little girl whose pigtails were pulled too tight. And her body - her front legs were quite a bit shorter than the back. We called her Stego-cat.

Sammy was the epitome of a scaredy cat. She must have been horribly abused by a man because she was never comfortable around most men. It took her 9, yes 9, years to finally accept Ed. She never was a lapcat but would curl up on the couch next to me. She never let another cat close to her. She had to have her space. If they came within 2 feet of her she'd spit, snarl, swat, growl.

About a year and a half after we found Sammy, we adopted 2 more cats. So then we had 5 (we lost 1 of the previous 3 that summer for those who are keeping count). One of the 2 new ones was Sasquatch - a huge orange long haired very confident male. He wasn't aggressive, not a mean bone in his body, but had this air of superiority about him. Sammy was petrified of him. We had just remodeled our bathroom and hadn't put the doors on the cabinet yet. Sammy moved in. No coaxing would bring her out. I put the doors on and she'd open them and go right back in. So she lived in the bathroom cabinet for a month. Then all the sudden one day she moved into our office. She'd jump from book shelf to book shelf to desk and would only come down to eat or use her box. After another month she finally came down to live with the rest of us and then she began to stalk Sasquatch. She'd be sure to stay a safe distance behind but it was pretty clear she was stalking him.

During this time the hair on her ears, which had been black, fell out. When it grew back, it was white. She had these long tufts coming out of and on the back of her ears. The weird looking cat got even weirder. Years later after Sasquatch died her ears went bald again and the hair grew back black. I kid you not.

Bizarre, I tell you. Bizarre. But that's why we loved her.