Saturday, January 22, 2011

Pet Parade

A few years ago we had the two sweetest pets ever. Missy was an old but soft, lovable, petable, hugable cat. She was affectionate and let the kids do whatever they wanted to with her. Roxy was also affectionate with us, but a little leery of the kids. She was a great watch dog and was very intelligent...at times. Like when Jerry trained her to bring her blanket if she wanted to get up on the sofa. Of all the pets we've had, these two were the best. Life was good...and quiet. But then we lost Missy -- at age 18+ years. And shortly after that, Roxie got cancer and we lost her, too. Very quiet around the house after that. Too quiet some times, but we said "no more pets". (Actually, it was Jerry that said that.)
Jessica has always loved cats and I found a friend of a friend who needed to get rid of a "really nice cat". She was advertised as "sweet" and she had been declawed and was used to being in an empty apartment all day. Seemed perfect. Her name was Samantha. Jess called her Sammy...among other things. I don't know what this friend's idea of "sweet" is...but Sammy is a cranky, fat, old cat. Once in a while she'll come up and sit on your lap but at the slightest movement she's outta there. After Jess had her for a while, a stray showed up around her apartment building. She, of course, let her in and fed her and adopted her. She called her "Little Bit"...because she was a tiny little thing and looked a little bit like Sammy. You can see how thrilled Sammy is to have a companion. They fought all the time and Jessica had to close them in different rooms in her apartment when she was at work all day.

After Roxie died, Jess said, "You need a cat...Sammy!" After a bit, I agreed to take Sammy off her hands. After all, I was responsible for her having her in the first place. She's not the nicest animal I've ever known, but she's really not much trouble. Kind of like a big, hairy door stop most of the time. She hates the kids and hisses at them whenever they come close to her.

Then the Sunday after Thanksgiving, while we were fixing dinner, there was this horrible yowling in the garage. Jess asked, "Is that the cat??" I said I thought the cat was sleeping on the sofa in the computer room where she usually is. We went out into the garage and finally saw a tuft of fur behind the recycling tubs. Neither Jess nor I were brave enough to pull the tub out and see what was back there...so we called Jerry and made him do it. (It's so nice to have a man around the house. Think I'll write a song about it.) Something darted out from behind there. It was light tan or gray and had a long black tail and a black nose. I thought it was a possum or something, but Jessica was sure it was a kitten. So after dinner, she put some scraps out for it. For the next week or two we had our first cold snap of the season. Jessica came over every night after work and would bundle up and sit outside and talk to the kitty and try and gain her trust. The little thing came to recognize the sound of Jess' car and when she came over, she would climb up into the engine of the car to keep warm. With the patience of Job, Jess sat and talked and put food down and tried to coax her into a bed she'd made for her in the garage. We think she spent several nights in the garage, but would be gone all day. Must have had a "day job". But every night, when Jess came over, the kitty would be around somewhere. Finally, she was getting a little more trusting. Now it was getting hard to leave the house. If we wanted to go anywhere, we needed to check under the hood of our car/truck to make sure she wasn't in there. Then one of us had to be a "spotter" while the other pulled out to make sure she didn't get under a tire. Finally...when she trusted him enough...Jerry picked her up and we took her into the basement. She was so tiny...and truly sweet. When Savannah came over a couple of weeks later, she was beyond thrilled to have a little kitten that she could hold and pet and snuggle with.

So...we've been adopted. Savannah wanted to name her Carmen...like in Carmen SanDiego she said. I said that was a good name because she was so tiny I would look around and say, "Where in the world in Carmen SanDiego?" But Jess said that was too big of a name for such a little lady...and she named her Sophie. And now Sammy hisses and fights with a new little stranger in the house. But our house is bigger than Jess' apartment, so they can get away from each other. It's been fun to watch a kitten playing again, even though she does get into some mischief from time to time. And when she wears herself out from knocking things off any flat surface, running up and down the stairs, irritating Sammy, chasing a ping-pong ball around the living room floor, and whatever else amuses her -- she's always ready to snuggle up with somebody for a little "cat nap".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She is sooo cute. She found a good home! I wish I had her, she looks like Samantha did when she was little. Nice post too. I loved it!

Shirley

Jess said...

What do you mean "these two were the best'? What about Lucifer???