Cat Tales
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Sam
He was huge and solid black, without one hair of any other color anywhere on him. He showed up at our door one day, begging to be fed. Instantly my 9 year old son wanted him. We already had a cat, a dog and a parakeet and there really wasn't room for another pet. But my son begged and I didn't have the heart to see this animal starve."But we don't need another female cat," I said to my son.
"He's not a female," Mick insisted.
To satisfy my son I examined the cat. There was something wrong here -- I didn't know if this animal was male or female, he simply didn't look "right."
My cousin came to visit and I asked her to look. Her response was to snicker at my ignorance then pick up the animal and examine it. Her snickers turned to amazement. "I don't know," she said, "this animal looks strange. I think it's a neutered male."
Later that week one of our neighbors stopped by for a short visit. He was an older man with lots of pets of his own. I respected and valued his opinion and asked him to examine this cat. Amazed at my ignorance, Martin examined the cat and pronounced that I had nothing to worry about. This was a male cat who had been neutered and there wouldn't be any problems with unwanted litters.
Mick was delighted! In those few days of deliberation he had bonded with this animal and to hear that we could keep this cat pleased him very much.
Sam wasted no time settling in. He made the yard and garage his territory and strictly enforced the boundaries, even to the point of picking fights with my cat, Boogie, whom I'd had for several years. His territorial instincts were so strong that he managed to break Boogie's leg in an attempt to chase her out of the yard. Boogie became an indoor pet because of him which brought great grief to Twee-T, our parakeet.
Sam wanted to be an inside pet also but his house manners were lacking. Despite my attempts at training, Sam refused to be housebroken. Because of that I refused to allow him much time indoors.
One day in the fall, while doing some deep cleaning and airing out the house, I left the front door open. One of Mick's friend's came by to play awhile on the computer. The two boys got involved and called me back to see what they were doing. I wasn't with them long before we began to hear a cat wailing in agony. Mick and I looked at each other wondering. It wasn't the voice of either Boogie or Sam and it was coming from somewhere in the house. Mel left and Mick and I went searching and found that Sam had snuck in while the door was open. He sounded funny, not because he was injured, but because he was giving birth. Sam became Samantha that day and the mother to 6. Three months later this neutered male had 7 more kittens and within two weeks "he" was expecting again.
Submitted by: Bailey