Safely Home: The Path That Led To Sammy

It was back in the winter of 2008-2009 in December/January that we acquired our cat, Sammy. Where we live has a somewhat temperate climate because of Puget Sound and normally we don’t get a lot of bad weather but that winter we had massive amounts of snow. Even my husband who had lived in Newfoundland and learned to drive in snow found it hard.

At this time Sammy had been attacked by an animal, either a large dog or a raccoon, and had been brought in to a No-kill animal shelter. He was left there by a lady and I wondered if perhaps she was his owner and couldn’t afford to care for him or pay the medical bills for his injuries. My vet is across the highway from the shelter and mentioned Sammy to me. It was a while since our last cat died and my co-workers at the library said ‘You have to get another cat!’

Sammy had multiple wounds – his eyes were damaged, there were spots on his coat and fur no longer grows on his legs. When I visited the shelter I didn’t notice Sammy right away even though he had been there for six weeks, hunkered down after being neutered. I had seen a picture of a beautiful orange cat and wanted to get it so I went to the shelter. But when I picked it up, the orange cat shed fur, jumped out of my arms and didn’t come back to me. Sammy was in a cubby cuddled up and I didn’t see him.

This time, back at work, I saw a young female cat on the Internet but when I went to show my colleagues, the picture had disappeared. She’d already been adopted so I went back into the shelter to seek a cat. This time they showed me Sammy and I heard that no one except the shelter volunteers had picked this cat up.
I said ‘That’s it. He needs to come to a special home. I need to get ready so don’t let anyone else take him.’ In fact, no one else showed any interest in him because he was so badly wounded. To help him adapt, I arranged to have two days off work to be alone with him.

When I got him home, Sammy flew to our back bedroom and hid under the bed. Then, after an hour, he jumped up on the kitchen table and looked out the window. When my husband came home, Sammy jumped in his lap, which is totally amazing. Even though my husband, James, said ‘Cat – off my lap’, Sammy took to him immediately, turned turtle and went to sleep with his legs in the air. The shelter had never heard of an animal feeling so safe he would expose his stomach like that. Sammy’s an indoor cat – he got out once and was back in five minutes. He’s like a piece of velvet to stroke – I’ve never met a cat like him.

After I adopted Sammy, they told me that he should be microchipped which I did. I immediately registered him with PetLink and his inoculations then came at no cost. We do live in a rural area and have major issues with raccoons and bald eagles meaning dogs and cats occasionally disappear. Sammy’s a love and I can’t imagine life without him. He’s on his back, sound asleep on the couch and has been with us for four years now. I believe that putting off getting him for so long brought Sammy to us with his special needs. He was lost and I needed to find him. I thank God everyday for bringing him to me.