C is for Cats

C is for Cats

If you visit here very often, you know that cats are a big part of our family. Currently we have three, Lucky, Annie, and Leo. However, here's a story about another one, Samantha, our very first cat.

Samantha as an older kitten

For my birthday one year my husband, Ward, got me a very special present--a kitten. This was a huge gesture coming from a person who said he didn't like cats. We got the kitten from a "Free to good home" ad in the newspaper and for no particular reason, we named her Samantha. (Okay, maybe I had just watched an episode of Bewitched.)

By the time we got her to her new home, it was now late in the evening and time for bed. We decided it would be best to shut Samantha in the laundry room that night with everything she needed because we weren't sure how well she could be trusted on her own. There wasn't a door, so we blocked her in with a piece of plywood. We thought there was no way that the tiny kitten (6 weeks old at the most) could get over this makeshift door.

However, we were wrong. Soon after we had gotten to sleep, I was rudely awakened by a piercing pain in my leg. Samantha with her sharp, little claws had just jumped onto the bed and was scrambling to gain her balance. The little kitten, who had looked so helpless, had some how managed to escape the laundry room.

We had decided that we didn't want her sleeping with us, so I put her back in the hallway and shut the door. Soon I heard a thump and a rattle. When I got up to investigate, Samantha darted into the room. Trying not to wake a sleeping Ward, I took her out into the living room to try to calm her. I petted her for a while and then she wandered off. I heard a loud mew and then I watched as Samantha backed down the hallway, took a running leap and tried to get her paws around doorknob of the door to our bedroom. It looked as if Samantha was actually trying to open the door with her paws.

I put her back in the laundry room with every comfort imaginable and went back to bed hoping to salvage what was left of the night. So as you can probably guess, soon, the thud, rattle, rattle, started again. But I was determined to win. I didn't want to start the habit of sleeping with a cat, so I laid there for the next two hours listening to her intermittent attempts to join us. Bleary eyed, I finally gave in.  I opened the door and she trotted right in, jumped up on the bed, and snuggled in. However, as soon as, we adjusted around her, she jumped down and didn't come back the rest of the night. She had made sure that I knew who had won the battle of wills, so her work was done. (After that, she only tried to sleep with us on very cold nights.)

Samantha was with us for the next 14 years showing us many times that she was one smart and determined cat. We have had five more cats since then but none of them have ever been as smart as our first cat, Samantha.