I wrote about my cat Sammy a while ago on one of my journalists forums. He had left home because of my dog, Shadow, and I was upset about it. I took the advice of people who wrote there and whenever I saw him made a fuss over him and fed him something special. He was coming around more and more and I hoped he’d come back for the winter. I saw him yesterday, let him in and gave him some milk which he loved. I think he lurked around the house waiting for me to open the door because I always saw him when I was leaving so never had time to spend much time with him.
But I kept hearing from everyone in the neighborhood about how beloved he was. He was a very special cat. Unusually sweet and friendly, really smart, he made a lot of friends and visited them all regularly. He made his rounds in the neighborhood. Everyone knew him and adored him. He visited the library regularly as well. I believe he came back here to eat because I keep food accessible from the cat door in the basement, and more than one cat could eat was generally gone.. Plus a neighbor told me he saw Sammy come home to eat. When I saw him he was thinner than he used to be, but not skinny and very healthy looking. I don’t think Sammy was unhappy.
This morning a neighbor rang my bell and told me she’d found Sammy in her yard, dead. She brought his body back here very lovingly, wrapped in a towel and put in a box. I’m going to bury him later with the help of my tenant. Or maybe have him cremated at the animal hospital. He didn’t have any marks or signs of injury. He was only 14, not that old for a very active, healthy cat. I had him since he was a kitten and adopted us when we saw him in a vacant lot. He jumped into our car. He’d never been sick a day in his life. She lives near the road so he might have been hit by a car and crawled back onto her lawn to die. He’d been found in the road before, stunned but not injured. I can’t imagine what else could have killed him so quickly.
His death brings back other losses, such as the loss of my marriage. My husband and foster daughter were with me when we adopted him. I called my foster daughter today to tell her about Sammy but I couldn’t call my ex husband. Also my daughter, who is ten and lives with them doesn’t know and I don’t know whether to tell her. She’s emotionally disturbed and the news might upset her too much. She was here when Freddy, our other cat died, and we planned the funeral together. Now I have no one to go to a funeral for Sammy (foster daughter is too far away) so I’m getting Sammy cremated and saving the ashes for scattering in the future with my daughter and/or foster daughter.
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