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Angel Cats- by Margaret Ferrell

September 23, 2011

I am not sure God had time for divine intervention 14 years ago when I went to the SPCA and got Sam and Hunter, but it was a gift from Heaven to have them. I first saw them when they were featured on the news, ready for adoption. Hunter was round and black. Sam was tones of brown, beige, dark brown, with white feet.

Sam would get on the right side of my chair and we would hold hands. Hunter would get on the left arm of the chair and I would put my arm around him. I combed Sam and Hunter every morning. They waited patiently for their turn. We were a great trio, at least for me.

Eventually Hunter got cancer. I did everything possible for him. I put pads on all of my carpet so he could go anywhere in the house. He slept beside me at night on the pads. He died a few weeks later. When we came home without Hunter, Sam was waiting in the dining room. When he didn’t see Hunter, he started running through the house wailing. It was so sad.

Sam became my Shadow. He was wonderful. He slept at the foot of the bed some, but more often slept next to me. I would rub his back until I went to sleep. Getting up to go to the bathroom was a bit more difficult. I had to slip down toward the foot of the bed and slip back when I returned. As Sam grew older, he stayed at the foot of the bed more.

Sam loved to drink water from my bathroom faucet. I kept it dripping 24 hours a day and fixed the stool so it wouldn’t slip with him when he jumped on it. Sam seemed to look at me all of the time. Toward the end of his life, he started getting under the bed (just below my head), sometimes I would raise the bed and put him by me.

I weighed Sam at least once a week. (He was losing weight) He knew the routine to get on the scale. He was so smart. I told him his weight, bragged on him, and then said he could get off the scale. As he became more and more ill, I continued to weigh him and tell him he was a wonderful boy. He seemed to like his routine a lot.

Sam was a precious cat and friend. Not long before he died my husband Ferrell was about to leave and I was about to take a shower. Ferrell was concerned about me showering while he was gone. I told him Sam would take care of me. Sam never moved from his spot in front of the commode the whole time I was in the shower. I got dressed and told him he could go and that he was a good boy. He left.

When Sam died on August 17, 2011, part of me crumbled. He was my best friend for 14 years, smart and wonderful. I’ve had an extremely difficult time with grief. I kept reminding myself how lucky I was to have him that long.

I now have a new friend, Pearl, who is helping me some with my grief. She also came from the SPCA. Her coloring is similar to Sam’s, but she is smaller than he was. She isn’t Sam. She is a real ring tailed tooter! She is a wonderful little Pearl!

But I miss Sam so much!!!