I don't know what took me so long to write about this. I don't know how long it's been since my Sammy passed on, but it wasn't that long ago and it's time I wrote about her.Although you porbably can't tell from looking at that picture, Sammy was like the mother cat of every abandoned kitten we adopted. Every new kitten we found, we'd bring it to her and she'd lick them and play with them and do everything she could. She was always there when I cried and she was always there when I was happy.
We found Sammy as a stray living under the house. I was probably around 4 or 5 when she came up to me (I'm 15 now, almost 16). I remember that my mom was taking me somewhere and Sammy comes up, fur ragged and covered in wounds from fights. I kneel down to pet her and mom tells me to get away from her because "It's a stray. It might have germs." Of course, we were running late, so I had to leave her there. I half expected the cat to be gone when we got home, but there she was, and there she would stay. She was oddly tame for a stray and not once has she ever intentionally bit/scratched me unless it was out of play. Soon, she became the "queen" of the house and we loved her.
Not to long ago (Mabey a month? Two?) I noticed she was getting thinner and she wouldn't eat. For a while, we had to force feed her to try to make her gain weight, but she just threw it up. She also started breathing heavily and her nose dripped like mad. Her eyes were goopy as well. My mom said we had to take her to the vet, but she didn't have much hope she would live. The average cat lives to be about only 10 years old and Sammy was much older then that. As my mom loaded Sammy into the car, me and my sister stood and watched from the porch, saying bye to Sammy. When mom was out of sight, we cried.
When mom came back, Sammy wasn't there. Mom told us that the vet did everything she could, which wasn't much except put her down. I asked what was wrong with our Sammy and she rattled off so many things...the list seemed to last forvever.
When most bad things happen, you can't fully comprehend it right away. It takes a while. At first, it seemed like everything was ok. Sammy's gone. Alright. I knew this day would come. It's ok. But it wasn't.
A few days after Sammy's death, I was cleaning out the pantry and mom was pointing out some things I missed. Normally, we feed our cats dry cat food, but when Sammy was sick, we bought her some wet cat food in hopes she'd be able to eat it. We kept it in the pantry. As I was moving some stuff around, mom said sadly, "You can give the wet cat food to the other cats." Without even thinking what I was saying, I looked up at her and said, "But isn't that cat food for Sammy?" Then I remember and start crying again. Losing a pet is hard.
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Rest in peace, Sammy. We will always love you.
