I didn’t expect to ride home with one more soul than we left with. A small calico kitten that doesn’t look a week old. We found her on a dirt road close to a family’s farm. We really didn’t think about who might have owned the kitten’s mother, we just let her follow us home. That’s what my mom said, anyway, “If it follows us home we’ll keep it” Strongly suggesting that she wouldn’t follow us home, and would eventually get tired and run back to wherever it came from. But it would in fact keep following us down the dirt road, down a paved road, and up our driveway. Then she arrived, a brilliant new addition to the Winchell family.
We named it “Sammy” because we couldn’t tell what gender it was, and that was a widely popular name amongst girls and boys. We could call it “Sam” if it was a boy and “Sammy” if it was a girl. We took her to the vet to get her cleaned up and fixed, so we found out there. She got all of her shots and vaccinations. We also found out that she had a nasty fungal infection called “ringworm” in her right ear. We would have to administer a cream to her ear while she stayed in a fairly large Tupperware box on our front porch. Every morning before school I would go out and check to see if she was still there and in fact, she was.
She progressively got bigger and bigger over then months and we found ourselves letting her in more and more until we got her a litter box in the garage and laundry room, so she could stay inside all the time. She was elated to finally be a part of the family. My sister Kelsey was especially happy to have her inside so they could cuddle all the time. All of my family except my sister was allergic to her, so they got a lot of cuddles.
It’s been about five years now and she’s still the happy, fat, and lazy cat we know and love. She tends to beg for food in the kitchen and try to climb up the counter to get to it! That’s another thing, she loves food. If you open a can of cat food she will follow you anywhere you go until you set it on the floor so she can lap it up. If there’s no canned cat food available, she’ll beg to us for a little while until she gives up and eats her dry food.
She hates water and baths with a passion. To the point where if you pick her up, take her into the bathroom, and close the door she’ll act like it’s the end of time. When my sister gives her baths she yowls, meows, and scratches the cr*p out of her arms. Kelsey still has scars from it! After the bath is done she runs away, normally to my sister’s room, and starts the tedious process of grooming herself. It’s actually quite comical to look at because she spends so much time making her fur perfect.
Even though she begs for food all the time and gets into trouble, we all love her to death. My sister is in college now, living in an apartment and wants to take Sammy away from us. She is a wonderful addition to our family and I would hate to see her go. I plan on getting a dog later in life but for now, I’ll take my fluffy little bundle of cuteness.