Hello, I’m Sammy, my full name is Samantha Rebecca Rodriguez-Harris. My female human likes to tell people she named me this so the terrible humans who touch me inappropriately when I don’t feel well have to say this full name. I personally don’t care for it. I’m 9 years young and still beautiful according to literally everyone. I tolerate another cat, Harry, but only because I have to. That’s a story for another time.
I’m a native New Yorker. Queens to be exact. I had a typical kitten hood. Raised by my mom, had three annoying siblings, never knew my dad, went out on my own around 4 months old. I was young, thought I was invincible, I even challenged Possum (an opossum, her parents weren’t very creative) a couple times. Stared her down within an inch of her life! Thought I had it made until it got cold. REALLY cold.
I had a dark night of the soul. It lasted for a while. The cold was deadly, literally! Remember Possum I told you about? Froze to death. I was actually on my way to her to make peace and maybe see if she’d huddle with me. She’s a real piece of work but we’re both furry, right? Worth a shot. When I got there….. well, you can imagine. At first I thought she was just sleeping but she wasn’t. I don’t like to talk about it. I don’t remember everything after that, just the cold and the terrible hunger. There was a point where I didn’t have the strength to keep moving so I just plopped down right where I was. I think there were human hands reaching down from the sky (this may have been a dream).
Around 8 months old, I couldn’t tell you how, (the hands?) I ended up in a small enclosed area with a large tree, some cats thought it was real, I knew better. Didn’t matter though! It was warm! Plenty of places to sleep, food all the time! I didn’t care that there were loud obnoxious humans constantly looking at me, I mean who could blame them?
One day, a human reached through the leaves of the tree to pick me up. Hands!! This time I was ready! I bobbed and weaved, I was more annoyed than scared. I jumped to the top of the tree and saw another human. She blinked her eyes slowly at me then respectfully looked away. As I was admiring this human, the other one got me! Put me in some kind of bag! Very undignified! I was in there for a while, traveling in some kind of pod. I complained the whole time. The respectful human was making soft sounds, something like, “it’s okaaayyyy….awwwww…” I complained about that too but to be honest it was nice.
Then, I was released into a whole other life! There were about three weeks I wasn’t sure what to think, didn’t know exactly where I was, I actually stuffed myself under what I now know is an “oven”. I snuck out when I was sure I was alone, there was a litter box, some fresh water, some toys and a scratching post (as if that’s the only place I’d scratch! Ha!) My human was very patient, she slid her hand to me with particularly delicious food in it (tuna?). I got to know her smell, she was kind enough to let me lick her hand even after the food was gone. We’ve never looked back!
I’ve been living inside most of my life now! I can still look outside. See the trees in the picture above? There was a family of opossums that lived there. I stared them all down. One of them, Asshole (that’s my name for him), thinks he can take me. Ha ha! Its fun to provoke him! It’s always warm inside and I’ve grown to love (don’t tell her that!) my human. Even the other male human. He’s a little more respectful of my space if I’m being honest. They both feed me, all the time!
I’ve moved insides three times now, each place better than the next! To any cats out there who think they don’t want a human or an inside, I say, try it! You’ll like it!!
Thanks for listening! I feel heard!😻