Sam I Am!, cat #9 here Options

[Ken Albin]

After 30.5 years of teaching high school Anatomy and Biology I retired yesterday. On my next to last day I received an email from a coworker describing how her neighbor who works at a restaurant found a kitten eating in their dumpster. In a moment of insanity I called her and said I would take the cat so it would not go to the pound. My wife Karen was not pleased, saying that kittens are much easier to adopt and I should let someone else handle it. I somehow felt drawn to this kitten's story and the look on her face in the attached photo. Karen relented when she saw how I felt about it. We are calling it my retirement present.

The coworker brought the cat to school on my last day and I immediately noticed two things. This kitten was only about 5 weeks old and 'she' was really a 'he'. I had just named the cat Samantha so I changed it to Sam.

I took off the rest of the day so Sam could be checked out by our vet. This did not make the principal's secretary happy. She told me the principal had planned on acknowledging me at the luncheon. I decided quickly that the checkup was the most important thing here so I took Sam to the vet and missed the luncheon.

Sam is 1.4 pounds. He was extremely feisty during the procedures and you could hear him outside the clinic! The vet just shook his head and told me I had adopted a real tiger. Sam had a bad flea infestation and worms but was otherwise a healthy semi-feral kitty. He gave oral and topical flea medications and a deworming pill.

Sam has been with us for two days now in an isolated room with baby gates put up. Don't let the photo fool you. He is a ball of playful energy! He attacks my hands, feet, and the paws of the cats brave enough to come close to the gates. After a brief period of hissing the others settled down and seemed fascinated with Sam's playing. I brought in our mildest nature cat, Beau, to greet Sam. Sam immediately leaped on top of Beau's head and Beau flew over the gate and out of the room!

Sam is doing great. He had to learn how to drink from a bowl and how to play with a ball. He purrs and snuggles a lot in between pouncing on body parts. Here is a photo of the little alpha cat in training.

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[Gemini's Mom]

What a little cutie!! He's adorable.
Sam, looks like you found the perfect Mommy and Daddy.
Best of luck with your new family and Oh by the way tell your Dad
congratulations on his retirement.

[Ken Albin]

Run, Run, crash! That's what Sam's typical like has been like recently. He pounces on the other cats who will tolerate it and wrestles with them. Sam is acclimating very well to inside home life. He is still a little aggressive around the food bowls and will growl and swipe at the others who try to eat some of "his" food. This probably stems from his days on his own living off of the restaurant dumpster. Other than that he gets along great with the other cats. The black cat Freddie is his usual playmate and Sam loves a little stuffed ball so much that he carries it around and sometimes sleeps with it. Currently he is sacked out on the couch resting up for his play session tonight. Here is Sam in one of his few tranquil moments.

Ken

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