Don’t Judge A Stray By His Fur

I was visiting my parents one holiday when they mentioned that they had noticed a strange cat wandering in their yard on occasion, but they mostly gave him distance since he looked feral. Sure enough, when I took my sister’s kids out into the yard to play, he showed up out of nowhere. He was mangy, had mats all through his fur, and just looked terrible.

I asked my niece and nephew if they wanted to say hi to the cat, but both said he looked mean and they were afraid he would bite them. Since I’m not one to judge a cat by his fur, I figured I’d at least see what he was like.

I walked a little away from the kids so they wouldn’t scare him off and then bent down, stuck out my hand, and did the classic kitty-calling routine. The cat responded immediately, running right up to me, giving me a sniff, and then started rubbing his head against me. Within minutes, he was purring loudly and acting like the sweetest of cats. I took the time to inspect him while petting him. He looked pretty pathetic but with no actual signs of injury or health issues that I could detect.

I only petted him for a little while, as I was still there to visit my family and didn’t want to lose too much time with the kids petting a strange cat, but I reported back to my parents that he was kind, well-behaved, and generally a great cat that would make a wonderful house cat; in fact, I’d be tempted to take him myself if I wasn’t living somewhere where I couldn’t have cats and would dread trying to take a new cat on a two-hour car drive without a proper carrier. I relayed the same information to my mother’s neighbor the next day when we met them while waiting for church to start.

Luckily, their neighbor actually took my advice to heart; she ended up taking him in. He’s still an outdoor cat, but they have a nice little pool house that’s partially heated during winter where they let a few cats stay at night, providing food and water. She also took him to the vet to get him spayed and cleaned up and got him a collar that would protect him from fleas and ticks.

Now, Sampson is far more presentable and likes to roam the neighborhood demanding pets from every neighbor he can find. He loves to set up under my parent’s bird feeder in hopes of catching one, and any time he sees my parents or anyone else in their backyard he will come up to them to be petted. Sometimes he’s even allowed to come inside their house for some cuddle time before being set loose again. In fact, the last time I saw him, he was clearly offended that I was too busy running around the yard playing Ultimate Frisbee with the kids to stop everything and give him the petting he knew he rightfully deserved.

Personally, I’m just glad that such an affectionate cat found a good home.