I’ve always believed that animals come in to your life when you need them. Being raised watching kittens being born, giving them away and, later, heading to the animal shelter if I needed a new friend, I understood early on about the love of all animals – except scorpions, tarantulas and snakes.   

More than once, I’ve had animals adopt me; always at the right time. 

After Dearly Demented Mom’s magnificent full-military-honor funeral, lovely luncheon and wonderful wake, Broken Knee Spadette and I headed back to her hideaway lake house both relieved the Big City Days were behind us. Frankly, I needed the rest. 

As you know, when you live in the country, stray cats abound. BKS recently told me about the latest batch of wild kittens born under her storage unit. There were five – two black & white (like their mom) and three Siamese (like their dad). 

I’ve long had a love of Siamese cats as I had a combo Siamese/Burmese black cat that was born when I was 6 and died when I turned 32. Yes, folks, that’s 26 years in cat time, which is the likes of a 91-year-old-woman with dementia. The vet explained years ago that Siamese cats live a very long time. Just like DDM. 

So when Broken Knee Spadette announced that she had three mostly Siamese kittens running around, my ears perked up. I told her how much I loved Siamese cats. BKS suggested I take a kitten home and I said, “No thanks. My care giving days are over for awhile. What I need is a man to take care of me.” 

About that time Very Best Friend called. I told her about the kittens and she said, “You should bring one back home and name her Dottie after your Mom.” I vehemently objected. VBF just laughed and said, “Trust me – you’ll be toting one of those kittens home.” I told Broken Knee Spadette what VBF said to which she replied, “You’re kidding! That’s what I named that one over there because she has a dot on her tail. That’s Dottie!” 

Obviously Dearly Demented Mom was having some fun with me from heaven. I figured it was a sign, so I agreed to take Dottie. Unfortunately, Dottie was a bit too wild to catch, but Sammy (short for Siamese) was a different story. He took right to me. After a quick trip to the vet, Sammy was on his way to the country. Looks like my prayers had been answered. I was asking for a male to take care of me, after all.

When we arrived at the Dancing Dog Ranch, the other two felines on the ranch  ignored him for several days but Sammy was no problem as he needed to sleep it off from traveling. Problem was, a few mornings later he came to full “kitten life” and has been into everything the Dancing Dog Ranch has to offer, including a rather shocking stay in the refrigerator. No, I’m not kidding. Luckily, it was a short stay. 

He no longer understands his name is Sammy. He now believes his name is “Sammy! No!”, because it’s all he ever hears when he’s awake. The older felines here are warming up nicely as they love the fact that Sammy’s always in trouble and now they can sneak under my radar. 

No character at the Dancing Dog Ranch will ever replace Dearly Demented Mom, but I think a crazy little kitten might be just what she ordered. Thanks, Mom, and welcome, Samino!

Spreading laughter throughout the world…one chuckle at a time.

Mikie Baker
www.mikiebaker.com