Sam-I-Am
Meet Sam…
In the Adoption Centre, Sam was not a happy camper. For a cat who had obviously been the centre of the household, with free rein to get to into anything he wanted, it was a shock. Other cats? Horrors! A cage? How dare they! Sam was alternately closed down, and very angry. It doesn’t help that he’s not a small cat, and the Adoption Centre cages must have felt a bit claustrophobic. The staff decided to move him across to the Sanctuary, where the cages are much larger, and though there are more cats, there is also more space.
After a short stay in a Sanctuary cage, we were able to release Sam into the Front Courtyard – usually one of the delays in releasing a cat is in order to make sure that they are fully vaccinated, and since we had Sam’s records, that wasn’t an issue. We left him with his collar on as a signal to weekend visitors that he’s a bit temperamental, though we’re already seeing that he is calmer than when he came in.
Orange tabbies usually have golden or green eyes – it’s unusual to have a blue-eyed-boy with that colouring. His ears are often flat, but that’s more suspicion of other cats than anything – when he’s relaxed and happy they perk right up. He likes human attention in a limited way; we need to watch him around visitors because he tends to roll over and show his belly – and, as with many cats, it’s a trap! But he’s also discovered that when he’s had enough, he can go and chill out in the Hill House, which is off-limits to visitors.
Sam is not an unadoptable cat, like so many of the other Sanctuary residents. But we won’t let him go to just anybody – he needs to be a one-and-only cat, he needs a cat-savvy adopter who will read his body language and react accordingly, and he needs someone that he can love.
Blog by Brigid Coult