Saturday 21 August 2010

My Other Little Boy

Today's post is dedicated to a very special boy in my life. I was laid in bed this morning with a cup of tea watching the news, when this little fella comes up for a snuggle:

He does it all the time, the second I get in to bed so does he! I love that about him and got to thinking about what a special unassuming creature he is.
Poor Salem (we say that a lot round here!), he hasn't had the easiest time. Rob found him in a carpark 10 years ago, he was only 8 weeks old. He brought him home and we rang the RSPCA to come and get him. They wouldn't as it was in the middle of all the fuel strikes, when we asked what we should do they said 'put him back where you found him', have never forgiven them for that. There was no way we were going to do that so we kept him at home and put up posters around where he was found. A week later, nothing. I wasn't surprised, Salem didn't look very well looked after and he smelt of dirt.
Now, at this stage we had 2 other cats, one being a very dominant tom (a lot of you will remember Tico, in fact most probably still have the scars!) so a 3rd cat was difficult, but we just couldn't not keep him. We named him Salem after this:




LOL, loved that cat! Unfortunately our Salem didn't talk but maybe that's a good thing as I don't know I'd want to know what he said about his life thereafter:
First of all he had to put up with Tico. Tico was the most beautiful cat you'd ever seen but he knew it and he was also vicious (the vets used to use those birds of prey gloves when we took him down!). Then a couple of years later we brought this home:

'What on earth's that noise!' and 12 months later 'Stop pulling my tail!'.
And then to add insult to injury, 4 1/2 years later we brought home another screaming, tail pulling thing! I half expected to see poor Salem at the end of the drive, with a little spotted handerkerchief on a stick flung over his shoulder!
Oh but we'd not finished there! By this stage unfortunately Tico had died. So, 6 months after Xander was born I had the bright idea that Salem was lonely and obviously missed being tormented on a daily basis, so we went out and got this:
Oh yes, she's all cute and fluffy and innocent until she's hiding behind a sofa ready to leap out and pin you down by the scruff of the neck (for god sake Salem, just clawk her one and have done with it!).

Yup, poor Salem hasn't had the easiest ride. But I think he's finally settling down a bit into his old age. Like I say, he likes coming and cuddling his mum, normally when I'm reading my book (which means it's quiet!) and he's started venturing into Emily's room for a cuddle too, now she can control her hands and doesn't automatically pull out lumps of fur every time she goes near him! He can still run like an Olympic sprinter though when he claps eyes on Xander, but hopefully that will come when Xander realises that Salem doesn't need shooting by a Ben 10 alien!

So, this post goes out to my other little boy. He's the one bit of quiet in this house and I'm grateful he's stuck around for the past decade even with everything we've put him through!

2 comments:

Uma said...

way to go Salem, will give you extra fuss next time I see you for your brave journey little fella

Juicy3675 said...

awwww I remember when you got Tico.. he was a total rock n roll superstar bless him.. Did you have one called "Babe" too or is the senility getting to me again?

Love Salem, he looks nice and chilled.. dunno how you cope with more than one though.. mine (Lily) is mad as a brush!!