The Life Story Of Simon The Cat

Simon 1991 to 2/17/2007
************************************************************


^..^  ~  How  We Came To Know Simon

Simon was an abused cat when he was yet young. His original owners thought it fun to drug him and watch him climb the walls or hang by one leg off of the back of the couch because he couldn't keep his balance. They threw him around like a stuffed toy breaking his little bones and putting his back out in almost all of his vertebras. When we first met him, he had lumps all over his body  from all the wounds he had received.

 A person I knew at work at the time told me her daughter had witnessed this happening one day and took Simon when they weren't looking because she couldn't stand to see him in pain. Yet further problems would accrue in his life. Because he had been so abused he didn't understand that all people were not his enemy. He rebelled against their kindness by pooping in the tub and digging up the house plants and peeing in them. He competed for love with other pets and felt like an outcast no matter how hard they tried to show him otherwise. But it was too much for them and they found out that their daughters allergies was because of Simon's hair.

 Once again he was to change homes. She told me about Simon and what had happened to him, also about the allergy to him that her daughter had. She said even though they had hoped to help him, it would be better if they could get rid of him because of all the problems.

 I've always like cats and have had a few, especially Siamese. Unfortunately, they always disappeared or got ran over or died for what ever reasons. Some I didn't treat so well myself when I was a young lad, but as I grew older I learned more about what feelings are and about hurt and pain, but not over night unfortunately. Compassion is a learned thing and for some of us it takes longer than others to learn it. Love and compassion are one, they co-exist much like we are told in the bible that God and Jesus co-exist as one.

 So we now made another change in his pitiful life in the parking lot at work and simon went home with Connie ( my wife) and Myself.

 On the way home I noticed he was doing a lot of wheezing and had trouble breathing, but we thought maybe it was just the anxiety of the ride and change. When we got him home I discovered the elastic collar that was around his neck was so tight he couldn't hardly breath. It appeared as though it could have been his original one when he was a kitten.
I could hardly raise it enough to keep from cutting his neck to clip it off, but we got it accomplished though, even after two full paws of claws grabbed my face and the other two my chest. He immediately started breathing freely and just laid there staring at me like he didn't understand why he could now breath or why I didn't retaliate to his show of  hatred with the claws. It wasn't his fault he had to learn to protect himself  to survive his world. I just figured he was afraid and didn't understand  that we were trying to help him.

 We weren't sure how this new bundle of approximately one and a half year old dark seal point siamese fur ball of penned up hatred for humans was going to work but he didn't deserve to go to a shelter were he surely would have been sentenced to death for what others had done to him, especially since his hatred and distrust was justifiable. I guess I never really thought about it at the time, but now that I look back, this was my chance to show him  the kindness and compassion I had been learning, a compassion that simon and I would both grow in.

^..^  ~  Dealing With a Few Problems


 My wife and I decided Simon would be a house cat because we lived in town in Loveland CO.
Our reasoning for this was  if we let him out, he would surely get ran over, run off, picked up or even get tortured again.
We gave him a food bowl and water bowl from a recently lost cat .
When had lost that cat we had put signs up all over with his description and our phone and address. All our efforts were rewarded with a cruel phone call that said they had ran over him and he was in a bad way. They then asked if we wanted him back but hung up before we could say yes . People can be so cruel. We never did find him. Anyway, back to Simon.
 
 Simon took to the apartment quickly, but the first time we left he did a no no. He crapped in the tub.
When we returned and found it, I thought he's got to be testing us, or maybe that was the only place he had to go when he was a kitten.
Getting mad at him wasn't going to make things better. I cleaned it up and put it in his sand box as he glared at me.
I gently picked him up and went to he couch and petted him. I told him we loved him and that we weren't his enemies, that we liked animals.

 He sat there glaring still, waiting for the shoe to drop or be thrown across the room, but it didn't happen, instead I just petted him.
After a bit, I snuggled my face in his fur, big-big mistake!! He nailed my face and took some hide off my leg as he bailed. He took off for other parts of the house with his belly barely of the rug as he stretched for maximum speed carpet fragments flying.
 There is one thing I learned, never get your face close to a cat before he learns to trust you. Simon nailed me more than all the cats I ever had combined.
In fact, it is one thing he never grew out of and that is if in doubt, extend the claws and ask questions later. He did however learn after a few years to only grab with them and not rip.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


^..^  '  Training
 We have never been the type of people  to feed Fi Fi off our plates. I remember my grandmother doing that with her dog, letting it lick on her food and then eating it herself. It always made me not want to eat at her place because the dog might as well been helping her cook.
 Simon liked jumping up on the counter and the refrigerator although he would not get into any food. We could in fact thaw out meats in the open and he would not touch it. Who ever heard of a vegetarian cat? The only meat he would pay attention to was tuna and cooked chicken and that was only if you gave it to him.

 In training him to stay off the counters, we used a squirt bottle of water or a fly swatter which ever was the more convenient at the time.
 I made a bad mistake one time though much to my grief and his, that would haunt us both the rest of his life. He was up on the fridge rolling around knocking stuff off,
I yelled at him and gave him a swat with the swatter at the same time. He was caught by surprise and slipped when he leapt to the linoleum floor  which didn't give him any footing. He was unable to cushion his landing do to the slick floor and hit his chin, He then took off and hid.

 The good thing was, he never got on the fridge or the cabinet again. The down side was, he must have cracked his jaw though we didn't know it at the time.
Simon slowed up on his eating and about a week later his chin began to swell up.
 A dog I had once had something under his chin that swelled up. We had taken him into a vet who gave him a shot and some pills for us to give him and the swelling went down until he was out of pills and it swelled up again. He gave us more pills and the same thing happened again. So I decided to let nature take its course which it did. The dogs chin or actually the skin under his chin, swelled up- popped and was done. No more problems. After that, that's what I always did, let nature take its course.
 We did that with simon, and the same thing happened, it swelled up - popped and was done with. I believe though  that he may have damaged his jaw as he always had an occasional problem with eating hard food although he managed. We started feeding him soft food but he always loved his hard stuff.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another Move   ~  ^..^
Not to long after we got Simon, we had to move because the owner of the duplex we lived in sold it. Of course the buyer wanted to move into the side we were living in, possibly because we kept it up nice, watered the lawn and just all around kept it looking good and lush. The renters on the other side could care less and that side looked like the ghettos in the back yard. Plus we had planted vines on the back fence to separate the sounds from the school  behind us. I guess those were good enough reason to want our side.
 At any rate, we were forced to move from a three bedroom and two car garage to a ghettos dwelling ourselves.
 Now we had a two small bedroom and no garage. Our belongings had to be put in a small shed ( provided) and a rented shed besides. It was a good thing that both our boys had moved out by then.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Run Away  `  ^..^

Simon got out a few times. I remember the first time he was out,  we saw him a couple of days later and I  called to him. He would look but go the other way. I tried to catch him but he ran. When I was able to get a hold of him he ripped me a new one because he thought I was going to hurt him, so I went back to the house and grabbed my coat to throw over him. He did let me get close enough to do that but it was another story trying to keep him in it, I lost some more hide.

 The second time Simon got out, he was gone for three weeks. We were worried that someone had gotten hold of him that didn't understand his past and would loose there cool the first time he scratched them or if they had young children and they grabbed on to him, that it would mean immediate death for Simon and stitches for the kids. I was out every morning before work looking for Simon and every evening when I got home as well as before bed, but to no avail.
 We looked in the paper and at the pound  and at the dumb friends league every day, but no simon. We even made up cards and knocked on doors. It appeared Simon didn't like living with us or he got cat napped or even ran over or worse, another abusive set up some where.
 It got very cold and it snowed and we kept looking out on the porch for him. A couple of times we thought we heard him at the door and I would run over and open it , but no Simon.  Maybe after the move he went back to the old place and was now lost, so we searched around there to no avail.

 I put his house out hoping to give him something to sleep in even if he didn't want us, but he still didn't show up. We pretty much figured he was gone yet in our hearts hope refused to give up, it just kept hanging on and tugging at us. Every morning when I got up and even in the middle of the night I would check, just in case.
 Then one morning I got up and checked and as usual simon was not there, but as I went out to leave for work, Simon was back and in his house!! I was so happy and excited to see him that I just grabbed his house and all and took him inside. He came out and was purring. I picked him up and gave him a big hug forgetting possible consequences, but he, offered no resistance.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

^..^  '   The Fire
 One day while I was at work my wife Connie, called me and frantically said we had a fire and that the fire department was on their way and that she had grabbed simon and tossed him in the car as he was trying to get out of her arms. He didn't scratch her though that she can remember. Then she was worried about the car so Connie moved it.

 When I got there I found out that it wasn't our apartment, but the next door one adjacent to ours, ( we lived in a four plex). Fortunately for us, we just got smoke in our place but the neighbors got out with just there under garment, the place was gutted.
 What had happened was their Christmas tree caught on fire. It had gotten dried out and apparently the heat from one of the fixtures ignited it.
Once again Simon was saved from a possible painful death. Thankfully they were both safe.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Good Things  `  ^..^

 I mentioned earlier Simon was good about not getting into food that was left out. Another thing he was good at was not marking ( squirting sent) his territory any where in the house except in his litter box. This however, became a game through out his life. If he was feeling ornery, it thrilled him to no end to mark his potty box (inside in the litter) then rip through the house to let us know he did it and didn't cover it. You could almost see him grin as we would quickly cover the pungent smell to try to keep the house from stinking. He would then again run though the house pleased with himself . At times the heater or air conditioner would be on and it would suck up the smell and spread it though the house before we could get to it. But you know what? I didn't care because he was responding and wanted to play. That meant he had accepted us and this became a ritual later in hs life

 He loved chasing a plastic ball with a bell in it or grabbing a length of nylon covered bungie as we would drag it around the floor, He liked picking up things like small sticks and chewing and tossing them.

 Even though we would get an occasional mouse in the house, he would never chase it only watch and listen. We wondered if he even knew he was a cat or if it was beaten out of him when he was little? Maybe he never got to be a kitten, like some children are never allowed to be kids. Who knows? It's sad to think about it.

 At first Simon slept in the living room on the couch but when we got him a little two level round tubular house they put carpet on, he started sleeping in it.
As he got to know us better he would sleep under our bed. Later in his life he would come up and lay down on my chest and I would pet him while he purred and soaked up the love'n as he got his evening massage.
This could go on any where from two minutes to waking up in the morning with him still there. Usually though, he would be there for half an hour and move down between my legs where he was cradled in the blanket, some time under the bed if he wanted his privacy. The next morning after we were up, he would crawl under the covers on my wife's side and sleep there for half the day.


Simon Gets To Move Into His Own Home  ^..^  ~
  In December 2001 Simon had to move again, but this time for the better. He got his own home! A four bedroom, two bath and a dining room to haul tail though.
Connie had ben wanting her own home forever. We had tried before but the money just wasn't there and things fell through loosing money in the process.

 A friend of mine also had been looking and found a good deal on a trailer from a company that we found out eventually, was going out of business and was liquidating their inventory without actually telling people that they were getting out of the business.
My  friend told us to go take a look at what they had. Well, my first reaction was that I'm not buying a home and set it on someone else's property and pay rent for the lot just to have the lot rent constantly raised until we lost the home like so many of these places do. They then take your home from you and rent it out for themselves
That is one of the legally crooked ways to get rental property.

 So Connie not willing to give up though understanding what I meant , continued to look. She went over to the place just to look for Ideas and found  several  manufactured  homes she liked, then dragged me out to look at them. We found one with huge bedrooms and an open living room, dining room and family room and two full baths.
And at a price almost any one could afford. Now was the problem, where do you put it? No way was it going to a trailer court, over my dead body, no way no how!
So we started questioning the salesman about land that could be purchased as a packaged deal. Low and behold there was that possibility, just not in the city we wanted. We weighed the plan and dealed and redealed and finely came up with what we could afford and got a lot in a subdivision as well as our house and put it on a permanent foundation.

 This was not without bumps and trials but eventually it got done and Connie, Simon and Myself were in our own home cheaper than we could have bought a small single wide and put it in a Mobile  home park. Not only that, but we got it built the way we wanted it because of  a couple of screw ups by the salesman and the manufacturer. (Good things can happen especially with my wife's persistence)

 Simon had to check out every nook and cranny of the house as soon as he arrived. Upon  his approval, he marked his litter box and hauled tail though every room of the house. Back and forth, back and forth, so much room to run in. Then he contentedly laid down to rest, purring in approval. I swear he was smiling .
.
^..^  '    A New Addition To The Family

 My brother Dave,  who raises and hunts with Black labs had talked to Connie about giving us a dog that I always hunted with when we went hunting.
Neither one of them told me about it at first, because he just wanted to know if my wife cared if I had a dog. I don't think she was really that thrilled about it at the time but when we got her ( Katie, our black lab) Katie kind of wiggled herself right into my wife's heart. She became her companion during the day while I was at work and a nice little watch dog.

 Any way, before I knew Katie was going to be added to the family, I was putting up a privacy fence to keep out some of the noise from our street and also we could let  Simon out while we watched him.
 It worked pretty good as long as didn't forget he was out with us. He did however get out a couple of times, I believe under the fence in the corner were the neighbors dog likes to dig. The one time he came back on his own the other I will tell you about later.

 Not to long after the fence was up I was informed that we needed to pick up our dog. I ssked Connie if she had known about this and of course she said yes.
Hmmm, no one told me! At first I wasn't real sure I wanted a dog in town, but the Idea soon grew on me. We did have a fairly good size back yard, less the garden, I'd have to fence that most likely, but OK lets go get her.

 When we got back, Simon and Katie met at the door  they both sniffed  noses and the cat backed away with his fur fluffed.
It didn't take very long for them to respect each other and no hair was ever lost. In fact, they would toy and tease each other. Katie would make a quick move just to watch him jump, or Simon would wait in ambush and give Katie a full paw poke in the rump as she walked by and made her jump. They were always teasing each other. It was funny because he used the claws to poke her, but would never hook her.

 Ok, I said I would tell you about one of the other times Simon went though the fence. He had disappeared all day and it was getting on into evening. I found him  down the canal behind another neighbors fence just sitting there. This time he looked like he had been run to death and was very fatigued. He would not let me touch him. He would just growl at me. Something bad had happened that gave him flash backs, he didn't act like he even knew me. I wasn't sure what to do, so I went back to the house and Got Katie. I thought maybe if I talked  to him softly and had her companion with me that he might snap out of it. Katie upon seeing him ran right up and I just knew she was going to loose her face, but Simon Just let her snuggle him.. Then he looked up at me with watery eyes  and I knew I could pick him up. This time he offered no resistance.

 As we got to the end of the canal and started around the fence, the noise from the street scared him and he forgot he was safe with me, and he went back into survival mode. The claws came out and he started crawling. Before I could set him down the claws grabbed my face and neck. I'm really not sure why he let go real quick, maybe the kindness I had shown him over the last several years was also imbedded in him as could have really destroyed my face, but he didn't.

 His little brain was elsewhere though as he again didn't recognize me, nor would he even attempt to go on around the fence to the house. I was afraid his little brain was fried. Katie And I just stood there wondering what to do. If he ran one way he would be crushed in the street, the other back to the canal. What to do. Then he suddenly stood up, all his fur standing on end, Katie quickly backed up and he even scared me, goose bumps rose all over body as I was afraid his prior life won out, but thankfully he started slinking around the fence to the front of the house

 The problem now was he walked right past the opened door my wife was holding. I took a wide birth around him to head Simon back,  but I wasn't sure he would go in even though connie had propped the door open and moved. Now don't tell me that dogs don't know what their masters are thinking, because I'll tell you your crazy. I was wishing I had told Katie to stay on the other side of the door to block him, but as I looked up, Katie had stopped exactly on the other side where I wanted her and was definitely blocking  his retreat. In fact she was poised and waiting. As Simon started back her way, she nudged him into the door. Now how's that for, did you say a retriever?

 Once Simon was in the house and away from all the noise and a long cat nap, he was back to normal or as normal as he could be. We realized that we were no longer going to be able to let him out at all. Too many things in his past had damaged his little brain forever. The only time he ever went out after that was while I laid right there in the grass with him. He would get to roll in it and have a few bites of grass and he had to be taken right back in. Sometimes we would pick grass for him and bring it in. We continued to get closer as he would come up and lay on my lap while watching TV. He loved having his massages and a little loose hair removal with a comb.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Connie, Simon, Katie and I


 Simon enjoyed his own home for a little over five years as of January of  2007.  The photo you see at the beginning of Simon's story was taken when he was around 12 years old. He was now over 16 Years old. He started loosing weight around the age of 14 due to getting old and the rough life he had.
As he lost weight and started getting thin, his crooked little bones could now be felt as we stroked and petted him. His massages had to be lighter now, though he was still full life, you could tell he wasn't feeling real well. His right eye started to tear a lot like he had something in it. I checked several times but found nothing.
 The right side of his face started to swell. I didn't think to much about it as he would occasionally get things like that and then the would go away. This time it didn't.
Simon had to be put to sleep at the approximate age of 16 years old  Saturday Feb. 17,  2007. A tumor we think, took over the right side of his face and took his eye with it .
It grew so quickly,  it only took about 2 weeks. Because of his past life, he had learned to deal with pain even when it was severe and never complain. But we could tell that this was more than severe,  after fourteen and a half years with him through all his pains,  we knew when he was hurting bad.
The decision to  relieve him of further excruciating pain was a very hard and heart felt one. I wanted him to know he was loved no matter what, so I held him and never laid him down at the vets.

 As I held him in my arms,  and he took his last breath, I felt my heart being ripped from my chest like he didn't want to let go of it. I felt like my world went with him that day, and along with him, a torn piece of my heart. May it give him comfort

 When I brought him home, Katie ran to his carrier to great him only to find him lifeless. She couldn't understand why I took him with me for a ride and left her home, and then brought him back dead.
It took awhile before she would even get in her kennel to go for a ride with me as she thought she might come back lifeless also.

We all miss him so much. Katie lays around and does nothing except when we give her something to do, and she will do it only half hearted. When we are about the house she will pick up his scent from where he laid or played and get all excited  thinking she has found him only to droop her ears as low as they will go when she realizes he's not there..

 The void in our hearts may lessen over time, but he will NEVER be forgotten. Simon gave back more than we could have ever give him. He left our lives better than before we knew him, and we hope he felt the same.

 The Bible doesn't say that any animal will be raised except man at Christ's return, yet it says He counts even the little sparrow when it falls. One can only hope. Something I saw on the web really hit home when I read it, and it means even more to me now that we lost Simon. I now share it with you.

 "Saving One Animal Will Not Change The World...But Surely, For That One Animal The World Will Change Forever!"

 I don't know who said it, but I found it on a web site for rescued animals. I know Simon's  life was changed, I doubt he would have lived past his second year had we not given him a home and taken the time to understand him and to forgive him when he would forget that he was safe.

 I can still feel him walk across my bed at night or wake up in the middle of the night and carefully roll over so as not to disturb him down between my feet. Katie still misses rolling around on the floor with him in the sun. My wife says she misses seeing his little lump under the covers and watching him roll in the morning sun.

 Some day, when our hearts heal, maybe we can adopt another one, and give it a chance at life, to live and to heal.
Author  Stanley Ring  ©
Back