Scampi
Back when I was a kid I was brought up with a cat called Tootsie. She was born about the same time as me and lived
until she was the ripe old age of about 16. I loved her to bits but old age took it's toll on her and she live a long
and happy life with us.
We had fish at one point in the past too, but after Tootsie, we weren't having any more pets - at least that's what our
intentions were. That was until Sophie, as we named her, came on the scene. Sophie was a cat who was fairly wild,
completely scared of us humans, but happy to eat the food we left out for her. But it wasn't Sophie that change our
minds into looking after a new pet.
Sophie had two offspring, Spot and Scampi, as we chose to call them. Spot was a very timid cat, unlike Scampi who was
incredibly friendly, right from the start. Spot had a very short life being run over by a car. Sophie dropped three
more kittens and we thought we'd better get all these cats sorted out before we have too many. With who we believe the
father to be, Tabs as we call him, hanging around also, the Cat Protection League judged that our garden would not be
big enough for them all and took the new litter of kittens away. Sophie then befriended another neighbour and didn't
visit our garden much and eventually she met her end by the wheels of a car too.
Tabsi, who if you just clapped your hands would bolt for this hills, was and still is today an incredibly shy cat, but
has always been a friendly cat to us and those it recognises. Tabsi has a bit of dodgy looking eye and although some of
the cats had somat up with their eyes, which was sorted at the same time we took them all to the vet to get them sorted
out, his dodgy eye remains not part of any infection now - just part of his character.
Another cat showed up, a bit later, that we named Garfy, simply because he, or rather she as we later found out, looked
like Garfield - Yes, Tabs is a tabby cat, before you ask. Tabs and Garfy hang around the garden getting fed by us but we
can't keep them in the house for too long as they aren't house trained and don't keep still for more than 10 mins it seems.
Scampi, however, house trained herself.. She became part of the family, adopting us, more than we adopting her as my
parents had always been adamant we weren't going to have any more pets. Everyone she met she befriended. She never grew
very big, always keeping that cute kitten like appeal and perhaps that's why so many of us loved her.
Sadly though, Scampi passed away on Sunday 15th May 2005, as we woke to find her by the curb. It looked like she didn't suffer
though. Admittedly, she did run out in the road occasionally and whenever I saw her do that, I would pick her up and tell her
off, as it worried me to see her doing that. But then I guess it was always in her nature to be where she shouldn't be.
She would get into trouble a lot, always getting where she wasn't meant to go, hidden behind piles of towels or atop of piles of
stuff that we could not reach. She got herself locked in our shed and even our old outside toilet, which we did not use. We
had no idea how she got in there and had to move lots of stuff in front of it to get her out. She ended up covered in oil
from a workman's bucket in a neighbours house and we had to clean that off her. She was a little scamp that jumped, and
scamped about the garden and the house, hence why we called her Scampi.
Scampi and Tabs were very close, a bit too close perhaps, before we got them sorted at the vet and Tabs calmed down. Tabs would
always want to sit next to Scamp and clean her. I think it was thanks to Scampi being so friendly with us that allowed Tabs
to calm down a lot more around us. I know
he will definitely miss her.
Often Scamp would run up the stairs and find little nooks and crannies to hide in but there were many nights when she would
join us on our beds, cosying down and snuggling up against us. She was always happy to be with us and had the amazing ability
to not need the loo all night, most nights, so we would sleep soundly together too. Although she did go through a phase of
jumping in the bathroom sink and drinking the dregs of water there. We would put milk and water out for them but no, she
would rather drink from the tap or even an old bucket of rain water outside - crazy!
You only had to pick scampi up and she would start purring. When I used to go and feed her the mushy food rather than the crunchy dry
food she knew it was coming and used to get so excited over that, standing up with her paws her in the air, pleading for me to
get that food dished out as soon as possible.
I remember the time when she was on my bed and I played a sounds of nature cd. She was looking all around her, her head jolting to
one direction, being sure she could hear a bird or something she could chase near by. Teasing her with a bit of string was fun, I
remember trying to do my shoelaces up and her thinking I was playing, not letting me do them up. Lost cound of the number of times
I found her chasing her tail or the illusive shadow under the crack of the door.
She was only about 7 when she died and had loads of life left in her so it really was a tragedy for her life to have ended so soon.
I couldn't pamper Scampi enough. She was cute, adorable and loved every bit of attention we gave her. You could not fail to be enchanted
by her so I write this as my remembrance to our most treasured member of the family. She touched us all and will remain in our hearts
forever.
Rest in peace, Scampi
June 1998 - May 2005