| Suzy’s Wintry Wait |
avail. I stood on the slippery hill and looked at the
ice-fringed bridge and the frigid interstate highway
below it, an area of busy streets and fast moving
cars when nature wasn’t so brutal.
The glowing lights from the lone housing district
seemed so far away. Tears streamed down my face,
chilling my skin even further, as I thought of our poor
little cat facing that strange, frightening place alone.
Suzy, who was a pampered, declawed house pet,
had been raised in a secluded area, in a small town.
She knew nothing of heavy traffic and fending for
herself in sub-zero temperatures. It might as well
be an alien landscape rather than the more familiar
suburb. I felt we had lost her forever—either to the
traffic or the cold.
After my dad came to pick us up and we rode to my
parents’ house, my thoughts turned to Suzy. They
reeled at times from the shock, at others seemed
to pass in slow motion. My mind spiraled back
as I recalled the odd manner in which I was first
introduced to Suzy.
When my daughter pulled the small, scrawny black
kitten from behind her back, I was surprised. First,
Simon didn’t like cats, and I was amazed that Chris
had talked him into letting her have one. Secondly,
the kitten she’d chosen was not what I would have
expected. Chris told me she could have chosen a
fluffy, orange tiger kitten but was drawn to the tiny
runt who snuggled in her arms.
We soon found Suzy was very smart and wellmannered. When she was ten weeks old, we taught
her table manners by setting a tantalizing plate
in front of her inquisitive nose. Then we’d tap her
lightly on the nose while saying no when she started
moving toward the food. Suzy learned after only a
few times to stay put and that she received tidbits
when she behaved.
Chris played games that many cats would have
found irritating, but ones which Suzy accepted, as
long as she could be with her human friend. One
of my daughter’s favorites was dressing Suzy up in
doll clothes or laying her in a doll crib and covering
her with a small blanket. Suzy loved this one and
18 | www.BTSeMag.com
would snooze away many an afternoon in her tiny
bed.
One game Suzy didn’t care for, but which she
tolerated, was “Suzy Lee” or “Karate Cat.” Chris
would hold Suzy’s front legs and stand her up, then
swing her paws in karate chops while exclaiming,
“Aie yah.” Suzy would lay her ears back but look up
at Chris calmly, as if to say, “You’re such a strange
child.”
Suzy’s sweet nature even won over Simon, who is
now as much a cat lover as me.
A sudden bump in the road snapped me back. I was
in Dad’s car, driving through Smackover, almost to
my parents’ home. I worried about what we would
tell Chris, and Simon came up with a plan. We
would tell her we’d left Suzy back home, so as not
to ruin the holidays for our daughter. We couldn’t go
looking for Suzy anyway because the roads were
iced up and impassable. We were in the deep South
where ice and snow are rare, and the area wasn’t
set up to deal with the road conditions.
After Christmas, once the weather started clearing,
we knew it was time to mount a search. We told
Chris the news; she was devastated. It was also
time for us to return home, while Chris was to
stay through the rest of the holidays. My family
members searched the neighborhood surrounding
our accident, while I placed an ad in the local
newspaper, the El Dorado Times, before I left. Even
though I felt it was hopeless, at least it made my
daughter feel better. The ad read:
$25 Reward
Please help us find our beloved
pet. Suzy is a small black cat,
often mistaken for a kitten. She
has a white patch on her chest
and yellow eyes. We lost Suzy
during a car wreck on 12–22–90
on the Kings Road Bridge. An
accident separated us, please help
us find each other again. Call . . .
The response my family received was astounding