I have a story about a very special Siamese cat we owned some years ago. Though she has been gone for many years now, I still miss her and hold very loving thoughts of her and the joy she was to all the family members.

    At the time we adopted Su Ling, my daughter was five years old and our son was about 2 1/2 years old. Su Ling had been the pet of a ten year old boy and for whatever reason; they did not want to keep her any more.

    Needless to say, this beautiful seal point cat attached herself quite readily to our two children. THEY were her children! If I had to scold either one of the children, Su Ling would plant herself in front of me and yowl at me. After all, they were her children!! When one of the children became ill, she went to bed with them and hardly strayed from their room until they were up and running and back to good health. Then she was HAPPY! After all, they were her children and she was going to take good care of them.

    During this particular time frame, we were living in Concord in a newly developed community. After we moved in, we found out the neighborhood had a slight problem. One of our neighbors was a "peeping Tom". When my husband left during the evening hours to pick up something at the grocery store or drug store, this neighbor would hear the squeak of our VW bug's brakes. The back of the house was very open and overlooked an old orchard. The neighbor would come down though the orchard to peek into the windows. Though I did not hear him, the cat DID and she would growl to let me know someone...who was not invited to be on our property...was looking into our home. She was a good watch cat!

    I had another strange experience with her. She seemed so in tune to the people around her. For some time, we had a professional photographer come to the house to take pictures of the children. This had never been a problem in the past. That particular spring, a different man came, not the usual photographer. I let him into the house and the children came running to have their pictures taken. He sat down and seemed very nervous and ill at ease. He then started perspiring...copiously and his whole demeanor changed. I became very uneasy. About that time, Su Ling came strolling into the living room and immediately flew at the man's face. Needless to say, the man left immediately. I truly believe the man had a serious problem and the cat picked up on it. I know she sensed something that I wasn't picking up on.

    Su Ling was a very special cat and I will always have loving thoughts of her.

    Many years later, we bought a yellow Lab female puppy. She was such a sweetheart and we all loved Heidi dearly. She was a great companion for the now older children. She was a good watch dog and loved to chase balls. She had a great talent of being able to put two tennis balls in her mouth at one time and then parade thru the house as if to say, see how smart I am! However as ~he got a little older she began to have seizures. Our Vet. said she was epileptic. Heidi always seemed to know when a seizure was coming on. She would seek me out and then lay her head on my knee. She had the ability to make her head weigh about 20 pounds. I would sit down beside her and talk to her so she would know she was not alone and that I was with her. When the spell was over, she would lick my face....I think she was telling me thanks for being with me. Life without a pet would be very dull!

                                                                                        — Jan