A Cat Named Sam

When I was visiting the cemetery located in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, with my 6-year-old nephew, we happened upon a cat inside the cemetery walls that appeared injured. My nephew asked me to please contact someone to help him. Before we left, Jesse—my nephew—ran back in to tell the cat that everything would be okay and that we would be sending help.

I reached out to the local cat rescue, Save A Gato, for assistance, and they promptly set out to rescue him. In the meantime, a German tourist had also met Sam and highlighted him on the Save A Gato website. We started a text conversation about how Sam felt like a little angel when you saw him.

After staking out the cemetery, Save A Gato managed to take him into their care.

When I got home, I reloaded an app called Flickr, which I hadn’t visited in a few years. Upon signing in, I noticed there was one picture I had favorited long ago. It was a photo of an orange cat in Old San Juan, sitting in the sun on one of the walls that surround the city. I promptly contacted the photographer, who turned out to be an astronomy teacher, orchestra leader, and photographer. He told me he had been on vacation in Puerto Rico and was captivated by this orange cat, so he took its picture. It was the only photo he took of a cat on an island full of cats.

We compared pictures and identified him as the same cat.

Excited by the odds, I searched YouTube for “orange cat Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.” There was one short video taken years earlier—and there he was, much healthier but with the same identifying ear marks.

Save A Gato contacted me and told me that if I wanted to adopt Sam, I was more than welcome to bring him home. As I was considering the idea, a few days later they explained that his injuries were due to skin cancer from sitting in the sun too long. A kind man named Cesar told me that Sammy was in his care and that he would stay with him until it was time for him to be escorted over the rainbow bridge.

Sam will be forever in my heart.

Save A Gato later posted a memorial to Sam on their Facebook page, where people from around the world shared their condolences.