Update on Sammy the Post Office Cat
|
Our Catster Superstar friend Diego (right), alerted us to the following update on Sammy the Post Office Cat. Thanks, Diego! If you have a story idea, please send it our way! Either pawmail Skeezix or email me.
|
 |
The following update on Sammy by Jeff Thompson appeared this week in the Tuskegee News:
Already a prominent figure in Notasulga, Sammy the Cat became something of a media darling on Monday (January 12) as his story aired regularly on CNN.
Until last week, Sammy, a 10-year-old orange tabby, regularly napped on a table in the front room of the post office. But one complaint put Notasulga’s “Post Office Cat” on the outside looking in – potentially for good.
Sammy lives less than a block from the post office in a white, two-story house on Lyons Street owned and occupied by the family of Lorenz Ponzig, according to neighbors. Sammy spends his nights there, but to many Notasulga residents, Sammy is like another post office employee, promptly reporting to work each morning.
Residents greet him when they enter, speak to him like he can answer and in his time of need they came to offer their support.
Notasulga’s temporary Postmaster Carolyn Hood said Sammy’s spotlight turned on after a female Notasulga resident filed an internet complaint with the U.S. Post Office. The complaint, which requested a return phone call, appeared in one of Hood’s morning reports last week.
Hood said the woman’s primary qualm was that Sammy, a cat, didn’t pay federal taxes and therefore had no right to be in a federal building. Hood also said the woman’s complaints later multiplied to include that the cat attacked her at night while she was alone in the building and that she was allergic.
“She acted very ugly on the phone with me,” Hood said, who has handled the influx of attention to her small-town post office with tremendous poise. “I told her I’d do everything I could to keep the cat outside.”
Hood’s answer to the woman’s grievance was to post a sign that read, “NOTICE. Sammy (the post office cat) is no longer allowed in this building due to a customer complaint. Thanks for your help, Postmaster Carolyn Hood.”
“But the town went crazy after that sign went up,” Hood said. “They call (Sammy) in here more than ever now.”
So last Wednesday (January 7), responding to the sign, approximately 15 Notasulga residents organized. They put in a phone call to WSFA Channel 12 News in Montgomery and met a reporter at the post office. One of Notasulga’s other prominent figures, former Auburn University football coach Pat Dye, put his full support behind Sammy while in front of the camera.
“Sammy’s got more friends in Notasulga than any other individual I know,” Dye told WSFA reported Judd Davis.
The Ponzigs weren’t home Monday, but their neighbor, Elizabeth Averrett, who also appeared on the WSFA report and on CNN, said one of the community’s solutions for the complaint against Sammy being in a federal building was to get him his own Post Office Box.
Averrett, an 87-year-old retired school teacher who still travels down to the local gym to lift weights three days a week, said another Notasulga resident, Louise Pratt, rented PO Box 173 in Sammy’s name.
Hood not only pointed out the box, but pulled the mail Sammy received on Monday. Hood showed off 28 pieces addressed to “Sammy the Cat” from across the country – places as far away as California.
Between Friday, January 9, and Tuesday, January 13, Sammy received 68 pieces of mail and two packages.
Hood also said she’s fielded several calls since the story hit the airwaves from citizens concerned for Sammy – and not just Notasulga citizens. Hood listed two calls from the Pacific coast and a call from a teacher in North Carolina as examples.
But all the attention aimed at the small-town dilemma, or “cat fight” as national media is calling it, may have been bad for Sammy chances of getting back inside.
Complaints traveled farther up the federal ladder and Hood said the order came down Monday afternoon to refuse Sammy future admittance to the Notasulga Post Office under any circumstances. Hood said she was directed to regulations that prohibit animals of any kind – sans seeing-eye dogs – from entering federal buildings.
While Hood prioritizes professionalism in the situation, she can’t help but wear some of her southern on her sleeve. She, Averrett and many of the town’s regular post office-goers don’t see, for one, the problem with Sammy’s presence, nor the point in evicting a cat from a nap spot he’s occupied for a decade.
“Bother me?” said one resident when asked about Sammy. “I was going to suggest we put in a cat door for him.”
Some Notasulga residents were quick to voice their opinions about the woman who made the initial complaint — some bordering on unprintable — but all refused to release her name to the press.
Sammy, though, doesn’t seem phased by the ordeal. He spent Monday in front of the post office, soaking up more attention than sun it seemed. As a 10-year resident, the argument could be made that he’s feels pretty confident — likely aware of Notasulga’s reputation of banding together and fighting things to the bitter end.
But if the community is successful in restoring Sammy to his old spot, the only forseeable problem will be Sammy’s ability to check his mail.
Post Office Box 173 is about five feet off the ground.
If you haven’t done so alreddy, please show Sammy your support by sending him a letter or postcard:
PO Box 173
Notasulga, Alabama 36866
I’d like to bite that anonymous woman, and I don’t even bite! I’m glad to hear that Sammy does have a family. One of those packages he got was from us! We sent him a fleece blankie and some toys! Way to go on being famous, Sammy the Cat!
Hello Skeezy, Our card to Sammy is in the mail. Come on all of you people, send some mail or a card to Sammy and show some support. They need to publish the wonam’s name so can get all the credit due her. Fortunately, Sammy does have a real home. Bosco.
I was very happy to read that Sammy has a family and home of his own and he wasn’t simply tossed on the streets. I still think he should be allowed in the Post Office. He seems to make everyone (sans one woman) happy. He is like Dewey the library cat or all those cats in Japan who get jobs working at train stations.
Sounds like Cruella de Vil has branched out into kitties. Our card to Sammy is winging its way across ‘The Pond’ to join his mounting fan mail. I wonder where Ms Mean can post her mail now? Suggestions please on a post card to Ms C de Vil etc.
We mailed our card to Sammy!
A few things here. The poor excuse for a woman said Sammy “attacked” her at night. The vast majority of us kitties will run from people. We don’t attack unless we are threatened or feel threatened. So I wonder if the lady did something to Sammy?
Someone kneads to give Sammy a job that pays so he can pay taxes & have a right to the post office.
If Sammy has been there for the past 10 years why was is just now such a problem for the lady?
Lastly, why doesn’t Sammy’s owners keep him inside where he is safe? Although we are behind Sammy’s right to be in the post office, we can’t help but feel he should be an inside kitty.
It’s speciism, that’s what it is! If Dewey could be a library cat, why can’t Sammy be a postal kitty? SOMEONE needs to snoopervise, might as well be him!
My parents and I ran a small country post office and we had a cat on the counter everyone loved. Same story as Sammy people would come in talk to him pat him and he’d even try to get into boxes people were trying to post and large majority of people loved him and he was there for years it took one complaint and he was gone. what a load of crap it was and I hope Sammy gets his nap stop back soon doesn’t sound like it will happen though.
If people like this lady had some pets, they’d have something to do with their time other than spend it complaining!!
Oh brother! Why so petty? Mom works for state government and wishes they could have an office pet. Good Luck to you Sammy! And to the mean lady who is being so petty, find something else to do than complain. Try helping. How about volunteering at a shelter. They make allergy medication so you can be around dogs and cats. And, somehow Sammy does not look like the “attack” type of cat. Seriously, mean complaining person, get a clue and leave Sammy alone. He is not bothering anyone but you.
Oh dear. We wish Sammy good luck on being allowed back in. But yes his real family should purrhaps keep him in their home. Who knows what the crazy woman might try next??
We don’t understand how a majority of humans can be just fine, indeed find happiness with the cat co-mingling amongst them, yet just ONE complaint, ONE!, and out he goes!! We thought that the majority ruled! How does one sorry woman have so much more power than the majority of the community? Very very puzzling.
Best of luck to Sammy.
We are glad that Sammy has a home of his own, but we are still ticked off at that woman who complained!!!!!
We will get Meowm to help us send a card out!
someone pointed out that Sammy attacked this woman at night (which i now remember reading). i thought he was gone at night???? and if he attacked her, then he must have had good reason to. i saw the video from the other post, there’s only one other cat i know who’s that sweet. and he only attacks people in a vicious manner when he feels threatened. how do we know he wasn’t just playing and she used the chance to get him kicked out? and if she’s allergic, why didn’t she say something sooner? now he’s up there in the cold so that he can see the people he loves and who love him.
I have gone into that Post Office several times and Sammy would just be lying beside the door. Sometimes during extreme hot weather, I would lean over and ask him if he would like to go inside and cool off and very politely he would go inside. Never tried to ATTACK me. Sammy does not have attacking in him, unless someone is aggressive toward him. So need I say more. It just seems to me, IF SAMMY WAS A DANGEROUS CAT, then why should this person that made the complaint, keep herself away from the public. Why not come forward, show your face and show proof of your complaints against Sammy, including your medical records that you are allergic to cats. All of you nice people that read about this, honestly, this little town is like Mayberry, a friendly town, that was a Mayberry long before Mayberry was ever created on TV. Thanks, and God Bless Sammy and Notasulga.
Cindy
i dont understand why people can be so evil….. be on the street is not easy for this poor animal sufering all kind of bad weather especialy sufering from that kind of devil people …sammy is just a cat looking for a place to sleep and be in peace from people like this ugly women ….i hate tha stuped crazy monster…i wish her the worst…hes a gorgeus cat …live him along…
What a petty, disagreeable person to complain about Sammy! Get a life awful lady!!!
Sammy brings nothing but sunshine to that Post Office. I’m writing him a letter (actually my kitty Layla is writing him a letter) and i’ll send a post card too.
May Sammy get a cat door soon!
We saw Sammy’s story on the news. We were shocked to hear of such a mean human as the lady who complained about him. Such a handsome cat too. We will surely send him a postcard to show our support.
The complainer who was so dreadfully traumatized by the presence of Sammy, the Post Office Cat who brightened the everyday lives of many, has prevailed. She has Won the Battle, achieved her proverbial Fifteen Minutes of Fame…and probably cares little – if at all – that, in the process, she has Lost the War of fostering or maintaining the good will of her fellow townspeople. This debacle was NOT about allergies. Allergies are what benadryl, claritin, zyrtec and allegra are for…and most are generic and dirt cheap. And it was not about Sammy’s failure to pay federal taxes – THAT CAT JUST WON’T HUNT!!! – as there exist human postal patrons who do not pay federal taxes. (Some can even anticipate receiving that euphemism, a tax “credit” disbursed from taxes that citizens like myself, in the highest tax bracket, pay. This fiasco was a POWER, CONTROL and EXCESS TIME ON ONE’S HANDS issue, with the complainer’s “i”s obsessively dotted; her “t”s compulsively crossed as she tooted the Federal Regulations horn. The dust will settle, letters to Sammy’s post office box will dwindle and stop…and Notasulga’s post office will have been forever robbed of its uniqueness; its visitors – less one – deprived of a beloved mascot. And I am willing to bet my 15 dogs that the complainer will not be one iota less chronicaly disgruntled and unhappy, despite her mammoth victory. There exists neither pill nor capsule as a panacea for ills such as hers. And psychotherapy with such individuals tends to be shortlived and ineffective because, when confronted with what they do not wish to hear, but NEED to hear in order to gain insight and change their maladaptive perceptions and behaviors, they simply “fire” the therapist and go on with their usual business of whining, moaning, squalling, bellyaching, and finding some new stink to keep stirred. Of note, to play the devil’s advocate, Journal of the American Medical Association published a pioneering article (Aug. 2002, vol. 288(8); pp 963-972), reporting that children who, from birth through their early years, lived in homes with two or more dogs and/or cats developed significantly FEWER allergies than those who did not. Subsequent articles in JAMA, The Lancet, American Journal of Critical Care Medicine and other scholarly refereed journals have documented similar findings. Might the aftermath of a feline/canine-deprived infancy and childhood on the complainer’s part be rearing its head here? Greater Notasulga, I feel your pain. (Coach Dye, War Eagle, and thanks for your effort from an AU ‘67 and ‘71 grad!)
We spent spring break touring SEC colleges with my daughter and made a special trip to check in on Sammy in Notasulga. It was only 6 miles off the interstate and we were very excited to pull up to the post office and see Sammy laying on the patio out front. We spent 10 minutes or so petting and playing with Sammy. 3 of 4 people that came out of the post office said hi to Sammy and made comments about him having visitors. I doubt they knew we were from St Louis, but it was worth taking the time out of our trip to see a celebrity. And Sammy didn’t mind posing for pictures or spending quality time with us. He’s a great ambassador for Notasulga.
Skeezix is right. That mean lady should get a life. AND get her ego in line, too. More power to little Sammy!
This woman obviously has some deep serious issues and is over all a miserable person. Sammy is clearly causing no harm and brings joy into so many peoples lives, so I don’t see a problem here.
Lady, if you don’t like cats, don’t go near him! Sammy is a senior cat, a animal just trying to enjoy the remaining years he has left being happy and being social, and in turn he brings a lot of people happiness. Now why would you want to make this animal miserable and take the joy out of not only his life, but the people who do love him?
You know, with the way the economy is and people having such a hard time, losing loved ones in the war, losing their homes, barely getting by, it’s hard to find things to be happy about sometimes. So I say if one little cat brings so much joy to so many people, let them experience that, and let it be.
Maybe if you focused less of your energy and attention on taking away others happiness, and spent more on something positive in your own life, you could possess some of that joy for yourself.