How I Acquired My Cats: First Salem
There is that cliche saying, “cats are like potato chips: you can’t just have one”. For me, this saying is very true and I quickly acquired three cats in less than half a year of being married and living in my own place. I have been blessed with three male cats who get along with each other despite their unique personalities and quirks. They each helped me to convert my husband, Pankaj, who grew up in India with no pets, to a self-denying cat lover who looks for our cats each day when he comes home from work. The cats have given us a common love and passion to share (despite his denials he does not love cats).
Salem was the first cat I adopted in February of 2017 before my husband moved to the USA. I had become obsessed with black cats growing up, mostly because of cat characters on shows like Salem (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Binx (Hocus Pocus) and the black cat guardian, Luna, from the anime Sailor Moon. I knew I wanted to adopt a black cat.
Salem, who was called Sable at the time, had a profile on Petfinder from the local humane society. The minute I saw his picture, I knew he was meant to be my cat, and decided immediately I would rename him Salem, as I felt the name the shelter had given him was too feminine.
The first time we met, Salem crawled into my lap and purred very loudly. I brought him home, and soon realized he was a lap kitty. He loved to crawl on my lap and would sit there for as long as possible, purring away. Salem, despite having a mild case of asthma, played hard and serious and would throw himself into repeated acrobatic jumps trying to catch the stuffed fish on the string. He didn’t really enjoy being picked up and barely tolerated his nails being trimmed (I quickly learned it took two sessions to do all four paws).
Salem is a silent cat, except for purring and sometimes rare chirping and trilling noises. He simply does not meow. However, bundled him up in the carrier for any reason, and he will give you deep wailing noise you never thought possible from the nearly silent cat. The first time my husband heard it, he could not believe it was Salem making that noise.
My husband had never been around animals before much. But he was married to an animal-obsessed American who already had a horse and a cat. When he first met Salem, he was leary of my little black cat and asked me if Salem would bite him. I said no, Salem will not bite or scratch you unless he felt threatened by something you did to him. Since my husband could not drive or work while waiting for his work authorization to be approved, he spent many days at home with Salem while I was working.
Salem would repeatedly come over and stand on his hind legs and put his paws on Pankaj’s lap, asking to crawl up into his lap while he was studying about Java programming and watching movies. Apparently, while Pankaj thought this action was cute, it was nevertheless disturbing to him to be bothered all the time.
One day he said to me, “He won’t leave me alone. He is always bothering me.”
I told him to just tell Salem no, and redirect him to his toys or something if he didn’t want him on his lap. Pankaj replied, “I can’t tell him no. He looks at me with those big yellow eyes. He needs a friend to play with.”
My husband has begun to realize he needs to be careful with the things he says to me about pets. I hadn’t planned, exactly, on getting another cat, but I also felt Salem might like the company of another cat. He was he constantly seeking attention from Pankaj and myself. And with these words, I decided I would get another cat very soon. Just a lot sooner than others had in mind.
