Sue McKenzie and her cat, Tom, have a very special friendship.
When Tom was a street kitten, he waited outside of Sue’s door, mewing in the pouring rain. Her husband didn’t want to let him in, but Sue did anyway. She gave little Tom a slice of corned beef, and kept the kitten.
Now, almost 20 years later, they’re still best friends.
Tom is an independent cat, however, and Sue likes it that way. Usually, he runs around in the wild and comes home for food and the occasional human contact.
So it was strange to Sue when Tom began following her every move one day.
64-year-old Sue didn’t consider herself unhealthy, and she just figured Tom was being weird. But he followed her everywhere, and whenever she sat down, he would tap on her neck, paws on her right shoulder, and meow.
She took Tom to the vet, just in case something was wrong with him, but the vet said everything was in ship shape. But immediately when they got home, Tom resumed his weird behavior.
Then, Sue thought of something. What if Tom was trying to tell her something about herself? She touched her shoulder, and sure enough, there was a lump.
When she went to the doctor, they found a tumor in her shoulder. Soon, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Luckily, she went though chemotherapy and is now in remission. But of course, Sue knows that Tom had a big part in saving her life.
“I really have to thank Tom,” she said. “But he just isn’t in the mood—he returned to his old distanced behavior and leaves me alone now.”
