THE THOMSON FAMILY SCRAPBOOK Compiled From Original Scrapbook Of David & Jeanne Thomson

THE BACKYARD

Both Jeanne and I agreed that Sam would not be an outside cat. First, we were afraid of losing him as by this time we had become very attached to him. He was young and frisky and enjoyed running around the house.

Our home was a ranch set on a 75' by 150' or so lot. It backed up to a huge, vacant field. Our backyard was as wide as the house and fenced in. The fence had bushes growing all along the three side that, if not cut, would grow to over 6' tall. We kept the bushes cut to about the top of the fence. The bushes were planted about a foot or so apart and about a foot from the fence. Sam enjoyed going out in the yard and slinking along the fence. We had filled in a hole under the only gate so he couldn't, we hoped, get out.

Sam seemed pretty contented to roam the yard without trying to get out. But, like most cats, he was inquisitive and soon found a nice spot in the back fence where he could climb the fence and get over. When we first discoverd this, as we were inside at time, we frantically searched for him but easily found him in the field behind the house investigating where he had never been before. The field, owned by the Columbus school system was to be used for a grade school but was later sold and an apartment complex was developed. As the neighbors had an input to the developers, the development didn't cause problems.

There were several times when we let him out and checked a bit later on him and couldn't find him. A quick search of the houses and bushes near by failed to turn him up and we feared the worse. Much to our surprise another careful search of the backyard found him under some low, thick bushes on the back of the house. With his color and strips he was practically invisible!