And now the Snoopy story!

Snoopy Alexia

SHE IS AN AMAZING CAT. I'd like to share a little of her history with you.

Apparently she was born in a pasture to a stray cat the summer of 2002, perhaps one who had been dumped twenty miles or so from the small town of Fredericksburg, Texas, near the farm where I grew up in the '50's and 60's. My seven year old niece, Sarah, discovered her in the pig pen, a kitten as wild, scared, and frightened as any abused animal. Many efforts to catch her proved fruitless, that is until she became too weak to resist. Sarah then brought her into their yard, found a playmate for her from among another litter, and tamed her with lots of love. However, she remained an outside farm kitten.

Then the torrential Texas rains of July 2002 poured down. After almost drowning in the heavy rains, she found herself rescued by Luke. He been working on his grandparents’ farm learning the ends and outs of “truck” farming, especially squash, for several weeks after winning the 2002 ASGA state title. His intentions were to bring the little gray kitten and her playmate back to Arkansas. However, on the morning he left the farm, her playmate died when my oldest niece, Rebekah, the then Texas Peach Queen, accidentally ran over her in the early dark hours before dawn as she left the house to ride in a small town Texas parade. Many tears resulted from this accident, and when Luke drove up to bring the kittens back to Arkansas, he found only one still waiting. Sarah wept her good-bye through tears, tears of losing one kitten and now seeing the other embark on a long journey..

The small kitten rode the entire way back to Arkansas on Luke's lap in his old S10 black pickup! Exhaustion from trying to survive, I think. However, once she arrived at 2923 Charter Oak Rd. Little Rock, AR she quickly earned her name Snoopy Alexia Bakke. She couldn't get enough of exploring her new home and seeking to make friends with the "old lady cats" then of the ages 16 and 17 while avoiding the 11 year old anti-social feline in residence who likes no other animal and few people!

Snoopy soon became my daughter, Hannah's, darling and prized companion seeing her through a difficult fight with mono which ruined her hopes of regaining her National cut in swimming that summer!. In fact, Snoopy made it into Hannah’s senior pictures as she very obligingly posed for the camera. As Hannah started her senior year at Little Rock Christian, Snoopy could always be relied upon for confidences and seemed to know when Hannah needed her comfort. Now she disappeared; a young friend staying at our home let her out to play in the back yard on that fateful Friday morning, and no one had seen her since.

Hannah's dad and I left early that morning driving to Oklahoma City where we watched Hannah swim in sectionals. Our son called in the evening letting us know Snoopy had not come home and he and our young friend spent the evening making posters and scouring the neighborhood for the missing kitten. Returning home, we spent hours and days scouring the city for this wonderfully amazing cat and my daughter - though now at Mind Games at the Ozark Conference Center - calls every couple of hours to check on the search. So began the thirteen day saga of the Snoopy search. See photo below!