Columbia Star

1963        Celebrating 60 Years      2023

Cat claims more than nine lives





Photo by Mimi M.Maddock Thomas and Sarah Steedman

Photo by Mimi M.Maddock Thomas and Sarah Steedman

He’s full of personality and yowls for someone to fill his bowl when he needs fresh water. He occasionally likes to eat goldfish crackers, but loves to eat asparagus and green beans. Whenever there’s a party he doesn’t hide under the bed. Instead he must be in the middle of everything.

Thomas Steedman, named after Thomas O’Malley from the Disney movie Aristocats, has been part of the Steedman family for 19 years.

“We saw an ad in the paper where a family was giving away free kittens,” said Susan Steedman. ” We decided to go look at the kittens, and we brought home the male tabby cat.”

At first, Susan had to convince her husband John to get Thomas because John never had a pet before. However, once Thomas came home, Susan and John instantly fell in love with him. John would even bring Thomas in the car when he picked Susan up from the late shift at the pharmacy.

“He loves to ride in the car and look out the window,” said Steedman.

Thomas was seven years old when John and Susan had their daughter Sarah. The Steedmans didn’t have to worry about any kind of jealousy over the new baby because Thomas was loving and sweet with her, too.

When Sarah was old enough Thomas started sleeping on her bed, and to this day, Thomas curls up on Sarah’s bed and waits for her to fall asleep before he leaves the room.

“I call him my brother,” said Sarah.

Now that Thomas is older, he has to take high blood pressure medicine and spends most of his day indoors, but that doesn’t stop him from being the fun- loving cat he’s always been.

” He has a built- in clock. He wakes the entire house up at 5:30 am because he’s ready to be fed,” said Susan.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.