Wow! I Could've Had a V-8!
by Tina Blue
November 26, 2003
In 1970, my then-husband Bob and I acquired a Tonkinese kitten that we named Sammy. Sammy was our "baby" (we were newlyweds at the time), and he could have pretty much anything he wanted.
And from all appearances, what he wanted was Bob's tomato juice.
Every morning Bob would start his breakfast with a small glass of tomato juice. And every morning Sammy would prowl around his feet, begging desperately for some of that juice.
Naturally Bob and I assumed he was just begging because he saw someone ingesting something. So one day, Bob decided to teach him a lesson, to show him that he really didn't want any of what Bob was having.
He got a saucer and poured a few drops of tomato juice into it, and the set it down on the floor in front of Sammy, waiting for the little dickens to turn up his nose and stalk away from it in disgust.
But that's not at all what happened.
To Bob's surprise, Sammy lapped up that tomato juice as if it were the best thing he'd ever tasted, and as soon as he had slurped it all up, he began to weave frantically around Bob's feet, loudly demanding more of that great stuff.
So Bob gave him more, and Sammy slurped it up. Then Sammy asked for even more, and Bob gave it to him. By the time he was finished, Sammy had drunk over half of Bob's 6-ounce glass of tomato juice.
And from that day forward, Sammy would greet Bob at the refrigerator each morning, waiting for the saucer of tomato juice that he needed to start his day.
