The spellbinding drama of the time my cats met.

2. Hi everyone! Welcome to our inaugural service! I’m
Teresa Bryan Peneguy and I’m very excited to present
our first segment of “I Know This Much is True,” in
which we tell a personal experience and what we
learned from it.

3. Meet Sampson, my ex-ex-
cat. I adopted him years
ago as a playmate for my
late cat, Zoe. This did not
turn out well. Zoe was so
freaked out she wound up
at the animal hospital with
an IV and on Kitty Valium.
But THAT has nothing to do
with THIS story. …. I
noticed a little red tag on
Sampson’s cage and I asked
what it meant. They told
me he was next in line to
be euthanized. That’s all it
took! He was fat, he was
smelly, and he was not very
smart, but I adopted him
immediately and brought
him home. But I didn’t like
his name. So, because I had
rescued him death, I
renamed him ….

4. ….Lazarus. Because of John 11:38. My husband was a pastor, so it
made perfect sense at the time. [PS. HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER FROM
THE CROWD.] Lazarus and my husband bonded immediately.
Lazarus followed him everywhere. Lazarus never looked at me –
unless I was eating a piece of salami. Anyway, when I left home a
few years later, I left Lazarus with my husband because I couldn’t
bear to separate them.

5. Meet Tovah. She is my current cat. I got her a few days after I
found my own apartment. She was up for adoption because
she had been bullied by tomcats with claws in a couple of
other homes, so I had to promise not to introduce another cat
into the household. Especially a tomcat with claws.

6. A couple of weeks before Hallowe’en, my husband emailed me a link. I opened it
up and there was a photo of Lazarus and an eBay ad saying he was “free to a good
home.” I was terribly upset, because I didn’t get first dibs and because Hallowe’en
is a terrible time to give a black cat away. So I contracted a male friend from my
divorce group, and we went to the house the very next morning so I could rescue
Lazarus AGAIN. I remembered the promise I’d made about Tovah, but I was
convinced this would work out BECAUSE IT HAD TO. But I was not prepared for ….

8. I wanted to do things right, separate
them in different rooms for a week or
so, but I have a small apartment. I did
the best I could by keeping Lazarus in a
cat carrier, first for a few hours in the
bedroom, then for a few hours in the
living room. All was great in Tovah’s
world until she noticed the carrier.

9. Lazarus was already grumpy from being in
the carrier so long.

10. He was pissed.

11. And more pissed.

12. And even more pissed.

13. Finally I did let him out.

14. He was enthusiastic about his new home.

15. Tovah was less enthusiastic

16. But quickly it turned out to be a territorial
problem. The couch had always been
Tovah’s property.

17. So she went from scared to angry in a split second. I
had never seen her hiss before.

18. Lazarus’ response was to act completely
innocent.

19. This made Tovah even more angry.

20. Lazarus was beginning to feel unwelcome.

21. Then he began to use the distraction
technique – which he always does – to
prove the issue was with his environment,
not himself.

22. Tovah just wanted him to
disappear.

23. Then she decided that she might be able
to deal with the new living situation if
she stayed 15 feet away from Lazarus at
all times.

24. Next she had a better idea. She
decided to go to the top of the
cabinets, where she hangs out and
pukes a lot of the time.

25. But she underestimated
Lazarus. And then came
THE ULTIMATE THREAT…

28. Now that Lazarus was locked in a different
room, Tovah was very relieved.

29. But the next morning, the territorial wars
began again.

30. Tovah gave up. For two weeks when she wasn’t
eating or using the litterbox, she lived under my
office chair.

31. Time passed.

32. Today Tovah and Lazarus are buddies. They don’t
LOVE each other, but they tolerate each other.
They even sniff each others’ butts sometimes.