By Chris Childs
Life-long Stayton area residents Richard and Mary Heater aren’t ones to let grass grow under their feet.
While many people their age are content to relax after a lifetime in the working world, the Heaters stay busy.
Over the past several years they have converted their farm off Fern Ridge Road to a producing cherry orchard.
Periodically, they also contract to haul freight with their Freightliner truck and flatbed trailer.
With their large family long since away from the “nest,” the Heaters’ principal day-to-day companion of the last 13 years has been their orange tabby cat, Samantha.
Samantha is a neighborhood fixture who spends many long hours “supervising” as Mary tends to their beautiful yard.
When gone on their occasional trucking journeys, the Heaters have traditionally found someplace to board Samantha while they were away.
On a recent trip, however, they decided to try taking Samantha along.
It turned out that Samantha was an excellent traveler, sitting on Mary’s lap and purring as they rolled down the endless miles of highway.
They stopped one night at the edge of a hotel parking lot in Wichita Falls, Texas, with the vast paved parking area to one side and a wooded area to the other side.
The Heaters and Samantha bedded down in the Freightliner’s sleeper cab with the windows rolled down slightly for some ventilation from the stifling Texas heat.
When morning came, the Heaters prepared for another day on the road. Samantha wasn’t anywhere visible, but they suspected she was in one of several “hidey holes” in the truck. They continued their journey but by mid-morning, it became more evident that Samantha simply wasn’t in the truck she had apparently managed to crawl out of one of the windows during the night.
Desperately, the Heaters called the local animal control agency; the Wichita Falls area humane society and the restaurant waitress who had served them breakfast … all to no avail. With heavy hearts, they continued their trip to Austin to unload their cargo.
Returning from Austin, they stopped in Tyler, Texas for an overnight stay with their son, Scott, and the next morning picked up a load of cargo in Tyler for the return trip to Oregon.
Their route took them back through Wichita Falls and another stop at the all-too-familiar hotel parking lot, four days after the disappearance of their cat.
The Heaters made additional inquiries about Samantha at the hotel and wandered around the area on their own looking for her, but the most likely place, the adjacent wooded area, was “off limits” because it was known to be infested with snakes.
For yet another night, the Heaters followed the same routine, bedding down in the sleeper with the windows partly down for relief from the heat.
Sometime during the middle of the night, Mary awoke to something cool and moist touching her cheek.
It was Samantha!
She had apparently jumped up on the truck fender, crawled across the mirror frame and climbed in through the partially open window.
As the three enjoyed their unlikely reunion, they heard meowing and saw another cat sitting on the hood of the truck … presumably Samantha’s companion and “guardian” during her unplanned stay in Wichita Falls.
Ask Mary and she will tell you that the other cat just wanted to make sure Samantha found her way safely back to her family.
Samantha is back home in Stayton now, perfectly content to lounge in the Heater’s driveway watching the leaves fall and the world come and go.
She’s had enough adventure for now.
Incredible stories about animals abound, including Silverton’s famed “Bobby, the Wonder Dog”, and the heroes of the Disney movie “The Incredible Journey”.
Perhaps Samantha, the cat, has now earned a niche on that list.
