by Rowena Mills | Photos courtesy of Susan Bachmann
When Susan Bachmann went for a run on a hot day in June 2023, she didn’t suspect that something out of the ordinary was about to happen. Then she stopped to catch her breath at an intersection that is not in a residential area.
“I heard an odd sound that at first I thought was some kind of bird, so I was looking around to see what it was,” Bachmann recalls. “The sound was nonstop. There is an area of shrubs and rosebushes at the intersection, and I discovered the sound was a tiny kitten crying. There was no other cat around and no people. I spent almost 45 minutes trying to coax him out of the bushes and finally realized I would have to come back with some food.”
She continues, “This was about a mile from our house, so I was running hard to get home and come back with the car and some food and water. About halfway back it occurred to me, ‘The cat isn’t going anywhere.’ ”
By the time Bachmann returned with some water and a can of chicken, the kitten had climbed into a taller shrub. “I could reach in and grab him. At first he bit and clawed me until I said, ‘I got you,’ and he relaxed into my arms. He went after the chicken and the water eagerly, then let me put him in the car and drive home. He was about five weeks old. A week later at his first vet appointment, he weighed 1.2 pounds. Other than fleas and the beginning of roundworm infestation, he was in good shape. At that first vet appointment, his purring was so loud, they couldn’t hear his heartbeat.”
The Cat Distribution System
“Just a few months before I found the kitten, my husband, Ted, and I had to have our dog Newton, that we had had for 12 years, put down, so we were still grieving,” Bachmann says. “I often wonder how the kitten ended up at that intersection, and I suspect he might have been dumped. He had clearly been around people before and could not have been there for very long because he was so tiny and without food or water on a hot day. He would not have lasted very long. The ‘cat distribution system’ brought him to us to help us get past losing Newton.
“Ted named him Zoot because it just seemed to fit. He was so little and feisty.” In addition, Bachmann says, “We named him Zoot as a tribute to Mike Moore (he is good with the namesake).” The Bachmanns’ longtime friend Dr. Michael Moore, sometimes known as Zoot, is a retired college music professor and public school educator. He last taught at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa before he and his wife moved out of state.
“We had another dog, Alex, who was 13 years old when we found Zoot, and we had to have her put down about a month later,” Bachmann says. “Alex was intensely curious about Zoot and would follow him around and sniff at him.
“Zoot has always slept on the bed with us and for weeks in the beginning, he would attack my toes, but not Ted’s. I used to have to hide my feet from him so I could get to sleep. Now he sleeps on my head and kneads my neck — he still keeps me awake doing that. But he is Ted’s cat. He clearly prefers Ted. During the day, he will come lie on Ted, and he likes for Ted to hold him upside down.”
An Expanding Household
“Just a couple of weeks after we found Zoot, our daughter moved in with us and brought her two rescue cats, Tony and Leo, who are part Maine coon, and her dog, Princess, a basset hound and German shepherd mix. She had adopted the cats from Street Cats about seven years ago,” Bachmann says. “Zoot bossed the big cats around from the beginning. (We did spend a week or so with the big cats restricted to the upstairs, and we introduced them through a closed crate at first).”
Fast-forward almost a year: Bachmann says, “In April 2024, I ran the Oklahoma Aquarium run in Jenks, and Jenks Animal Control had a couple of dogs at the finish line who were available for adoption. I met one of those dogs and could not quit thinking about him. He looked like a Pyrenees-husky mix, with one blue eye and one brown. I waited a couple of weeks, thinking, ‘We have three cats and a dog and shouldn’t add another.’ But the thoughts wouldn’t go away, and I kept looking at a photo of the dog on the Jenks Animal Control website. Then we adopted him. We changed his name from Titan to Buster, and Zoot had to adjust to a big dog joining the family.”
Now, Bachmann says, “Zoot and Buster run the house. Zoot does get the zoomies and picks on Leo, one of the Maine coons. Buster and Princess, our daughter’s dog, have become fast friends, so we are a house full of rescue animals.”
Bachmann says, “Ted is a retired school band director. He taught at Jenks for 23 years before we moved to Houston for six years. When we came back, he taught at Sand Springs and then at Union before retiring. I worked as a financial accountant/CPA for over 20 years, then went back to school to become a mental health therapist. I have been working as a therapist for 20 years now and am in private practice.
“Ted and I have always had animals. We started out with two purebred German shepherds, then a purebred golden retriever before we became pure ‘Adopt, don’t shop’ believers. Ted and I have had many cats over the course of our 47-year marriage, all of them rescues.
“We had been catless for several years when Zoot came along. Maybe the lesson is that running is a risky business — it will bring you animals, both cats and dogs.”
And how well that risk has turned out for the Bachmanns — and Zoot!
