Notasulga's 'Post Office Cat' receives national attention
By JEFF THOMPSON
Managing Editor
Updated Jan 15, 2009 - 11:53:27 EST
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Sammy, Notasulga's Post Office Cat 
Already a prominent figure in Notasulga, Sammy the Cat became something of a media darling on Monday (January 12) as his story aired regularly on CNN.
Until last week, Sammy, a 10-year-old orange tabby, regularly napped on a table in the front room of the post office. But one complaint put Notasulga’s “Post Office Cat” on the outside looking in – potentially for good.
Sammy lives less than a block from the post office in a white, two-story house on Lyons Street owned and occupied by the family of Lorenz Ponzig, according to neighbors. Sammy spends his nights there, but to many Notasulga residents, Sammy is like another post office employee, promptly reporting to work each morning.
Residents greet him when they enter, speak to him like he can answer and in his time of need they came to offer their support.
Notasulga’s temporary Postmaster Carolyn Hood said Sammy’s spotlight turned on after a female Notasulga resident filed an internet complaint with the U.S. Post Office. The complaint, which requested a return phone call, appeared in one of Hood’s morning reports last week.
Hood said the woman’s primary qualm was that Sammy, a cat, didn’t pay federal taxes and therefore had no right to be in a federal building. Hood also said the woman’s complaints later multiplied to include that the cat attacked her at night while she was alone in the building and that she was allergic.
Hood’s answer to the woman’s grievance was to post a sign that read, “NOTICE. Sammy (the post office cat) is no longer allowed in this building due to a customer complaint. Thanks for your help, Postmaster Carolyn Hood.”
“But the town went crazy after that sign went up,” Hood said. “They call (Sammy) in here more than ever now.”
So last Wednesday (January 7), responding to the sign, approximately 15 Notasulga residents organized. They put in a phone call to WSFA Channel 12 News in Montgomery and met a reporter at the post office. One of Notasulga’s other prominent figures, former Auburn University football coach Pat Dye, put his full support behind Sammy while in front of the camera.
“Sammy’s got more friends in Notasulga than any other individual I know,” Dye told WSFA reported Judd Davis.
The Ponzigs weren’t home Monday, but their neighbor, Elizabeth Averrett, who also appeared on the WSFA report and on CNN, said one of the community’s solutions for the complaint against Sammy being in a federal building was to get him his own Post Office Box.
Averrett, an 87-year-old retired school teacher who still travels down to the local gym to lift weights three days a week, said another Notasulga resident, Louise Pratt, rented PO Box 173 in Sammy’s name.
Hood not only pointed out the box, but pulled the mail Sammy received on Monday. Hood showed off 28 pieces addressed to “Sammy the Cat” from across the country – places as far away as California.
Between Friday, January 9, and Tuesday, January 13, Sammy received 68 pieces of mail and two packages.
Hood also said she’s fielded several calls since the story hit the airwaves from citizens concerned for Sammy – and not just Notasulga citizens. Hood listed two calls from the Pacific coast and a call from a teacher in North Carolina as examples.
But all the attention aimed at the small-town dilemma, or “cat fight” as national media is calling it, may have been bad for Sammy chances of getting back inside.
Complaints traveled farther up the federal ladder and Hood said the order came down Monday afternoon to refuse Sammy future admittance to the Notasulga Post Office under any circumstances. Hood said she was directed to regulations that prohibit animals of any kind – sans seeing-eye dogs – from entering federal buildings.
While Hood prioritizes professionalism in the situation, she can’t help but wear some of her southern on her sleeve. She, Averrett and many of the town’s regular post office-goers don’t see, for one, the problem with Sammy’s presence, nor the point in evicting a cat from a nap spot he’s occupied for a decade.
“Bother me?” said one resident when asked about Sammy. “I was going to suggest we put in a cat door for him.”
Some Notasulga residents were quick to voice their opinions about the woman who made the initial complaint -- some bordering on unprintable -- but all refused to release her name to the press.
Sammy, though, doesn’t seem phased by the ordeal. He spent Monday in front of the post office, soaking up more attention than sun it seemed. As a 10-year resident, the argument could be made that he’s feels pretty confident -- likely aware of Notasulga’s reputation of banding together and fighting things to the bitter end.
But if the community is successful in restoring Sammy to his old spot, the only forseeable problem will be Sammy’s ability to check his mail.
