Tiger

Tiger was my very first cat and my first pet - ever. We never had pets in the house when I was little, I don't know why, we just didn't, maybe my parents didn't want to deal with an animal, I really don't know. Maybe they didn't want the mess, the inconvenience or the expense of a pet. With my parents, especially my mom, it was hard to tell. Tiger was truly a unique cat. He did the impossible. Tiger convinced my family -both parents included - to adopt him.

When I was 13, during the summer,  a big brown and black striped stray cat came around to visit us one day.  I had been wanting a cat. A friend of mine had just gotten a black cat and I went over to her house to see her and her cat and I thought that cat was really nice. She told me stories about her cat every day. The cat's name was 'Cinders' because it liked to lay in the litter box and being a black cat, he looked like he was covered with ashes. I had previously and erroneously thought that cats were delicate had to be pampered from seeing puffy Persians on cat food ads on TV. I was starting to learn, through my friend, that this was definitely not the case. Then there was this show on TV called 'Big Cats, Little Cats' and that really made me want a cat. That's when Tiger came into my life. Tiger, while just being himself, came into our lives and showed me what a strong tough predators domestic cats really are.

I remember, it was around July or August in the late 1960's when Tiger came on to our front porch. It was was a big square, covered porch with a wrought iron railing around the edge and then was surrounded by a hedge that had sweet-smelling flowers which flies loved. It was fun to shake the bushes and make the flies zoom around and buzz loudly. It was a hot day and this cat was probably looking for some cover away from the sun. I saw him on our porch, caught him and started rubbing him under his chin. At first, he started to growl, but slowly, the growling went away and it looked like he was smiling. I got him a saucer of milk. I didn't know then that cow's milk often gives cats indigestion. Back then, people put out a saucer of milk for a stray cat. He was hungry, so he lapped the milk right up.

He decided that this wasn't a bad place to hang out. I pet him and called him 'Tiger' because with those stripes, he looked like a tiger. He seemed to know that was his name. As it got darker, he went into the hedge for better security, but when I called out his name, he meowed. I called out his name several times and each time, he answered with a meow. He started to come around every day and learned to come to the back door which was just off the kitchen. I left treats outside for him, including a few table scraps.

My parents noticed him hanging around the house. He had a low, guttural meow and looked like a pretty tough guy and they liked that about him. He was intelligent and you could see it in his eyes. He was also a very pretty cat with those black stripes along with the white on his cheeks and chin and the light tan tummy with a line of spots. He wasn't a cuddly cat, he didn't like to be picked-up and he didn't like his tail or his back legs being touched in any way. I think he could have easily become feral had we not taken him in. He was still really cool and obviously ruled the neighborhood.

 Our neighbor's cat, a dainty little calico cat named Taffy noticed him too, when she went into heat and he noticed her too. One day, my grandmother was visiting and was cooking in the kitchen. I heard the strangest cat sounds coming from the back porch and wanted to see what the fuss was about. My grandmother grew up on a farm and knew EXACTLY what the fuss was all about and didn't want me looking out the back door to see what the fuss was all about. Perhaps she thought they wanted their privacy, but more likely, she just didn't want anything to do with it. A few months later, Taffy had a litter of kittens and one of them looked just like Tiger, except that he was gray. One of the other kittens looked like Taffy and I forget what the other kitten looked like, I think Taffy had a litter of 3 kittens. I remember the first time I went down to their basement and saw the kittens. It was the first time I'd ever seen newborn kittens that were only hours old. They were so tiny and their eyes were closed, but they knew where their mother was.

Tiger came around to our house every day and hung out in the bushes of the back yard. Sometimes he would sit on the shed we had that was attached to the house. My dad called it the garden house and the roof was easily accessible to our back porch. I think he could see what was going on with the birds and other animals in the neighborhood. We were feeding him every day now. My mother even bought a dry cat food that came in a pink box that looked like a milk carton and it was called 'Milkit.' Tiger was capturing the hearts of our family. He had already captured mine, but now he was capturing the hearts of my parents and even my brother. Sometimes, when my parents were unaware, I'd let him into the house briefly. 

I was in middle school, which back then, was called 'junior high school'. I was in seventh grade and getting used to going to different classes, rather than staying in one classroom all day long, which actually wasn't bad because it gave a long, boring day a little variety. Tiger still came to our house everyday and I fed him everyday. Occasionally, Tiger wouldn't show up for a couple of days and I worried that something might have happened to him. My mom thought someone else was also feeding him and that made me very angry that someone would try to take my cat away. I was already considering him my cat. Tiger was starting to put on a little weight, which was good because he was very skinny. He would get into a fight every once in a while, with a long haired tabby who I think was feral. This cat sometimes had the nerve to come into our yard which Tiger had staked out as his territory. This was not tolerated by Tiger and he would let his feelings be known to this intruder in a big, noisy way.

When the kittens got old enough, Taffy would bring them outside and occasionally, they would wander over to our yard.  The neighbor's boy named the kitten that looked like Tiger, Timmy. One day, I saw Tiger showing Timmy how to hunt, which I later found out was unusual because sometimes the father cat might harm or kill the kittens, but Tiger was being good to Timmy. as Timmy got older, his gray fur turned more brown and he looked even more like his dad.

Here's the only picture taken of Timmy, Tiger's son.

Unfortunately, our neighbors often left Taffy and her kittens outside and Timmy disappeared, we think some idiot stole him. It's really better to leave cats and kittens inside, there are so many terrible things that can happen to them outside. It was sad when he disappeared, he was turning into a really beautiful kitten and he was smart, just like his dad.

Meanwhile, Tiger was my best friend. He was not a lap cat, he hated being handled and he sported a lot of attitude, but he like to be petted on the head and rubbed on the chin and behind his ears. He would be with me and it made me feel happy when he was there. When I talked to him, he would meow his low meow. One thing I discovered about cats is the unconditional love they give, even the less cuddly, tough cats. They have a presence that makes you feel better. I wasn't very happy in school. This was in the late 60's when girls wore long, beautiful straight hair and mine was short and frizzy. I had to wear weird-looking old glasses that were just plain ugly and  also had to wear abominations called corrective shoes. I was born pigeon-toed with my hip out of joint and was forced to wear these hideous monstrosities until I was fourteen. I swear the people who designed this horrible footwear did their very best to make them as ugly and unattractive as humanly possible so kids like me could be ridiculed. Add that to the fact that I was overprotected and very sheltered by well-meaning parents, not very socially aware and looked like I was about 10 years old at the age of 13, so I was about as popular at school as someone carrying the plague. Add that to the fact that my parents were often  hassling me about my grades, so it was not the best of times for me. Tiger gave me solace and friendship. He gave me what nobody else could give me. He gave me unconditional love.

When Halloween came, we were afraid someone would play a cruel Halloween prank on him and maybe hurt him, so my parents, who had also grown fond of Tiger, let me take him into our house to stay for the first time. We bought him a litter box with cat litter and he had a water bowl and a food bowl. It was my responsibility to feed him, give him water and change his cat litter. We didn't get him a cat bed because he stayed in the basement at night and we had a comfortable sofa down there that he could sleep on and he had that whole sofa to himself which was so much better than the hard ground under the bushes. Tiger was  at that point, our cat, he was my first cat.