Tigger-Lou: Shy and Sneaky Hunter

Age : Tigger was supposedly 8 or 9 when we got her – so going by this we estimate she would have been 10 when she died 🙁
Arrival: March 13th 2004

How she got here: She came with Sox  – from a relative of a friend who could only take two of their four cats to new housing.

Why she is with us: She came to us as said above – we only initially had them as companions for myself to get through awful times , we actually werent meant to have two – only Sox but I insisted and mum caved! lol Later we found Tigger and Sox both had health issues (this was before The Craft-E-Kittens came about)

Medical Issues: Bladder problems, Cystitis and on thinking back with my current knowledge I would say she also had some form of nerve problem and renal problem (much like sox which wouldn’t surprise me as they were inseparable)

Day to-day attitude: Tigger-Lou was a very nervous cat around anyone except myself, mum and Grandad. She occasionally accepted “treats” from relatives (much to my annoyance as i disliked them being fed dairy etc).
She was vocal at night if left outside but would immediately curl on my bed for a snoozy hug once let in for the night.
She loved hugs and being wrapped in a hooded baby blanket which calmed her if she got scared. She went missing for over a month not long after she got here – but we knew she couldn’t be far away as Socky kept going out back then and sitting near our back door “talking” to another cat (this ended up being Tigger but we could never get there quick enough before she would run off ).
Eventually she came home when one day I refused to come indoors until very late and she snuck up to me, sat at my feet and somehow magically bonded with me as if I’d earned her trust again – meowing lowly to me like … is it really you? Oh my Gosh where have YOU been(!!).
After this we were very close until a week before she died, when I could sense something was wrong but she seemed fine in herself, other than her usual medical concerns.
She ran away out of the blue again Feb 2006, I was confused and wondered “why now” after everything was so good for a year. She had been to the vets on and off with bladder problems and had been scared to be near sox from oct 2005 onwards as he “smelled different” after his car accident which had left him housebound and wearing funky coloured leg wraps and cones etc – but we had been so close and for her just to “leave”…. It turns out she had left to find a cosy spot in our adjoining gardens (Uncles greenhouse).
We aren’t sure whether she knew she was passing and wanted to be alone – or the coincidental snow+wind storm that happened that week spooked her in to hiding out.
She was found hunkered down in a plant box just under a week after she disappeared – 25ft from our back door! Frozen solid (sorry too much detail). Heartbreak …. doesnt describe it.

Abilities: She was a good bird hunter (once traumatically to the point of even lining up a whole family of mummy pidge and 3 babies under my bedroom window when she knew I was very sick and had been told by the house-calling doctor to eat more dark meat…. No lie!) – obviously we didn’t eat them, I buried them but she was convinced It had helped as mum cooked Chicken and she saw me eating that instead…. Anyway She also loved to play with frogs! But didn’t play very much other than with her “fish on a stick” toy! Good at opening doors though.

Special Needs: She needed tablets for her bladder (UTI) and had to have some things to help flush her crystals out of her but I cant recall the name. She also had to have weekly / bi weekly blood tests for some time due to something else but sorry to say back then I was focused on things happening and caring for her / them and not to make notes of it all.

Coat description: short brown , white and grey stripes like a tiger. Classed as “tabby” by the vets but was an almost mirror of Sox except she had the brown markings over her black coat (imagine spraying the final detail over a black undercoat)…

Breed Detail: Unsure – Sox was a Tuxedo British Shorthair , but what does that make her? tabby or other?

Always a wandering spirit, but loved mummy above all.

When she first arrived she spent the whole time hiding under the bed and heater in my room. 

She looked to Sox for protection and guidance in this “scary new place” and soon when we were alone she began to come out of her shell and loved to wait until night time and lights were off to sneak up onto my bed beside me (I was in my teens at this point and the cause was only a dream).

Tigger always had a skittish nature unless it was on her terms. She loved Chicken and Ham (not something WE trained them into having) and would howl at the fridge occassionally for treats and snacks with a disgruntled look when told NO Darling.

Her absolute favourite things to do were playing with her fishy on a wand, being wrapped up in a babies bath towel with the hood on her head and being cradled upside down like a rock-a-bye-baby. Also trying to sleep on your pillow at night. 

Tigger wandered for months sometimes

At one point not long after first venturing outside, Tigger disappeared for months into the back garden and surrounding areas (we’re not sure whether she ventured as far as the sheep fields out the back like Sox used to but she certainly liked to hide in the long grass and big shrubs my family used to grow in adjoining gardens).
We could tell she was still close-by as Sox who first was anxious he’d lost her – suddenly became very interested in daily trips to a certain part of the garden and In June 2004 one night sat outside with my while I yet again called and waited for her on the patio into the dark hours… And something must have been “discussed” between the fluffies and Sox trotted off, I heard a series of noises and out comes Tigger (who at this point I hadn’t actually SEEN for a long time and had gone through the fears etc over what could have happened to her)… After this obviously it took a little time to gain her trust again but she became like my second shadow and would only allow me to let her indoors, stroke her and she would begin to lay on my bed during most of the day / night like “now I’m home, I’m not letting YOU out of my sight”

In 2006 there was a large sudden blizzard, fog, snow, high winds, the works. We’d been keeping the cats indoors as Sox had been in an accident with a car a few month before and numerous operations… but Tigger slipped out one morning (think Dad let her out!) and she couldn’t hear me calling her over the wind howling etc… I remember staying up all night keep going back out, calling, waiting, hoping… a couple of days later I had the sick feeling that she wasn’t just hiding somewhere waiting it out… And later I think maybe that day or the next my Uncle found her in his greenhouse hiding in the warmest place she could find (polystyrene crate) and sadly passed away.

She must have been there for a good few hours as she was ….. rigid… (and not just the usual) but physically frozen from the minus temps. I recall cradling her in Uncles fleece jacket (he’d taken the time to wrap her before bringing her to me) and rocked her like a baby while he helped dig her grave in our gardens. It would be the first time I had to bury one of my own – but I had experienced family losses before and was hit by a mix of emotions and questions mentally (unspoken things like is it acceptible to cry like this infront of people? Can I bury her with her teddies? what will happen to Sox now?).
She died and was buried February 28th 2006 and I felt so broken. 
I’ll add more later.

(alternate entry from a while ago)

Tigger and Sox came together and were originally from the same litter. Tigger turned out to be a girl. They came to their previous family from RSPCA but when the family attempted to get them taken back into their care, they were told that due to their age they would most likely be PTS. (Find out more here)

Tigger passed to Rainbow Bridge 28th February 2006 aged aprx 10yrs
It’s difficult to give an accurate account of how she passed as she was never a very settled baby and loved to go roaming for days / weeks at a time although you could often hear her / spot her in the garden. One day after she had began to settle down and come in nights, she just didnt come in and I “had that feeling” so frantically searched for her only to find her the next morning curled up in a planter in the greenhouse. The night she didnt come home had been a very bitter blizzard-like storm. I have always had the notion that she couldnt gather energy enough to maker her way up the last part of the gardens and sought comfort in a warm familar place only to be taken in the night. My heart aches each time i recall that she was within arms reach.