WHEN KITTENS GO INSANE
She was a small long haired kitten and came to me from a couple who raised Doberman Pinchers. Thrown into the center of the dogs for their amusement, she became a chew toy to either bite or chase. Tiny and fragile, from one side of the house to the other she ran franticly for her life. Eating or using her litter box became moments of certain death.
Tigger is 20 years old and limberly curls beside me on the couch now. Her long soft hair is the color of shadows on a forest trail. Her eyes are sienna brown, which as a kitten, had pulsing kaleidoscope stars in the center. When I went to pick her up 20 yrs ago, the grey carpet of the farm house was worn to bare nubs from animal toe nails. Yet the owners saw no wrong in what they were doing. They loved her, they said, the man displaying to me how she purred when he hung her by her back legs like a piece of meat above the dogs. So nuts with fear did Tigger become, that any violent act upon her, as long as it had a human touch, became an act of affection. Brutal acts made her purr. It seemed insane. And maybe she was.
COMFORT THROUGH MY BAD TIMES
She never outgrew her kitten nursing and franticly sucked on sweaters and shirts when at all possible. I thought of the baby monkeys taken away from their mothers too early in scientific experiments. She constantly looked for fear in dark corners, jumping at the slightest noise, and like many cats seemed to see a world I did not. Passing a bathroom in a dark hallway, she screamed and jumped 3 ft in the air. I saw nothing.
These were my Bad Boy days, and she survived my many disasterous relationships. Holding her like a baby during my tragedies, she sucked on my shirts and purred.
Her presence in my life, through thick and thin, lasted longer then any of my relationships. From apartment to apartment Tigger, Travis my little boy and I moved. I worked in a Packing House to keep the three of us going. Slowly but surely Tigger relaxed and became our sole and loving pet.
Came the day we moved to a small town free of violence, lined with old trees and a wonderful blue ranch style house. We packed the moving van, and as the last box was loaded onto the truck I realized Tigger was gone. For hours I called her name, asked neighbors if they had seen her. But it was time to meet our new landlord for the keys to our blue house and new life. I mourned the loss of my little Tigger. It was as if I could see through her Kaleidoscope coffee eyes and feel her desertion and terror. She haunted me every moment of the day, and the good part is that as long as I could feel her I had hope she was alive. One month later I received a call.
“You looking for a cat?” the crude voice asked.
“Yesssss…….WHY!?”
“Well I`m just a mile or two away from you. I think your cat must a been looking for you. She’s been staying in my trailer with me and the kids. She was pretty dirty and skinny when we found her. Saw your sign and her picture in the Laundromat in the next town. There’s a reward right?”
LOST CATS THAT FIND THEIR OWNERS
It seemed impossible. I had heard of dogs looking for owners and traveling miles on a highway. If what this person was telling me was true, Tigger had walked 10 miles on her feline instincts. How would she know where my son and I were? Did cats have a sense of smell, or just a spooky ability to “know.” So with these questions I drove with doubt to the trailer I was given directions to.
I got out of my car and shook the hand of a tired woman with many children. After introductions she called ,
“Tyler! Bring the cat over here!”
In the arms of a hot sweaty little boy, a cat limply bounced. It was Tigger. She seemed joyful and relieved to see me, but kept her composure. I gave the woman $50.00 reward money, and climbed back into my car with Tigger on my lap. Together we drove back home, her sucking my shirt sleeve all the way home.
As I tell this story Tigger looks wisely at me with a cataract as thick as leather over one eye. She has seen the entrance of other abused animals into our home. At twenty years old, she has gone into a strange dementia. For no reason at all, she runs in terror from one side of the house to the other, as if the Dobermans of her kitten hood are chasing her. Recently I changed her cat food to one with out food coloring and claims that it contains vitamins for hair balls and aging. Within two days her dementia left and she is at last calmly enjoying her senior years in peace.