One Tiny Ambassador From the Embassy of Compassion ~ Pawprints and Purrs

Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.
One Tiny Ambassador
From the Embassy of Compassion

A Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization
All donations are tax deductible
Copyright © 1997 - 2008

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." ~ Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Statesman and Philosopher

Tigger's Diary - Part II

A Taste of the Good Life

Ahhh! Too Tuckered to Play Any More Today

July 30 - This has been another anxious day, a day of constant checking email or keeping the phone line free otherwise. Today Julius arrived in the United States! How relieved we are - the third of the Singapore Four is home ... she will be fostered in Washington DC, then sent on to her fairy godmother.

Little Missy, KitKat and Tigger's mother, will also be coming soon - all the courageous hedge cat survivors will finally have caring and loving homes.

Tig is still bouncing around, playing and romping. Now that she knows she can come out and play several hours at a time during the day, she feels the guestroom is truly hers. She won't eat and drink from the other kiddens' dishes; when she needs the litterbox, she goes straight to her own. Of course, she wants to check out theirs, so we continue to closely monitor her activity when she's out with the other cats.

Craig just left for a Fire Police call. Now that he left the house and I'm in the guestroom where the computer is, she voluntarily walked back here and has snuggled down amongst the shams and throw pillows on the guestroom bed for a wee catnap. Before we retire for the night, she'll be allowed to have the usual evening romp with the kiddens as ours have always done.

And she's still taking her nasty medication like a brave little trooper. It dissolves very rapidly, so if I don't pill her properly, it does cause some drooling if the dose doesn't immediately go down. Yet she's really good about it all, lying rather calmly in the towel in my arms while I rub her throat and speak softly to her.

July 31 - TV is another facination for little Tigger. She will stare at the screen for minutes on end. Between the keyboard, the monitor and television she will avidly watch until you actually believe she's fully understanding what she's seeing.

She and Lucky have a fantastic time together. Of all the kiddens, he plays and frolics with her the most; probably because he's still such a big ole kitten himself. He's going on three years old, but has many kitten antics still. The other cats appear to get bored with her kitten ways and soon walk away from her, but she and he play constantly. When she's behind her closed door, he will play pawsies with her as they chatter to one another.

August 1 - This past week with Tigger has been such pleasure. One can't ask for a sweeter little cat! She's so playful and always puts a smile on our faces.
I didn't spend as much time with her today as I have been, but with free access to the house now and no more monitoring litter boxes, she's right at home. She played for hours with Lucky and Spook - the three older cats appear grouchy with her after a few minutes and go to their private places in the house after they decide she's too much for them. It doesn't seem to faze Tig at all, for she'll be running around playing chase-you-catch-me with Lucky in no time.

When Craig came home from work today, he spent more time with her than he has been, so I don't feel as badly as I had during the day while I went about my house doings and computer work. Later tonight, as I was working on email and my site, I could hear him laughing out loud at her antics. Several times he'd call me into the living room to point out some of her acrobatic skills. She can leap three feet into the air effortlessly. At times she does a priceless little jack-in-the-box trick that will crack us up: starting from a pouncing crouch, she will tear off in a dead run at her target and as she pounces on it, she'll do that three foot leap three times consecutively on top of it - including Lucky's back. He must like it; he always comes back for more rough-housing from her.

August 2 - I was getting worried about Tig today. Her food and water dishes didn't appear to be touched. Finally, I saw why...she's been sharing the big cats' dishes. For some reason, my five have never wanted their own dish - place five dishes before them and they'll congregate together at one dish, batting and swatting each other until that dish is empty before moving on to the next. I give them their food in the largest d*g (shhhhh!) dish I can find. With this huge dish, they line up waiting for the first to finish eating, the second, the third...until all five have eaten. Go figure. Unfortunately for baby Tig, I do believe my greedy slugs for cats make the little tyke wait until they've had their fill!

She has graduated to eating and drinking from their dishes, but still likes to sleep in her own room. When Craig retired for the evening, it wasn't long before she ambled back in here - for the other cats had all piled in their respective places in our bed with him. She sleeps on the guestbed, though she can't be seen. She buries herself between the bed pillows and shams sacking out for the night. She doesn't come out until she hears either Craig or me get up and start moving around.

Today, for the first time, she began instigating play between herself and Lucky. She'll hurtle her tiny body at him (as the big lug stands there and watches her!); seconds before she reaches him, she wraps her arms around his neck and down they tumble. If he pins her down, she literally growls at him - he releases her el pronto. Must not like those vicious wee claws popping him across the nose!

Hey...that's my wee head, Bubba!	Welp, I knocked d'boy right off'n his feet!
After wrestling, playing pawsies is bestest!	Lemme tell ya a li'l secret, Sweets...

August 3 - Cricket and her family are going to dearly love this affectionate kidden. Jana truly worked hard on gaining these four cats complete trust to love people after their experiences with the heartless, uncompassionate majority in Singapore. Her months of working with them did pay off. She has done a magnificent job in taming them!

Over a year ago, we had bought our five kiddens a gawdy green feathered bird wand; the bird with feathered plumage and long tail feathers. They weren't impressed at all. The silly thing was put in a bread basket on the top of the refrigerator and never brought back out until Tig entered our lives. After one short week, the poor birdie is completely featherless! She has pounced and played and romped it literally down to the beraggled bare bird body.

Julius arrived safely at her fairy godmother's today!

August 4 - Craig and I were gone most of the day. This is the first time both of us were gone at the same time since her arrival. I wondered how she and the other cats were getting along the entire time we were away. When we entered the front door, the older cats were all positioned in their normal spots they seem to get as they await our return. I called to Tig, but didn't see her. Thinking she was in her little burrow deep in the pillows of the guestroom I headed that way. As I walked the length of living room, I saw her tucked in my rocker looking up at me. We had obviously awakened her from a nap. Lucky was laying in the arm chair across from her; I'm certain he was keeping an eye out for his little fun playmate to finish her rest. I catch him staring at her often. I wonder if he senses her soon departure from our lives.

She loves to be cradled in my arms as a human child, with her tummy exposed. She lies there with her eyes closed as I softly talk with her and lightly caress beneath her chin, down her chest and tummy. Occasionally, she'll lazily open her eyes as she silently meows, stretching her head back for more. When she has her fill of scritches and rubs, she'll give a half twist and rest her chin in the bend of my arm. I always lift her to my face then and she invaribly leans toward me giving whisker kisses.

August 5 - Our days with little Tigger are rapidly flying by. Today as we watched our five and her socialize and play, we began to realize how much Lucky is going to miss her. Of all the cats, he's been her best playmate, her almost constant companion even before she was permitted outside her closed guestroom door. Though the others would congregate at the door, only he would meow a greeting and play pawsies beneath the door with her. I had thought yesterday perhaps he may sense she's leaving soon because he stays so close by her. I really believe with all my heart he does. He and I will have to console each other. But how do you console a pet with his loss of a dear pal? I will always know how she's doing and where she is, but how will he ever know? I only hope he doesn't grieve.

For the Christmas the year of my arrival in Pennsylvania, a lovely online friend from North Carolina, Suez Kinney, sent the Kiddens a box of wonderful kitty toys. Enclosed were also three small silk covered Christmas ball ornaments. She said her cats loved them. Ours did ... for about three days. I got tired of them simply laying in a corner and placed them in a basket that holds their cat toys where they'd been all this time.

When Tig arrived, I gave her three or four toys to play with during her isolation period. It wasn't long after she had access to the house that she dicovered the basket, dragging out the toys one by one, including those three ornaments. Two days ago, I noticed all three were beginning to show some fragging from many swattings and battings.

Sometime earlier this afternoon, as I walked through the living room, I thought I'd run into a spider web (horrors!), feeling the fine thread against my legs. Realizing what it was, but not finding an immediate end, I started pulling. She'd managed to unravel the silk threads from two of the balls completely. I found the bare green and blue plastic balls later. Around and around, criss-crossed through the living room, under furniture and around chair and table legs, even the rocker rungs, the thread ran. Eeeeehaw!!! What a field day she must've had while we were out today.

August 6 - Tonight is the last night little Tigger will spend in our home. She's been the life of the household these two weeks - two weeks of much love and joy she's brought to all of us - the Kiddens, Craig and me.

We've been trying all evening to catch her and Lucky at play for one last picture, but of all nights, they seem more interested in watching and listening to television. She doesn't want to budge from the rocker and he is content to lay in front of her on the floor. Ah, well ... we have zillions of pictures in our minds and hearts to last a life time.

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