Tiger- My First Big Orange Cat

Every since I was just a little girl I have loved cats. I had quite a parade of them: Blackie, Mama-Cat and others I don't remember... with none of them lasting very long. They would run away, get hit by a car, get into cat fights or some other thing would happen and they were just gone.

Mom knew how much I loved cats and being such a wonderful, indulgent, and loving mother accommodated my cat fetish.




Joanie and Tiger Fall 1959
(OK, is it just me or does this look just like Stuart at 7 years old?)







I remember that one fall evening in 1959 Momma arrived home from work with this big box (seemed big to me). I always ran onto the back porch to welcome her home; when I looked in the box all I could see were cans of cat food. In my 7-year-old brain I thought, "Why did Mommy bring home cat food when I don't have a cat?" But when I looked closer there was a little orange ball of fluff! I was euphoric!

A slumber party in our tiny front room.

This funny little kitten came from one of Momma's coworkers at the US Forest Service in Quincy, CA. I gave him the very original name of Tiger. Tiger became my constant friend for the next 13 years! What made the difference? This was the first cat we had neutered. Now he wasn't a Tom-Cat wanting to prowl all night, he was happy to lie in bed with me and knead his paws and drool. We figured that he must have been weaned too early for him to carry this habit through out his long life.


Summer 1960- Sleeping buddies.









Since no other cat lived that long we were only used to little cats. Now came Super Cat! Tiger just kept getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider. By his senior years people would ask us, "So when is your cat going to have kittens?" We'd reply, "HE'S NOT!"

Tiger's other wonderful trait was that he had a purr like a Mack Truck! He was also one of the gentlest cats. In later years Cindy would cart him around like a sack of potatoes. What a wonderful friend... My Tiger!

Christmas Day 1960- Tiger and Joanie in her new bathrobe.

The happy part about this story is I just discovered these photos that I don't ever remember seeing before. Several years ago my sweet niece, Cindy, offered to scan a TON of family photos so that we could all share. I can't even imagine the time it took to scan, edit and create disks from over 2000 photos, but that is what Cindy did. She mailed me the disk and I looked at the "old photos" but never bothered to investigate the folders marked "Ann's Girl Scout Album"; that would just be all her stuff, right? No, this is where I found numerous photos of her silly little sister who-she-prayed-for, how can I be so lucky?