Tiger II

As you may or may not know...I am not a cat person. Unfortunately for me, Holly has always loved cats. It was a year ago yesterday when my whole world was turned upside down. We had been cat-less for almost a year. Holly's last cat tragically went missing after a youth group lock-in at our place in March '06. Move ahead to Thanksgiving '06 and thats when my cat-free heaven fell apart. My brilliant step-father Roy comes in from the front yard and announces that we have some kittens on our front porch. Holly kicks in to rescue mode and decides she going to save the flea bags from their shattered lives of freedom, all you can eat field mice and a earth sized litter-box.

Holly ended up trapping 2 out of the 4 kittens in out garage. Luring them into the garage with food and then closing the garage door was the easy part. Catching them and taking them inside was a whole different story. I helped her corner them and then she wrestled them to the ground kickin' and clawin' taking scratch after scratch. She kept them in a travel crate and tried to feed them and get them used to her the first day. This picture she tried to feed the dark kitty some chicken and just stuffed it in his mouth. He just froze wide-eyed starring back but not chewing and not spitting out the chicken. Eventually the kitties moved in to the upstairs bathroom. Where they had room to play and Holly could still sit in there and let them get used to her...and they did. She also created a temporary cardboard wall pen in the middle of our living room where they could hangout with us. In the beginning, they just hid in their crate or in the cardboard walls like Tiger is doing in the pic above.

Holly's first thought was to keep the white kitty. Kirsten was going to take the dark kitty. After a while she became attached to the dark kitty and kept that one...he would become Tiger II. I thought his face/snout looked like a tigers face. Her first cat was named Tiger, so Tiger II it was.

The dogs were pretty excited to have some new toys...well, Jezebel was. T-Bone and I were both wondering what the heck we were thinking. Anytime we hear Jeze crying and whimpering...we know Tiger II got away from her and is hiding under the bed or some other place out of her reach. Usually upstairs we hear fast footsteps stomping around, coming to a stop and then the whimpering.

Seven months later, on June 11th, Tiger II visited the vet and weighed in at 11.09 lbs. Last September he weighed in at 13.10 lbs. He is probably pushing 15 lbs now at 1 year old and I have to admit...I like the little guy. The one thing he has going for him is he thinks he is a dog. He tries to stalk and wrestle T-Bone and Jezebel. He likes playing fetch which is what got me I think. He brings his toy mouse and drops it in front of me. I throw it and he chases it and brings back...its fetch with a cat. Weird.

Pretty cool cat I must say.