Tiger Lily


Tiger Lily joined us, due to the efforts of my friend Jane, in February of 2017 (I just checked the date). Jane expertly negotiated so that our cat Belle, who did not like living with the other cats, moved in with another woman who wanted a single cat, and then TL moved in when her owner had to give her up. She was supposed to pay rent and never did (how does a cat pay rent anyway?)

I just found my first text from the person who had been fostering her:


TL also liked a challenge, so she decided Patrick was "her" person. She would come sit next to me as I worked or snuggle in bed, but the minute Patrick climbed under the covers she left me behind and went to his side, drooling with happiness as she went.


She had very little patience with Mimi, who she called "the fat one," but Dandelion was her best cat friend.

When we took the dogs over to Summit in the summer, she loved having full run of the house. But she made sure that we knew the 2F and 3F were her domain.

She had *opinions*, but one of them was that she was intensely loyal and loving to her family.

We never found out how old Tiger Lily was, but earlier this summer she started losing weight. So, like the princess she was, we put her on wet food. That did not keep her from scooping the dry food out of the bowl with her paw so she could eat it off the floor, or insisting we leave the tub faucet trickling water because she thought the cat fountain was stupid.

In the last week, though, she stopped eating even the stinky wet food. She lost all her weight basically overnight. She was ready to go, and we spent hours just sitting with her. On the hottest day of the week, Patrick, who hates heat, came over to Ashland (where there is no AC) to spend the night with her. Last night she lay on the couch between us watching "Only Murders In the Building" with us.

I came back to Ashland today to hang with her, and not long after that, her breathing got shallower, and then stopped. She went on her terms.

I used to call us a "low rent petting zoo" with 3 dogs and 3 cats. 2022 has been a beast of a year, and now we're down to 1 cat.

There's a big hole in my heart.



Comments

Unknown said…
her former owner had always wanted to pay for her care but went through a series of job losses, alas
August 4, 2022 at 1:56 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brutus

Image
In 2019, we were on our way back from spring break when Cheryl, who Beatrix had interned with at GiffyDog, reached out to us about fostering a pomeranian (since she knew Beatrix loved the breed). The day we got back, the person who had been fostering him brought him over. Brutus sauntered in, grabbed a rawhide as long as he was that Coya had been chewing, and settled in next to me in the chair. Patrick says "I knew at that point he was never leaving." And he didn't. He got the name "Brutus Brewpup" when, as we initially had him and thought we should expose him to people who might want to adopt him, we took him out to a taproom and found he LOVED it. Pretty soon, taking him to taprooms turned into a regular pastime. But he liked other things too. He loved Christmas: And Halloween: And springtime: And snow, especially the first snowfall: And really winter in general: He loved to go up to the cabin (and I'm so glad we got to go up this last weekend): And to sun
Read more

New Year's Eve 2023

Image
I did not want to be laying in bed, wearing a fleece onesie and still shivering, while my husband and daughter headed out to the several wonderful NYE parties we have planned. I have a beautiful new dress that I got in Duluth for tonight, and was looking forward to the collection of friends we would be seeing. Our friend Whitney in particular is throwing the last party at her B and B, and it's breaking my heart not to go. But I feel logey and coughy, and more to the point, I have a low fever, and I don't want to mess around with possibly getting anyone sick. I'm still holding out hope that I'll miraculously feel better and the fever was a mistaken reading, but I doubt that. And I feel lucky to have 3 sets of people who want me in their lives tonight and who I don't want to get sick. As our yoga teacher Viv says, it's not like a page turns and everything is magic. You get some things that are good, and some that are not, and life is living in the middle. -- In 20
Read more

Choosing Happy

Image
This post is brought to you by a few thoughts from yesterday: First and foremost, Patrick's new book that he wrote for Beatrix for her sixteenth birthday. Available for a hot second before we leave for spring break tomorrow. The response of someone he knows on the internet, who wrote yesterday that he had decided years ago that he would never be happy (and reading his posts, he seems to be right.). It was one of the saddest things I've encountered in a long time. A friend's social media post, in which she discusses another person's comment of " I really think a sizable proportion of the population has become addicted to being angry" with the sage response of " I think a lot of them are doing it because it's more enjoyable to be angry than to be depressed." A nd we finally finished watching this season's Fargo last night. I won't give any spoilers, but it's extremely on theme with this post. So this is the deal. There's a lot on
Read more