27 Years

Last week we buried our old friend Tigger. He had been with us for over 17 years - he was almost 18 years old, coming to us as a stray of about 6-7 months old. He was the last of 4 remarkable cats that had been part of our family since Bob was a baby.

The first 2 were Annie (Anniversary) acquired from an ad on our wedding anniversary in November 1981 and Bonou (Minou), a gift from a woman with whom I worked at Indian and Northern Affairs in Terrasses de la Chaudiere in Hull. Chris was in grade 2 French Immersion and the cat in the primary reader series was Minou - thus our French cat had a French name - only little brothers couldn't say Minou so she became Bonou.

These 2 girls were constant companions although they really didn't like each other very much - Minou was outgoing and a friendly, in-your-face cat.
Annie was very reserved and stand-offish until the latter part of her life.

When Dan got his first paper route, one of his customers gave him a black kitten as a tip - this cat became Sammy Dumper (a traditional family cat name). He was immediately very unpopular with the older female cats who by this time were about 6 1/2 years old. Dumps had a great personality, a regal profile, and was always getting himself injured in some way or another.
Last of all came Tigger - he adopted us - perhaps noticing all the cats that lived at our house, in September 1991 he began to sit on our back steps in hopes of being fed - within a few weeks he had moved inside and joined the family.

Dumps and Tiggs became great friends and allies against the old girls - although Bonou was clearly the top cat, chasing any offenders away from food dishes when she felt it was her dinner time.
We lost the old girls at 18 1/2 in May 2000 - Minou went first and then Annie missed her old friend so much that she was gone too within about 2 weeks.

The black boys were with us for trips to Nova Scotia in the summer - we lost Dumps for 4 days the first time we brought them down - he went outside and disappeared. We wandered around town calling him, posted signs, answered phone calls but no luck. Wayne put in two cat doors and 4 days later the clever cat found them, came into the house in the middle of the night and appeared on top of me in bed as if to say "get up and feed me".

Dumps became very ill in the fall of 2004 and then there was just Tiggs left. He was very lonely and became a very cuddly cat in his old age. He even tolerated all the kisses, pats and hugs with which our grandson Will showered him.

We miss them all - a great set of pets who were all with us for remarkably long times. Goodbye, Tiggs - R.I.P. - I hope you are with your friends again.