Houdini 1985-1996

Houdini was a red tiger, a stray who showed up where
my wife worked but no one wanted him, so Inge brought him
home. He was about 3 yrs. old and not fixed, so naturally
we took him to the vet and had him checked and fixed.
He was allergic to so many things, we had to take him
for shots so he wouldn't suffer so much.

He was a big boy, weighing in at about 15lbs. His ears
were all tattered from all the fights he had been in. No
matter how hard we tried to keep him inside, and make him
an inside cat, he just wasn't happy. He would sit by the
door and howl to high heaven. We finally relented and let him
go out. He stuck close to home most of the time and
in winter would go out just long enough to take care of
his business. He was a short cat, a real roly-poly, with
a short tail that looked like someone had stuck it on him.
Houdini looked like a teddy bear and was such a good boy.
I have to think really hard to remember any trouble he ever got into.

Even though he had a check-up every year we noticed him
starting to lose weight and slowing down at age 11. So when
we took him to the vet, we expected bad news. We just
hoped it was something that could be cured. But our worst fears
were realized, he was suffering from kidney and liver failure. After about
a week he was suffering so much we knew it was time
for him to leave us. He passed on in August 1996. He
was only 11 yrs. old. He brought a lot of joy into
our lives. He is missed a lot.

Rocky 1974-1984

Rocky was a white short-haired male. He came to our house from a distant neighbor and at six weeks old he sure was cute. He was one of the best behaved cats we have ever had, he didn't get into things and was very laid back. By the time he was full grown he weighed 12 lbs. But it seemed he was always sitting there at your feet waiting to be fed. He would roll over and sometimes he would beg.

At night he would sleep at the foot of our daughter's bed,
but by morning he would be snuggled up by her head on
her pillow. One day, a fight with another cat got him in
trouble. A claw imbedded above his eye caused an abscess that burst.
At the vet, they had to insert drainage tubes under the skin
on his head. He looked like a alien with the tubes sticking
out of his head.

Poor Rocky later developed a tumor in his nasal passage. At that
time they were unable to operate on it ,so we had to
make the hard decision to let him pass on. He was 10 yrs.
old. We still think of him constantly.

Twinkie 1989-1991

Twinkie was a gray tiger and a female. The only little girl
we ever had. She lived with our son, but his landlord didn't
want cats,so she came to live with us. She was about
six months old then. Boy, was she smart. Her favorite game was
fetch, if you told her to hide, she would hide behind the
cushion on the couch,only peeking out with one eye. She loved
to go outside and when you let her in she would really
talk to you. Especially if she was out in the rain and
had to dried off. She sat and cleaned herself so much, we
ended up calling her "MISS SPIFFY" most of the time.

Chasing one of the other cats one day, she somehow managed to
break her leg. Her poor leg had to be pinned. There was
so much nerve damage her paw turned under when she tried to
walk. She had worn a hole to the bone before the vet
would admit there was something wrong. By then, the leg had to
be amputated. Twinkie went through so much,but after some time of
healing, she did as well with three legs as she had with
four. Anything she had done in the past, she could do again.

One day she didn't come home. We went looking, but couldn't find
her. After four days of anxiety a distant neighbor found her in
his hedge. She had been hit by a car. To this day,
we still miss her and love her, even though she's been gone
since 1991.It took two of our present cats, Missy and Spiffy
to replace her. Since this tragedy, no cat of ours will ever
go outside, no matter what.