Page 92 - She's One Crazy Lady!

Mick, who lived opposite me, had two cats: ‘Puddy’, a silver tabby, and Basil, a pedigree Siamese. It was ‘Puddy’ I fell in love with and it was Puddy who loved to come over to my flat, (probably because Basil was quite temperamental), and would lie curled up on the mat in front of my fire for hours and hours – his owners knowing and accepting where he was. I would never feed him to ensure he went home.
Years went by and Puddy was getting older. Out of the blue, Jacquie, my niece, phoned me to say she and her partner, who lived in Northampton at the time, had inherited two stray kittens, one of them a silver tabby! She said I had to go over. She said I had to have the silver tabby as her partner would only let her keep one of them, not two. Within the hour, I was there and I fell in love – with ‘Tigger’ – immediately named after Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. In no way was I prepared to own a cat but, two hours later, with Tigger nestled in a cat basket, and a small supply of borrowed essentials, he came home with me. What was I doing?
It proved to be the best impulsive move I had ever made and despite scratched and torn furniture for a couple of years, and sleepless nights wondering where he had gone, Tigger brought so much love and companionship into my life.
Tigger was a large cat, not overweight, but just big. He was very much a one-person cat and the bond we had was, indeed, magical. His markings were exquisite; he had huge ears, a stubby, round,
peach-coloured nose and huge bright and clear emerald green eyes that grew bigger and bigger every night I got home from work and picked him up to give him a cuddle.
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