I can’t believe how empty the house is without that little 5 lbs. of kitty cat. I realized yesterday that it has been more then 35 year since we have not had a cat in the house. We got our first kitty even before we got married and since then have usually had two. We called her our dinner plate kitty because she was so tiny she could curl up on a dinner plate and still have lots of room left. I have had a cat in my life and house since I was about four, except for 4 years in college, so it seems pretty strange and lonley.
What she lacked in size she made up for in personality and she loved to be held.
We got Tanya in early September 1993. They thought she was about 8 months old and was so skinny, under 5 lbs. Her records from Feline Rescue said the people that had her just fed her dry breakfast cereal. She never has been interested in her food so keeping her weight up was always a struggle. She finally briefly hit 6 lbs. We also guessed that she may have been taken from her mother really early because she never seemd to have learned to hunt. She didn’t knead with her little paws or lick you and very rarely would meow. Although affectionate, she was a pretty skittish kitty when we got her and I think it took over a year before she would come sleep by us. For many years she would run and hide if we got company but it seemed after Zeus died that she got much more social and would always come hang out with company. I don’t think you could find a cat with a sweeter disposition. She didn’t even wiggle when we took her to the vet for shots.
What got her from the Feline Rescue cage into our home was that cute little face and the fact that as soon as I picked her up she snuggled up on my shoulder and purred away which she has continued to do thousands of times ever since.
This is one of the first photos of her by her catnip.
Tanya lived with Misha until Misha died at age 16. They got along fine. After Misha came big Zeus. A picture of them together was quite rare. He picked on her and when we lost Zeus at age 9 she didn’t seem to miss him and by then Tanya was 11 so we didn’t want to stress her out with getting another cat so she has been the only kitty for 6 years.
She spent the first 14 years in MN and then her travel adventures started when she went with us in the car to Orlando Fl for 6 weeks, Pickens SC for a week, Clearwater FL for 3 weeks and Breezy Point for a week. Since the hotels we stayed at on the journey didn’t take pets we always snuck her in under a towel. We told her she had to be “Secret Kitty”. She rarely let out a peep and we only got caught once but not her fault we got caught. Finally there was this trip to SC. She would sit on a pillow on the divider between our seats. She was a better traveler then we were.
Eventhis last week as she was getting weaker we knew her mind was still sharp. Our bed is really high and we saw that sometimes she couldn’t make that big jump up so we put a little stool by the bed and showed her a couple times to jump on the stool and then on the bed and she learned right away what she was suppose to do. Smart kitty. This is the same kitty who taught Fay and Bob to turn the water on in the shower every morning so she could get her morning drink.
She loved to sit above my keyboard and chase my fingers. What I would give for that again today. She didn’t have a favorite of Bob or me. She would go back and forth between our laps and each side of the bed giving us each what seemed like equal time.
I know it won’t be too long before we have a couple cats again. The house is just to empty without them and we love cats in our laps.
I took this photo yesterday. Don’t know what made her eyes that color. I thought the flash gave you red eye? We sure do miss her.
