T.....is for Tina

Tina owned us for a little over 17 years. She was the best cat ever. Even people who hated cats loved her. This is an actual picture of her atop one of her favorite perches; the cable box because it was warm.

One day when my daughter was nearing four years old I was driving home and passed by a yard sale. I pulled in to see if they had some extra toys that my daughter might like. In a box, off to the side, were three snow white kittens with the bluest eyes. The woman said they were a mixture of Siamese and Angora and she was giving them away. I couldn't resist.

My daughter named her after a girl that babysat for us once in a while and Tina settled in to run things. My dog wasn't too happy about the arrangement but Tina soon won her over.  When we moved to a bigger house I had to keep her inside for a week or so until she got the idea that this was where we now lived. My main concern was that we now lived on a paved road as apposed to a gravel road in a subdivision that didn't see much traffic. She was an inside/outside cat; she would rattle the doorknob with her paw when she needed to go outside. She never had a litter box other than when we kept her inside for that week after we moved....she preferred to go outside. She was a great watch-cat. I watched her chase two dobermans out of our yard one day, she managed to get a few digs with her claws into their rear ends as they ran away. Tina soon learned to sit by the roadside and wait until it was clear and then she would cross the street. I hated it that she did that but she was headed for the swamp behind the house across the street and the thrill of the hunt was just too much for her to ignore.

The biggest scare we had was one time when she disappeared for a week. The kids were beside themselves and I did everything I could to hide my fears that she had gotten run over. My husband went out and searched the sides of the roads, including the ditches, looking for her. He was unable to locate her....we were relieved at that but still worried.

I was fixing Saturday morning breakfast and it had been almost a full week since we'd seen our beloved Tina. I heard her meowing before I saw her. She jumped on the deck and leaped on the screen for the sliding glass door. I wasn't sure it was her.....she was a dark dirty gray in color. I opened the door and let her in and she was all over us....meowing loudly and then checking out her food bowl. I fed her....even gave her a treat of some milk.  It took her all day long to clean herself up....by the next day, she looked like herself again.  We figure this is what happened......

We missed her on a Sunday night. I think she got locked in one of our neighbor's sheds.  I think that when he opened the shed again the following Saturday to do yard work, she dashed out and ran home.  Of course we will never know for sure but I think it's a fairly safe bet that is what happened. We were delighted to see her and she was overjoyed to find her family again.  We loved this cat with all our hearts....she was one in a million.  I felt she deserved a spot on my blog for being a special member of our family for all those years.

In participation of the AtoZ Challenge