Tigger
Meet Timothy Tiger Stockman or
Tigger for short. His momcat was a
schoolteacher who was teaching English and French at the time he came to live
with her so it was decided that he needed a literary name. Several
suggestions were put forth, including Shere Khan and Walter Cronkat but it
was decided that Tigger was the most appropriate. Tigger was born in the
Grangeville, Idaho, area and came to live with his momcat after his first
person died. He was about five years old at the time. He was pretty timid
at first but eventually took over two houses, his own plus his grandparents'.
Like all cats, Tigger was an authority on cat naps. His grandmomcat bought
him a basket and a pillow to put inside and after that you needed a crowbar
to pry Tigger out of it. Oh well, at least he wasn't getting the furniture
all-over-cat-hair.
He got a new catnip toy every Christmas and usually managed to chew it to slobbery shreds within a week. If he wasn't chewing on it, he was sleeping with it!.
Tigger was quite the fat and sassy tabby in his younger days. One of his
favourite activities was trying to open cabinet doors at his grandparents'
house. He's never quite figured it out but if a door was left ajar, he was
more than happy to let himself in.
He once found the door to the tumble dryer open with a bunch of warm, freshly laundered towels inside. What a cat bed! He was inside in a flash and quite comfy too. Fortunately somebody noticed him in there and he came to no harm. Bad cat!
Although Tigger was quite the boogedy cat when he first came to Sandpoint, he became very comfortable meeting new people. Here he is during one of his first meetings with his Uncle David. "Ride 'em, kitty!"
Uncle David is completely loopy when it comes to cats so he doted on Tigger. This included feeding Tigger scraps under the table. Uncle David was the only person who could get away with this sort of thing. Anyone else trying it would probably get hit, either by Tigger's momcat or grandmomcat.
Tigger enjoyed watching television but he was a very discriminating viewer.
Programs about wildlife were his favourites although he preferred a soundtrack
of natural sounds to that of music or voiceover. He found television
felines especially fascinating. Tigger also liked to watch certain
sporting events; namely, showjumping and ladies' figure skating. No one
knows why he liked the ice skating so much. One theory is that he just
liked to see babes in short skirts.
Tigger had a number of other bizarre habits. Stuffing his head into
people's shoes was high on his list of fun things to pass the time. He
also had a number of favourite toys, including his white ball (always
good for a game of soccer in the kitchen at 2:00 am) and his white
snake (a white cotton rope belt). For extra exercise, he took stair
laps at top speed. He wasn't a huge cat but when he was galloping
around the house, he sounded like a buffalo.
Tigger disapproved of Furface invading his grandparents' front garden. Friendly ol' Furface was about twice as big as Tigger (or any other cat for that matter) and Tigger wouldn't have dreamed of insulting him face-to-face, but sitting inside out of harm's way was an entirely different matter.
Tigger was killed at home on 27 October 2006 by dogs left to run wild in the neighbourhood by their irresponsible owners. He was 20 years old. We love you, Tigger, and we won't forget you. Rest in peace.
