It has to be said, TiaCat snores. A lot. Sometimes it’s a gentle snuffle, or a bit of quiet, happy sighing, but most of the time, well, it’s neither gentle nor quiet.
It is…well, it’s this. (The background voices are a) Adam Richman on Man Vs Food and b) Me, giggling.)
Recently I paid a visit to my Mum in Cyprus. We spent a very happy week and a bit visiting people, cooking and eating.
Mum has a rather lovely companion and that is 7 year old Kizi.
She was obtained from a rescue centre. There are so many stray animals on the island, because people get a pet, and then move and leave them behind. The hunters get new dogs every season, and then just abandon them at the end, figuring the keeping and feeding of a dog until the next season is far more expensive than just getting a new one every time. You can be certain that every time a hunter shoots himself in the foot, I think that it serves them right.
Nobody in the shelter could get near Kizi, and warned Mum off trying to pick her up. My mum just saw a cat that looked akin to my Tufty, and needed love. All that happened was that Mum ended up with an armful of purring kitty, who then went home with her in the car and hasn’t left her side since.
She spent a very happy Christmas with us, having TWO people to feed her and fuss her. I was extremely honoured that she let me fuss her, as she usually runs away from people. She spent my first evening there curled up next to me on the sofa. Well, I say curled up…
She is one very beautiful cat. I think you may well be noticing my weakness for stripey cats now…
Tia came to us what seems like an age ago now.
We were previously the staff to another feline mistress, called Tufty, that my beloved friend Heidi rescued from dastardly owners.
Tufty was a very nervous cat, but we loved her as much as we possibly could, and with time, she mellowed. She was known as The Alleged Cat to our friends, as she would so very rarely venture out when people visited. With us she was affectionate, in her own way, never straying far from our sides but always remaining slightly apart. She was no lapcat but she did become more brave the longer we looked after her.
Sadly she passed away at the grand old age of 19, but it was time. She was quite ill, and we knew it was time, and so did she, and so we did the deed that every pet owner dreads but we did it because we loved her so dearly. No animal, no pet should suffer. We bid her a very fond and peaceful farewell, and returned home to grieve.
Tufty
Not really ready to have another cat, we rattled about at home. I rather enjoyed not having fur everywhere, and also not having an ill cat to look after was a relief, even though we never begrudged a minute of our time and expense, because she deserved it all. She was the way she was because of how a ‘human’ treated her, and we did our best to be the total opposite of that piece of detritus, and give her the best life she could have.
The time came when a friend needed to rehome one of her brood of Maine Coons. Tufty had been a Maine Coon – albeit a small one because of her mistreatment as a kitten – and we love the breed.
TiaCat needed to be rehomed because being surrounded by many other cats was causing a bit of a problem. After Tia was spayed, she went on what can only be described as an eating spree and when the house is full of breeding Queens and kittens, and thus high calorie food, you can imagine the result. She also seemed happier when the other cats were not around. Which doesn’t happen often in a multiple cat household.
Tia came to live with us.
She fell asleep in the cat carrier on the drive back from Milton Keynes, hid from us for about an hour when she got here but then came out and found a lap to sit on.
That picture at the very top is the view I had when I awoke the morning after we got her.
She has slept on my shoulder almost every night since she arrived. It is unbearably sweet. Even when she sticks her paw over my ear and I wake up thinking I’m going deaf.
She is a lap cat. She’s just happiest when she is lying on someone. Either on Tex, my husband…
Or on me…
On our friends…
Or my computer desk.
We regularly have a tug of war with the mouse cable, my pen, my hand, the cat brush or any other thing that happens to be lying around.
The scrolly wheel on the mouse feels a little different? Oh. I look over and Tia’s eartip is covering it.
This happens a lot too.
That is a full sized keyboard by the way. Yes, she IS that large. Maine Coon boys are even bigger.
Occasionally she even sits on the bit of furniture that is specifically hers.
But usually, she is on the furniture that we bought specifically for us.
So that’s Tia.
This blog is going to be about her. Mainly photos, because I am in love with my cat and she seems to have acquired a bit of an internet following. This has nothing to do with the amount of photos I post of her being silly at ALL.
This is a bit more about our girl, on the site of the lovely lady who let us adopt her gorgeous cat.
http://www.hearthrug.co.uk/tia.htm
As I type, this is what Tia is doing.
I love our very silly cat.
