"Tiger" & "Linda"
Tiger and Linda are the first kitties I ever took in. And I've had them by far the longest.
I grew up with dogs as a kid. I always liked cats but never really thought about actually
having one for a pet - much less four. But back in December of 1993 (I was 27 years old and
petless) I kept seeing a beautiful orange tabby scavaging around the apartments where I was
living at the time. It soon became cold and I felt sorry for the poor guy so I took him in and
named him Tiger. He turned out to be a wonderful pet and I love him every bit as much as any
dog I've owned in the past. The vets think he was approximately three years old when I took
him in. About a year later my close friend Linda McReynolds got married and
moved away. Before she left she asked me to get Tiger a friend and to name it after her. So I
went down to the Oak Cliff animal shelter (not a nice part of Dallas!) and picked out a female
kitten and named her "Linda." Linda was approximately six months old when I got her. Tiger and
Linda have been fantastic friends...they play together all the time and even groom eachother.
And they are both striking, they both have such beautiful markings. They are truly "story book"
cats as my friend Nancy calls them. I can't tell you how much joy they have added to my life.
Birthdate Tiger: approximately August 1, 1990
Birthdate Linda: approximately August 1, 1994
Tiger is now 18 years old and Linda is 14.
This cool shot of Tiger and Linda sleeping won an Honorable Mention award at the
1995 State Fair of Texas. LOL. Female cats instantly fall in love with Tiger. It's
flat out amazing. Linda, Princess & Josie were all smitten by that sweet ol'
gentleman after just one look at him. He's a special guy.
Not long after I got "Linda" my friend Linda came back to visit. And she got to hang
out with Tiger and with the new kitty that was named after her.
*** Nancy with "Linda" in June 2003 ***
When I first got Linda, she was not very afraid of people - she'd even get in strangers' laps.
But after a few months she slowly became very scared of strangers. I'm not sure what happened
- perhaps a few visits to the vet's office made her afraid of people. I quickly became the only
person that wouldn't cause Linda to hide under my bed. A few years later, however, my friend
Nancy started slowly winning Linda over - and we were pleasantly surprised when Linda finally
got up the nerve to get in Nancy's lap for this picture.
*** X-ray of Tiger revealing a lodged pellet ***
In May 2002 my male cat Tiger (he was approximately 12 years old at the time) developed a pretty severe bladder
infection. The folks at East Lake
Veterinary Hospital here in Dallas nursed him back to his playful self with lots of
IV fluids, antibiotics and TLC. As a precaution, the vets took an X-ray to check out
Tiger's organs and to my horror it revealed a pellet that had been lodged under Tiger's
rib cage since before I took him in off the streets. Luckily, the pellet doesn't
seem to be affecting Tiger in any way. Tiger's head would be located to the far
right of the picture. The faint blob in the center of the picture is Tiger's heart.
The pellet is clearly visible up and to the left of his heart - it's the bright,
slightly hourglass-shaped object.
I took in Tiger back in 1993 when he was approximately 3 years old. The
shooting must have taken place sometime before that. The thought of
someone deliberately aiming a gun at Tiger and pulling the trigger is
heartbreaking. It undoubtedly caused him great pain. Scratching out a life on
the streets is tough enough without being shot. How he managed to survive is
pretty amazing. The fact that he's such a gentle soul is even more amazing.
Unfortunately, my vet said she sees things like this on X-rays of cats quite
a bit. Heartbreaking indeed.
An interesting aside:
Note the faint collar bones on the far right of the picture - they
look like thin toothpicks. On the real X-ray they are much more prominent. My
vet told me that hardly any cats have two very distinct collar bones like that.
Most cats either have no collar bones or just one.
Windows Media Player Video Clips
If you don't have the latest version of the Windows Media Player you can get the free version by
clicking here.
On some connections, the video may be a bit jerky as it "buffers" while
streaming in the video. In that case you might let it completely
finish and then play it again.
Tiger & Linda grooming eachother - Jan 1995 (27 seconds)
Tiger & Linda playing - Jan 1995 (41 seconds)
Tiger & Linda in Cat Run for first time - Feb 1995 (63 seconds)
Tiger & Linda playing at carpeted house - Aug 2003 (105 seconds)
Tiger playing with feather - Oct 2003 (70 seconds)
Tiger loving on his stick - May 2007 (25 seconds)
Tiger & Linda playing - May 2007 (63 seconds)
Josie playing rough with Tiger - August 2, 2007 (2 minutes)
Other Related Links On My Site:
The Catrun
The Large Cat Enclosure
Catwalks Inside My House
Return to my cat page