Tabby was born sometime in October of 1996 (since we don't know the exact date we decided on the 15th) in Fairfield, California [that's about an hour, give or take, northeast of San Francisco in the North Bay area] and was "discovered" wandering around my Uncle Paul & Aunt Joanne's base house on Travis Air Force Base [also in Fairfield] as a young stray. I saw him briefly for the first time the following July in 1997 upon my first visit out to California. Within the coming months, my aunt and uncle finally took the young tabby cat into their home to live with them and their other cats.
In August 2003, my uncle was transferred to McGuire AFB in New Jersey and he and my aunt were driving cross country in their van...with six cats. They stopped to stay at my grandma's house across the street from me for a few days while on their way to NJ. It was my mother who went over to see all the cats that was immediately curious about the tabby cat hiding in its cage. When she saw him, she was in love. He reminded her of a tabby cat Huckleberry she had had as a teenager and by the next day, just like that, the cat was ours.
He had always just been called Tabby, or Tabernacle, but once he became ours we began calling him all sorts of cutesy names such as: Sweet/Pretty/Frickin' Baby/Kitty/Key [baby talk for Kitty], Spooknuts, Byooweefoo [baby talk for Beautiful]...to name a few.
Just after Xmas 2007, Tabby ate some of the green bits from our fake Christmas tree and got toxic shock syndrome, which in turn gave him a stroke. For two weeks he was listless, barely able to walk, barely ate or drank, rarely went to the bathroom and when he did he didn't pee but only dribbled or his feces were miniscule and dry, he drooled...and we were all upset, believing we were going to lose him. Then, as if by miracle, by February or March he was getting better but it was until he took a healty dump on the kitchen floor. It was mostly diahrrea mixed with god knows what else.
After that day, he was just as spry as a younger cat and back to his old self. Whatever was ailing him, he had passed through his system. He stills eats things he's not supposed to, like leaves or petals if we have flowers in the house, and ends up throwing it up somewhere after the fact. The same thing goes for dairy. If he has it, he throws it back up later. However, soy milk doesn't seem to pose a problem.
He is very vocal; he is loud when he wants your attention and seemingly will hold a conversation with you if you respond with meows of your own. When you go to pet him and he doesn't really want to be bothered, he meows under his breath like a human would. When you're eating chicken or fish, anything that smells good to him, he'll come up beside you and just as you're putting the fork or spoon to your mouth, he sits up and places his paw on your arm or hand, letting you know he wants some too.
He's also affectionate, curling his tail around us or rubbing up against our legs. If we're laying or sitting on the couch or in a chair, he has to sit on someone's lap despite there being many other places to sit. And if you're not feeling well, he tends to climb up and lay on the spot that's ailing you.
He loves his catnip pillow, and when actual cat nip is sprinkled on it, he totally spazzes out. Occasionally he gallops through the house if spooked for whatever reason or trying to get away if you wanna pick him up. He's always getting under our feet when we're walking and we almost step on him and once in a blue moon we do, to which we bark "Dumbass Kitty" to him. His favorite place to sleep [not counting our laps] is behind the space heater, curled up like a potato bug with one paw over his face [to block out reality, maybe?]. He also loves sitting anywhere the sun is beating.
Since he is an indoor cat, he loves it when a window is open and can be found sniffing the air. When the weather is nicer and the squirrels come out and play on our back deck, Tabby can sometimes be found talking to them, or to the birds outside the windows on the telephone lines.
And when he looks at you with his golden eyes, it's like he's looking into your soul.
I love him so.
~~
UPDATE (8/23/10):
Tabby died last nite after midnight. He'd been deteriorating a lot over the summer; more obviously over the last few weeks. We think it was renal failure. He was so skinny and bony at the end, could barely walk, wasn't eating or drinking or even going to the bathroom; just laying there. He couldnt even meow anymore, but when he tried it came out like labored breaths. I'm glad he's not feeling pain and that he's at peace now but it still hurts so damn much that he's not hear anymore. It's only been 12 hrs but the house already feels empty without him. Can't stop crying in random bursts of tears. This sucks.
TABBY a.k.a. SWEET BABY
OCT 16, 1996 - AUG 23, 2010
© 2012 Netapet
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