Tigger was a cat.

She was more than a cat.

She was our housemate for 18 years.

Tabbies are gentle, but Tigger was also fearless.  She was our most amiable cat.  She recently made friends with a contractor and a plumber. She strolled right up to them and seemed to say,  “Who are you?”  She was so tiny (four pounds at her biggest) that they thought she was a kitten.

As a kitten, she was a techno-cat.  She loved sitting on the computer.  Once she hopped on the keys and sent an email that was not quite ready to go.

Tigger also enjoyed faxing.  There’s nothing like waking up to the buzzing of a ’90s fax machine and finding your tiny cat on the dial.  What and where she faxed we didn’t know.

She ran faster than any of our cats, and she loved to be outdoors. She would run out the door, race around the house, or back and forth across the parking lot in our urban neighborhood.  “Tigger!”  Once I couldn’t catch her before I went to work.  The minute I returned, she came racing back from wherever she had been.  She definitely knew where she lived.

Tigger watched me read, and though she didn’t quite get it, she marked every book in the house.  Here she is preparing to read Crime and Punishment in the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation.

She was known as Tigger, Miss Tigger, Mrs. Tigger, and Ms. Tigger.

Tigger’s favorite things:

1.  Snacks:  Tuna.

2.  Sitting on top of boxes.

3. Sitting on our screened-in porch.  She had a favorite spot on the couch.

4.  Sitting on her special cushion on her special chair beside the bed.

5.  Making funny little cat-whirring noises.

6.  Running and jumping.

7.  Watching “Dancing with the Stars.”

8.  Listening to birdsong recordings.

9.  Sitting on the windowsill.

10. Sleeping on my hip.

I am really at a loss. You know how it is.  We love our cats and dogs so much.  She got sick when I was away last spring, and I haven’t dared to travel since.  She died today.

We have never had a better friend than Tigger.

Yes, there may be other Tiggers, but she was as bouncy and curious as THE Tigger. She is the only Tigger, as far as we are concerned.