This 'n' That

RIP
TIGER
10-01-1999
02-05-2007



This is Tiger when he was a kitten, wasn't he a cutie?


Tiger liked to do weird things like this one, I was bathing Ash and he decided that my back would be a comfortable spot for him to settle.


Tiger liked Ashton and was good with him. When we took walks, Tiger would walk with us outside. Even when we were walking the dog, Tiger would go with us. He was a cool cat.


I took a photo of him mid-leap.


We saw Tiger being born on October 1, 1999. it was a cold and snowy night and Sonny decided to let his mom in the house he was staying at temporarily. HIs mom decided to give birth so we witnessed the event. The first few weeks was touch and go because the kittens seemed to be sickly. Maybe two died, Tiger came down with some kind of respiratory infection and he was about to die and we took him to the vet. The vet saved him. We brought him back to the farm. He still carries some type of illness from almost dying as a kitten. The first year or two, he kept sneezing all the time and you wouldn't believe how much came out of his nose. Eventually that went away but he retained a cloudy eye.

Tiger decided to hitch a ride with our former teacher to SDSD. LaDonna lived on a farm near Brookings which is almost a hour drive from Sioux Falls. It was incredibly cold that morning and Tiger climed inside the engine. He ended up sitting in the engine for 1 hour in subzero weather. A teacher walking in the parking lot heard the kitten and brought him in the building to laDonna. LaDonna would not believe that it was one of her farm cat until I saw Tiger and I recognized him right away. Sonny and I decided to take him home with us that day. He kept appearing in our life and eventually in our hearts. He does have some side effects from the death-defying ride in the truck. His right leg would shake as he sits. He was in the same position without moving for a hour.

He has long since have done many things to run out of his 9 lives. He is declawed and hunts baby rabbits. Yes, he does hunt... clawless. He has come home with live animals, sometimes dead animals as a present to us. He has come home with injuries and multiude of other problems. We found out he's allergic to almost everything and we figured out, he just may be allergic to other animals. Unfortuately, we had him put to sleep due to many reasons but in our hearts, it was the right thing to do. He's in his cat heaven with his claws back and tons of things to hunt. He was happiest outside but also happy inside with us. His home is with us and never ran away, no matter how many time we moved.


Unfortunate Events

Sonny agreed to pet-sit his friend's hamster and hermit crab for about 3 weeks. We put the cages in the empty bedroom to keep them away from two menaces: Tiger and Ashton. Tiger sat outside the bedroom door for a full day, hulking...

I have to admit, both animals aren't my favorite pet on the list. Hamsters - ugh. I have many things to say about hamsters but I know some of my friends love hamsters and have history with their own hamsters. Hermit crab is a totally another story, they remind me of spiders. In fact, off New Jersey shores, a particular kind of crabs come up at tide and mate or something like that. The name escapes me but those crabs are either direct descendants of spiders or are actually spiders. That just gives me the creeps.

Anyhoo, one bright Sunday morning, Sonny got up for the morning and went to Ashton's bedroom. He found a empty crib. He started to panic. Checked under the crib, in closet, etc - no Ash. He ran through the house, still no Ash. He decided to check the bedrooms. No Ash in basement bedroom or bathroom. Sonny thought Ash was kidnapped right from under our noses. He ran upstairs, dreading the worst, checked the 3rd bedroom and he found this:





He shook me awake and I got up all dizzy and confused. My eyes were blurry because I was wearing contacts. I kept asking him what happened and he babbled. I'm like, I gotta fix my eyes and you calm down and tell me the whole story. Once my eyes were clear, he explained this:

He found Ashton in the 3rd bedroom in the middle of a huge mess. He climed out of his crib and either opened the door himself or the door was already open and he went in the 3rd bedroom where we kept the animals. He proceeded to rip apart the cages so he can play with the animals. There was no hamster and crab to be found. Tiger was sitting in the corner looking very self-satisfied. Tiger and Ash was shut in the bedroom with the two animals for who knows how long and anything could have happened. We imagined the worst. I wondered if I would find a little bloody hamster body with it's head ripped off. That's Tiger's trademark.

We asked Ash, "where's the mouse', he pointed to the closet and we had to tear out the entire closet and found the little hamster alive and well shivering in the corner.

We asked Ash, 'where's the crab.' He pointed to the closet again, there was no crab at all. The crab was in a bright yellow shell that isn't that hard to miss. We thought maybe Ash put the crab in one of the boxes so we had to go through the boxes. Still no crab. We asked Ash again and again, where's the crab. Sonny says that he ran through the house and saw no yellow shell at all. Ash eventually pointed to the bathroom. We looked at eachother and thought the same thing, 'The toliet?" - we looked, still no crab but it could have been flushed.

I ran downstairs to get cleaning supplies and out of corner of my eye, I spied a yellow shell. I got the shell and checked, the crab is still there alive and well. I'm guessing that the crab was probably under the couch hiding out from the two menaces and realized that we were out and about and decided to come out and make himself visible.

We assembled the cages back together, cleaned up everything and put the animals back to their respective cages. We put child-proof handles on the doorknobs the same day. Whew.

Here's a photo of Ash all conked out. He was THAT tired and just laid there like a dead body. I even went over to check if he was actually breathing.


Previously, Ash figured out how to get out of his crib, we thought it was time to try a regular bed for him. He did successfully so we went to the store and ordered rails to convert his crib into a bed. Ash is our little handyman and likes to help his dad do stuff like this.




Here's the finished result!


I know that was really long and I have lots more to say but I'll let you guys go and hope you enjoyed my stories. :)