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Once again Debbie and I must make an announcement that we both dread. On September 17th, we lost Tiggs, our bigger-than-life, kind-hearted, cowardly-lion tabby. It seemed Tiggs always had some kind of ailment almost his entire life although after he lost his brother Maverick in October of 2010, these 'little ailments' started to take their toll. 
They seemed to get worse when his sister Bristol passed away about 2.5 months ago. Finally, about a weeke ago it got to the point he wouldn't eat and then that developed into his inability to get around without hurting. So, we decided to take him in yesterday to relieve him of his suffering. We so much didn't want to let him go but we knew the 'Last Fight' was upon us. It was the right thing to do; as it was when the time came for Mavies and Bristol. Tiggs was my contribution to the family of cats and had literally lived across the land in the last 14 years. Starting out in Massachusetts, moving to Virginia, then to Texas, and finally back to Virginia in 2003, he was a regular traveller. All-in-all he took all the moving well enough but over time he developed a personality that bordered on the paranoid. He never quite got used to having people around and was not a cuddler (to Debbie's chagrin) to say the least. He was scared of his own shadow and if he heard a noise out of the ordinary (and that would be ANY noise) he would jump out of his skin and head for the nearest closet. 
His worst fear was thunderstorms - he was absolutely petrified of thunder and would not venture out of his well-defined hiding place (his two favorites were in the pantry or behind the washer) until the coast was not only clear, very, very, very clear, but vitually noise-free. The same reaction happened when visitors would come over - as soon as he heard unfamiliar voices he was gone. He would eventually wander out from his hiding place once he had convinced himself that everything was okay. Having said all that, once he got used to you he would love you to death - although he would never drop his guard - always keeping a wary eye out for something that would make him rocket back to his pre-determined hiding place. The odd thing about all of this? He was BY FAR the largest of the three cats and people who saw him for the first time would always comment "He looks like a little lion!" Yea, he was big, but he was your typical gentle-giant. He will be missed. 
So, in the course of less than a year, we lost all three of our beloved friends. It has only been a couple of days since we lost Tiggs but the house is so empty without them. Tiggs is buried next to Mavies and Bristol - they are together once again!
