I think it was some time in March of 1990 that I first saw Tiger Lily. Jim had seen her several times and so had our next door neighbours. She had apparently been born under Mrs Mackley’s shed around the beginning of January. As far as we knew, there was only one other kitten in the litter, a shorthaired black male, I never saw him at all, though Jim and the neighbours had spotted him several times. We don’t know what happened to him, he never came near the house, he may have succumbed to cat flu in the cold weather or he may have moved on, he just seemed to disappear altogether.
Everyone fell in love with Tiger Lily, she was such a beautiful little kitten, a pale ginger and white longhair with big pleading eyes. Jim told me about her and I finally got to see her one day when I happened to look out of our front room window. There she was, sat at the gate at the bottom of the path, gazing longingly at the house. She saw me watching her but didn’t run away. She was about three months old and totally adorable. I could almost feel what was going through her mind, "lots of cats live in that house and they look happy, I wish I could live there too."
We already had six cats at the time, Sammy Jo, Tabitha, Tombi, Temba, Tipsoo and Trixie, but I decided there and then, I wanted this little kitten to be a part of our family.
After that, I saw her more often, she sometimes would appear at our back gate, so I started putting food on a saucer by the back door. Finally, she came down and sniffed at it, then ran off. Too frightened I thought but no, she came back a short time later, with her mother in tow!
Riba, as we named her, was a tortoiseshell shorthaired cat with a harlequin face, one side dark, the other pale toffee colour. It was obvious she had been some persons pet because although she was a little nervous at first, she was quite friendly and started to purr the moment we petted her. We found out later that she had lived on one of the local farms, in the house as a pet, but had been chased away when she became pregnant.
Riba did not hesitate when it came to eating the food that was on offer, she was not shy about coming into the house either, unlike her kitten, whom I had now called Tiger Lily. But as long as her mother was near, she started to come regularly for food. Gradually, I moved the saucer further and further down the kitchen, as long as we didn’t shut the door she was OK with that. If we tried to close the door, she would panic and run.
After some weeks Tiger Lily trusted us enough to allow us to close the door, by this time we had noticed she was carrying a rather large clump of muck underneath her tail. It was fastened into the long hair on her bottom, hind legs and was holding her tail down. It was very wet and muddy outside and she was still living under the shed at this point. I decided I had to do something about this huge clump, it was beginning to hinder her movements and she could not raise her tail at all.
The next time she came in, I had the sink ready, half full of nice warm water, a non-slip mat on the bottom, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, towels and a jug for rinsing water. I had to corner her, which did not make her very happy and I expected her to really come unglued when I put her into the water, but surprisingly, she didn’t. I talked to her softly, trying to soothe her as I worked the lump loose and as you have probably guessed, it wasn’t all mud! She was really good and patient, letting me wash her. Jim came out into the kitchen while this was going on and was surprised to see Tiger Lily in the sink, he started talking to her also and held her while I rinsed her off with clean warm water. She made a couple of "Oh-woe" type cries but didn’t struggle.
When I dried her off as best I could with a big bath towel, it was the very first time I got to cuddle her, and it was to be the last for nearly a year! We kept her in by the fire until she was thoroughly dry then let her go, she was anxious to get out of the house. Not too long after that she and her mother did move in with us and although Riba was totally uninhibited, Tiger Lily remained aloof, in that she would not let anyone pick her up and cuddle her or even stroke her.
The rest of our cats took the two new additions to the family in their stride, they had already got used to them being around and coming into the kitchen to eat. So when they moved in it was just a natural progression and they were accepted as part of the family.
Apparently, as far as Tiger Lily was concerned, humans standing up on their feet were not to be trusted, but if they happened to be lying prone in bed, they were a much safer bet. Tiger Lily had taken to sleeping on our bed at night and after several months of this, she started moving up onto Jim’s chest and once or twice would permit us to stroke her. It took a long time to earn her total trust.
That came when her first litter was born, she gave birth to five beautiful ginger kittens, all fluffy like her, when she was just over a year old. She was so proud of them and was happy for us to touch them and her from that moment on. They were born in the wardrobe of our bedroom.
The kittens were just a few weeks old when one day she walked into the living room and started to stagger, her back legs collapsed beneath her and she started to bleed profusely. We took her to a vet in Pickering who gave her a shot of something, he could not tell us what was wrong, but told us to take her home and call back if she didn’t improve. Next day she was no better, still bleeding and obviously very ill, so we took her back, same practice, different vet on duty. She could not tell us what was wrong either, she gave Tiger Lily another shot and sent us home.
Next day we knew Tiger Lily was dying, Jim called the vet on the phone, he curtly said there was nothing more he could do. In desperation we put Tiger Lily and her kittens into the pet carrier (she fretted when separated from them) and took her to another vet in Helmsley. George was fantastic, he examined her and listened to what we told him, then said he would keep her over the weekend. He sent samples away for analysis, put Tiger Lily on a drip as she had become so dehydrated and he fell in love with her kittens. While the nurse got Tiger Lily settled in, we went for a coffee in Helmsley then about an hour later, at George’s suggestion, we stopped back at the surgery and went in to visit Tiger Lily. Later he told us she had been quite upset when we left, but calmed down after we visited her.
Over the weekend we had to bottle feed the babies but they were fine, fat healthy little creatures. When George called to say we could collect Tiger Lily, we took them with us. She looked so much different. George told us she had a severe kidney problem and would have been dead within hours if she hadn’t been treated properly, but everything was fine now. She was so happy to be re-united with her babies and they climbed all over her, wanting feeding. We were worried that might not be helpful to her but George said she would be OK and having them near would help her recovery.
From that moment on, things really changed, she became so affectionate with us both and was no longer nervous of being touched, if anything, she went to the other extreme and could not get enough attention.
Needless to say, we always go to George now, whenever we need veterinary help.
Tiger Lily developed a special friendship with Tabitha, one of our other cats. Tabitha had a lovely nature and the two of them used to climb a hawthorn tree to reach the flat roof of another neighbours shed where they would spend hours sunbathing and sleeping. Tabitha went blind eventually, but with Tiger Lily and Sammy Jo as her constant companions, she managed to get around quite well, she just did not stray too far from her favourite haunts on the property.
When Tabitha died through poisoning, Tiger Lily was bereft for a while, Then eventually we got Timmy, a ginger and white shorthaired feral cat. He took up with Tiger Lily and they are now inseparable. He follows her around, they cuddle up together, in the garden or on the sofa, groom each other. He is in seventh heaven whenever she starts washing his face, ears and head. If she wanders off without him he comes in wailing, even at nine years old he is a real baby without her.
Tiger Lily is thirteen years old now, she still loves attention and can’t get enough of it. She will crawl up on Jim’s chest, stick her head under his chin and keep bumping him if he stops stroking her, she even drools with the pleasure of it. If either of us says "kissy-kissy" she will come up and lift her head up for a kiss on the top of it, and once she has had one, she has to have another and another…..
