In memory of Tabitha

Tabitha was Cleo's sister/litter mate and passed away Nov 2.

In 1990 I moved into a house with 3 friends just off campus. I was excited because I finally lived somewhere I could have a cat. One of our roommates, Dorie, already had a cat, Huey, a big, orange, male tabby. I looked in the newspaper for a "free kitten to a good home" ad in the classifieds. My good friend and roommate, Carrie, came with me to drive so I could hold the kitten on the ride back home. When we got there, 4 or 5 little furry kittens were in the kitchen. I zoomed in on Cleo and chose her. Carrie had not planned on getting a kitten but after seeing them, she picked Tabitha. (Such is the power of kittens!) In retrospect, is was great for the kittens to have each other to play with and sleep with. Huey was surprisingly "motherly" towards the kittens. A year or so later, our neighbors found a kitten under their house. My fourth roommate, Vellisse, had grown so fond of Tabitha and Cleo that she didn't hesitate to adopt the kitten, a Cleo look-alike, who she named Pebbles. So there was never a shortage of cats, or cat boxes, in our house. Tabitha was quite the huntress. Once while we all were watching TV, she came running through the living room with a whole flounder in her mouth she stole from the kitchen counter! She also fished Tex, the aquatic frog, out of his aquarium and stole donuts. Later in life, she learned how to dive into a garbage can that had one of the flippy lips and get back out with her "prey." And she never appreciated when you'd try to take the "prey" away; she'd growl and snarl and be quite upset. Pebbles and Huey preceded Tabitha, leaving Cleo the last of the 506 kitties.