The first time I ever layed eyes on this scrappy, noisy little kitten in the pet store, I knew we would be best friends.  I had just moved into my first apartment by myself and I really wanted to get a cat to share that experience with.  When I first went to the pet store, there was a huge enclosure with tons of little kittens of every color.  There were two or three orange tabbys probably from the same litter.  As I looked at all the kittens running around and playing, I noticed one of them watching me very intently.  And as I got down to look at him and said "hey, little guy" he mouthed a little silent meow (that would later come to be his trademark cry)and walked right up to the glass and meowed at me again.  I then asked the lady to hold him and he started talking and purring right away.  And wouldn't let go of me, so I knew right there and then this was the cat for me.

       He was never an easy cat.  He had severe food allergies, he was always eating stuff he shouldn't, he was always getting on the counters, eating out of the garbage.  It seemed like he was always getting into some sort of trouble, but it would all melt away when he would snuggle up close to my head at night and purr.  He loved to purr, he would start if you even looked at him a certain way.  It's one of the things that I miss the most.  He purred right up to the very end, when the doctor told us there was nothing she could do and that we would have to make the inevitable, heartwrenching choice to ease his suffering.  And he purred, wrapped tightly in my arms as he did the first time I ever met him, as he left this world.  And there are no words to describe my grief.  I miss him terribly, and I take some solace in the poem "The Rainbow Bridge" because I know that there's a place we will be forever reunited.  I love you Tigger