Cast of Characters: II of V (house tigers)

 

You may recall that when we lived on Bent Barrow Farm, Fenway Bartholomule was astounded by the fact that we kept little tigers in our house. Those ferocious felines—majestic Desmond and comical Townes—have both sadly passed away, but about four years ago two new wonderful cats entered our lives. 

While we did not know them when they were small, we did recently receive this kitten photo from their first family:

I'll wait a moment while you recover from the cuteness.

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Carrying on . . . Milo is a dog in a cat suit, a burly fluff ball, a Saint Bernard with a feline figure. If he were a human he'd probably look like James Corden and walk around in cute slouchy sweaters. He has 9 of 9 lives remaining, and plans to spend 8 of them lounging in bed and 1 of them chasing twist ties under the refrigerator. 

Tiger is a cattish cat, regal and poised in almost every way. He has used up at least 3 of his 9 lives and holds the record in our family for most hospitalizations, both by admission count and consecutive days of inpatient treatment. Thanks to the deft surgical skill and loving attention of his vet, Dr. Reiter, he is back with us to live out his remaining 6 lives in relative peace and quiet (paws crossed)! 

Cats are not the sort of creature I go out of my way to find, but I sure am glad these two found me. There's a certain dignified muleness about them that I can really respect. One might even call them purrfect.