Meet the Players Part 1 - Tasha

Currently our house is the desired home of 4 cats:  Tasha, Sidewinder, Haggred, and Clea.

Tasha
At age 14, Tasha, a Siamese cross, is by far the oldest and has been our friend the longest.   Fifteen years ago I had asked the local shelter to contact me if any Siamese came in.  At the time, I had recently lost another long time Siamese friend who came to me from a shelter.  I wanted to continue the tradition I had started.

Anyway, the shelter called a few weeks later to tell me they had rescued 3 Siamese kittens, whom I could go see at the animal hospital.  The police had checked out an apartment that had an odd smell, where they found a deceased man and the kittens - 2 male, 1 female.  I brought my then 6 year old daughter with me that same day to go see them.

The 2 males were fat and sleepy, lounging together in their cage.  They showed absolutely no interest in anyone or anything.  The female, known to the staff as "Yukon 3", was in a separate area as she was severely malnourished and dehydrated.  She wouldn't be ready for adoption for at least 2 weeks.  I asked to see her anyway.  When we were about 3 feet away from her cage, she crouched down in her litter box as far as she could go and hissed, spat, and growled with everything she had.  I smiled and said I would take her.  My daughter looked up at me with big, wide eyes and asked, "You want THAT one?  Are you sure?"  "Of course,"  I responded, "She's the one that needs us the most."

For the first year and a half after bringing her home, she was known as the "ghost cat".  I renamed her Tasha once I got her home, and only ever saw her around midnight when I got home from work and she was venturing out to eat her food.  Yet I was the only one in a family of four that ever saw her.  She finally let me touch her at about the 4 month mark. 

All that changed when we moved.  By the time we had her two years, she was confident and talkative.  She has stayed with us, through good times and bad.  Now she is older and sleeps more than anything else, but she is still in charge.  Just ask her.