Even though we picked Tasha up from a shelter, the vet at the time told us that her 6 month teeth were not quite finished growing in. Therefore, we estimated her birthday was somewhere at the end of October/early November. Tasha is now 15 years old!
Absolutely amazing for a cat that had such a rough beginning. Her trust needed to be earned, but her loyalty has never been doubted. One year, when we went on vacation, we had a friend house sit. Apparently Tasha didn't like him very much, because she disappeared on the 3rd day of our absence. I found her only an hour or so after we came home. She had decided that it was better to live under our neighbor's shed, where she could watch our driveway, than to deal with a stranger.
On another vacation, a friend offered to watch all of our cats. We put them in a 4' dog cage and brought them to his house. When we returned, all of the cats had gotten out. There was no sign of the others, but Tasha preferred to stay inside his house, torturing him by howling every night while remaining hidden. She very happily came to me to be brought back home.
Tasha was only a year or two old when we had to relocate. We were living in a camper at a campground. Our clothes were located in bins on one of the unused bunks. She would curl up in one of the bins, and it would never fail that whichever of the 3 bins we would pull out, she would be in. It became somewhat like a shell game - who could get their clothes without being hissed at? The trick was to pull out a bin halfway. If you heard a hiss, or it felt heavier than usual, push it back in. Pull it back out and it would only have clothes in it. It took a while to figure this out, especially for my husband, but eventually it all worked out.
Happy Birthday, Tasha! Thank you for all of your 15 years of purrs, howls, and yes, hisses.
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