None of our current pack of critters was a planned acquisition. Taz was the first of the bunch.

In January 1996 I went down to Norman, Oklahoma to attend some job-related training. While there, I caught up with an old friend who lived in town. She and her husband had welcomed their first child three months before, and I was eager to meet little Rosalie. Also, Donna and Kent are good critter people, and they had a houseful as usual. But there was one in particular Donna wanted to show me.

A co-worker of Kent’s had taken extreme exception to his girlfriend’s cat, and was threatening to drown him. Kent suggested to this savory character that he allow Kent and Donna to find the cat a new home instead. And so, here comes cat-loving friend to visit.

The first words out of my mouth were, “Ohhhhh… he’s gorgeous.“ I’m not sure I’d ever seen a flamepoint Siamese before. Cream-colored, with red tabby “points” on his ears, face and tail, and bright blue eyes. Donna put him in my arms, and he immediately started up with a raucous purr and began licking my face. I was a goner.

So, he had to go home with me. But home was thousands of miles and several plane rides away, in North Pole, Alaska. So we put him in one of those under-the-seat carriers (which he would never fit in these days!) and hoped for the best. I was very concerned that this unknown quantity would turn out to be a problem traveler, but he was just an angel the whole way, even when security made me take him out of the carrier and bring him through the metal detector in my arms.

He was about a year old, and we thought he was full grown. Wrong-o. Also, upon closer inspection, it turned out that his sides had “stealth stripes” in a slightly darker shade of cream. Those stripes have darkened somewhat over the years, and these days he looks more like his probable mixed Siamese-orange tabby heritage.  He is everything “cat” times ten—very loving, very temperamental, very stubborn… you get it. Definitely a cat lover’s cat.