Pillow and Tiger
In memory of Pillow and Tiger, two inseparable sisters who have left us.
They were born in somewhere in Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island, Hong Kong sometime in August 1998, the year of the Tiger. So one of them obviously had to named Tiger (on the left). Pillow (on the right) is an unusual name for a cat but that is exactly what she was --- a soft pillow for Tiger to rest her head on.
They were found in a cardboard box as tiny kittens on the side Main Street. One (most likely Tiger) had jumped out of the box and was scrambling under the feet of the villagers who, like me, were marching through the village on their way home from the ferry pier. I grabbed her to safety and she immediately sunk her claws in my best t-shirt and there was absolutely no way she was going to let go of this meal ticket (and I did not want to ruin my best t-shirt). A passerby said 'you cant just take the one, you have to take both' so now we had two small kittens. It was unplanned and we were not ready but that seems to be the way cats generally enter peoples lives.
They were not the friendliest kittens at first. It took time for them to adjust to sharing a small flat with two humans. In those days it was not an unusual sight to see kittens hiding around the garbage bins so one theory is that these two were from the local feral colony and that one of the Lap Sap Ladies had gathered them up an placed them in a the cardboard box for 'adoption'. They would hiss whenever I picked them up but gradually they warmed up to us and might even sit on the headrest of same chair. Towards the end of their lives Pillow enjoyed belly rubs and Tiger was a heat seeker often squeezing under my arm pit or vocally instisting on sharing a chair, bed, desk
Tiger was a very vocal and intelligent. She had a silky soft coat and looked like she had some Bengal in her. Pillow was generally more mellow with a tail that was half its normal length and it took a couple years for her to start talking. At times they drove us crazy. In a small studio flat they raced each other like motorcycles late at night landing big jumps dead centre on the bed. Nice furniture was immediately destroyed and quite often little gifts of "bum chunks" or vomit would be in our way. Kitty litter was tracked almost everywhere.
When Zephyr, another unplanned addition in 2001, entered their lives the dynamic become more complex. He would torment Tiger and Pillow would beat him up despite being less than half his full grown size. Mealtimes were the only moments the three of them shared the same space and Zephyr would go off to his corner while the sisters rules the roost. Tiger was safe as long as Pillow was there to protect her.
Pillow quickly used up two of her nine lives. In her first year she jumped from the roof of the 3 story village house landing directly on the hard, tiled ground floor patio. I rushed her to Hans, the village vet, who diagnosed her only with a split pallet, which his dutch vet texts only had a brief blurb on how to treat. So, like all good doctors, he told us in his heavy and almost incomprehensible accent 'to take two tablets and come back in a few days' for surgery. By then I was hoping hew would have found a better text on how to fix Pillow's pallet. Fortunately, to all of our relief, surgery was not needed as the two tablets worked miracles --- Pillow's split pallet was healing nicely on its own. Pillow's second accident happened nearly a year later in Ottawa when she was run over by a car. She saw her nemesis, Stella, across the street and had to give her a chase. And just like the previous incident, only a couple of tablets were needed. Pillow was a right as rain a few days later.
They are both missed --- and even Zephyr might have a soft spot for them too.
They were born in somewhere in Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island, Hong Kong sometime in August 1998, the year of the Tiger. So one of them obviously had to named Tiger (on the left). Pillow (on the right) is an unusual name for a cat but that is exactly what she was --- a soft pillow for Tiger to rest her head on.
They were found in a cardboard box as tiny kittens on the side Main Street. One (most likely Tiger) had jumped out of the box and was scrambling under the feet of the villagers who, like me, were marching through the village on their way home from the ferry pier. I grabbed her to safety and she immediately sunk her claws in my best t-shirt and there was absolutely no way she was going to let go of this meal ticket (and I did not want to ruin my best t-shirt). A passerby said 'you cant just take the one, you have to take both' so now we had two small kittens. It was unplanned and we were not ready but that seems to be the way cats generally enter peoples lives.
They were not the friendliest kittens at first. It took time for them to adjust to sharing a small flat with two humans. In those days it was not an unusual sight to see kittens hiding around the garbage bins so one theory is that these two were from the local feral colony and that one of the Lap Sap Ladies had gathered them up an placed them in a the cardboard box for 'adoption'. They would hiss whenever I picked them up but gradually they warmed up to us and might even sit on the headrest of same chair. Towards the end of their lives Pillow enjoyed belly rubs and Tiger was a heat seeker often squeezing under my arm pit or vocally instisting on sharing a chair, bed, desk
Tiger was a very vocal and intelligent. She had a silky soft coat and looked like she had some Bengal in her. Pillow was generally more mellow with a tail that was half its normal length and it took a couple years for her to start talking. At times they drove us crazy. In a small studio flat they raced each other like motorcycles late at night landing big jumps dead centre on the bed. Nice furniture was immediately destroyed and quite often little gifts of "bum chunks" or vomit would be in our way. Kitty litter was tracked almost everywhere.
When Zephyr, another unplanned addition in 2001, entered their lives the dynamic become more complex. He would torment Tiger and Pillow would beat him up despite being less than half his full grown size. Mealtimes were the only moments the three of them shared the same space and Zephyr would go off to his corner while the sisters rules the roost. Tiger was safe as long as Pillow was there to protect her.
Pillow quickly used up two of her nine lives. In her first year she jumped from the roof of the 3 story village house landing directly on the hard, tiled ground floor patio. I rushed her to Hans, the village vet, who diagnosed her only with a split pallet, which his dutch vet texts only had a brief blurb on how to treat. So, like all good doctors, he told us in his heavy and almost incomprehensible accent 'to take two tablets and come back in a few days' for surgery. By then I was hoping hew would have found a better text on how to fix Pillow's pallet. Fortunately, to all of our relief, surgery was not needed as the two tablets worked miracles --- Pillow's split pallet was healing nicely on its own. Pillow's second accident happened nearly a year later in Ottawa when she was run over by a car. She saw her nemesis, Stella, across the street and had to give her a chase. And just like the previous incident, only a couple of tablets were needed. Pillow was a right as rain a few days later.
They are both missed --- and even Zephyr might have a soft spot for them too.
