I saved my little baby from Greece from Zakynthos she was a stray and was very poorly when I first got her. She had cat flu and was very thin, so I took her in just so that I could fatten her up and give her loads of TLC, which I think helped her to recover. She had a nasty accident and broke her leg in three places, which was operated on and thankfully made full recovery. Well she had a bad year so I thought I had better get her neutered as well because I did not want to lose her if she had given birth. I grew that attached to her that my life revolved round her and in November 2003 brought her to the UK on a pet passport but also made sure she was on the same flight as me. Tigris had a life like a queen, I was living at my parents at the time, and a year or so later I met my partner to be which became her dad, he is Cypriot, my cat understood Greek and English, we moved to Birmingham 2005 and until we got settled left Tigris with my parents, but after a short while we had to bring our baby to live with us. Tigris had a beautiful life compared to the one she had so early in life and we wanted everything to revolve around her even to the extent of christmas where we set her a place at the dinner table. Our world broke apart on April 16th 2006 when at 11pm she woke up, yawned and stretched and started to cry out in pain I thought she had sprained her leg which she had injured in Greece, but this went on till 0200am, that was when my partner came back from work, we decided totake her to the vet after finding out it would cost us 107.00 pounds just to look at her, but even if it had been a thousand pounds we would have found the money from somewhere. We were told it was bad news she had thrombosis and her bag legs were paralysed from bad circulation, this happened within three or four hours, it broke our hearts to see her like this, we also found out she had a heart murmur. We asked if there was anything the vet could do, but unfortuanately not, I had to put her out of her pain she was given two doses of sedative because the circulation had also gone in one of her front legs. She feel asleep on my hand I just kept telling her that we loved her and that everything would be alright and that we would never forget her. The following day I went to collect her but could not bury her where we lived as we live in a flat so we made an hour and a half journey and I kept her in my arms like a baby, and I buried her at my parents in Doncaster. She has a beautiful grave she looked so georgeous, peaceful with no pain. We buried her with her snowman which she used to sleep with, first blanket, cross and some artificial red roses, I kissed her goodbye and said that mummy and daddy always wants her to be with us. We placed a glass cross on her grave, flowers, artificial rabbit and a lantern which we ask my father to light every day, and ourselves when we go to visit. Me and my partner started to blame ourselves, me for smoking in front of her and my partner blamed himself for the way he used to pick her up without cupping her behind in his hand. Did we kill her?

Tigris was not an animal she was our baby she was better than a human being and understood everything, she was trying to tell us she was not well by just staring at us but why couldn't we have picked up on that? Was it our fault?

Believe it or not she also saved us from getting a parking ticket by waking us up to move the car.

I feel anger because there are many people who take there lives, and my little baby wanted to live she was only six years old.

Of course you are not to blame for her death, but you must be praised for giving her a marvelous life !

Tigris was never destined to live a full life, and if you had left her in Greece, that life would have been very short lived indeed. The accident she suffered in Greece, ultimately killed her, that was her destiny, but for some mysterious reason it was decided that she should be allowed to stay with you for a while, maybe she was your teacher, I dont know, but I believe you will find out the reason, and you will understand it all one day.

Thank you for sharing this with us Maria.

Kind Regards

Chris
Cats Protection.