I remember the first time I saw Putter Cat. She was at the Humane Society all alone in a cage. I noticed she was a really large cat for a female. She had silky black fur with beautiful green eyes. I had finally agreed to adopt a cat after 10 years of my husband showing me cat videos, cat pictures, cat stories, etc. After all, marriage is all about give and take and compromise.

So off we went to the Humane Society to volunteer. We did that because I had a cat allergy. I thought if I exposed myself to cats over time, I would become more tolerant. So we finally decided to pick out a cat to adopt. There were so many different ones, young ones, adorable kittens, but I kept coming back to her. The name they gave her was Tammany, because she was a rescue from hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. But my husband is one for nicknames, she we ended up calling her Putter Cat. She had been there for over a year, living in that cage. I felt sorry for her having to be in that shelter for so long. I guess because she was so big, and she wasn’t young (4 years old), people didn’t want her.

So we took her into the visitors’ room to see how she would be with us and if I would be allergic (I wasn’t). She ran all around the room, sniffing and investigating everything. So I said, “There are two humans in the room.” When I said that, she turned around, came over to me and jumped on my lap, and looked me in the eye as if to say, “Please take me home.” How could we not adopt her?

She was my first pet ever in my life at the age of 58 years old. I didn’t know anything about cats. We went to Petco and bought all the supplies we would need, and then my husband went to pick her up. I remember the day we brought her home. We let her out of the carrier and she ran all over the house, sniffing and investigating everything. And then she came back to the living room and jumped up on my lap. I guess she was telling us she was finally home.

Tammany was extremely smart. She would bang the cabinet door where we kept her food when her bowl was empty. She loved to be rolled with the pet hair roller. One day I was rolling the bedspread and I thought it would be a great way to keep the hair down. So I started rolling her and she loved it! So every time I was using the roller, no matter where she was in the house, she would come running and flop down to be rolled. No matter how many times we left and came home, even if it was multiple times in a day, she would jump up on the table to greet us when we came in the door. And she loved to get a drink from the tub faucet with her buddy Neo, one of our other cats. All Ken had to do was call out “tub drink,” and they would both come running.

We have a huge, fenced back yard, so the cats can go out there when it is nice. She loved to sit out there and just watch. There is a block wall by our back door and she would just sit there for hours. Or she would go lay in the cool grass and take a nap on a nice day.

She was a beautiful and loyal companion to us for ten years. It was so hard to lose her, and I still cry when I remember her. I hope what my friend tells me is true that one day I will see her again when I get to heaven. She gave us so much love and I miss her so much. I will never forget my beautiful, silky girl. RIP Putter Cat.