My fourth cat Tikka.

Recently, my blogs have been mainly about mental health issues and my absolute desire to help anyone I can, but for now I wish to continue on my cat theme.

I started off at nine years of age with my beautiful brown Tabby, "Tiger", then had my two lovely black cats, and I am back to another brown Tabby.

"Tikka" got her name from a curry, as at that time I spent quite a lot of time dining in Indian restaurants and I basically just thought it was a nice name. :-). She later got renamed " The Wuzzle", but I can't for the life of me remember why. It wasn't me who renamed her.

Now, here was a cat with a "spitfire" character. She had a huge personality. Somewhere I have a photograph of her as a tiny kitten, walking on her hind legs with paws outstretched chasing a bit of string. What a cat! She was very playful, and in that 'female' cat way, but had all the personality of most of my female cats, just probably a little more exaggerated, of swinging a paw at anyone who displeased her. ( my male cats have tended to be a little more laid back.) :-). "Tikka" was a 'One and only' as all my cats were but I have a special fondness for Tabby cats, possibly as that was my first experience of that lovely bond.

I quickly learned to never leave my feet hanging out the bed as I have a tendency to do, as she thought it was a great 'game' to leap on them and bite them; probably why I always tuck my feet under the covers now. :-). She never quite had the soppy quality of some of my cats, but she was very loving.

" Tikka" arrived after I lost "Porta" and I just seem to be unable to be without cats. I just so love them and feel incomplete if they are not in my life. I chose her from a litter from a couple I knew at the time, and she didn't look like her mother ; there was something different about her, not really sure what it was, but I fell in love with her immediately. We still had "Cara", my brother's dog, and they adapted well to each other. It is untrue this myth that cats and dogs do not get on.

At the time of her arrival, we were staying at my mothers house but moved about two years after. We were still in the same village and it didn't seem to upset her too much, changing houses. In fact she still probably roamed the same area as we were literally only a street away from my childhood home.

She loved boxes, and to be honest, I had never had a cat that didn't love them but she liked to snuggle in them which is more of a trait that I have noticed in my female cats.

My lovely little "Wuzzle" even though I cannot remember why she got that name. I miss her, as I miss all of my cats.