Tiddles

[Lilith]

The first cat I ever owned was called Tiddles. Well, not owned, exactly, as I was only about three or four at the time. My mother named him. I remember him sleeping in a green washing-up bowl on the back shed roof, next to the railway line which separated our house from farmland. You didn't have to go out and wait for the bus in bad weather; you could stand at the back bedroom window and look across the fields to see the bus making its way from the next village, very convenient.

Tiddles disappeared after only a few years. My mother swore he'd been stolen as he was 'part blue Persian' (he was just a nice black and white moggie.) Was he lost to the road or railway line or did he cross the railway line to find a more amusing life mousing and ratting on the nearest farm where, when I was older, I used to hang around 'helping' and making friends with the farm's huge cat population, who arrived in a horde when the farmer mixed up the dried milk formula for calf feeding ... a dozen or more variegated noses would dip into the bucket and lap greedily. I do hope they were fed more than that though.

'Tiddles' seems to have been a traditional cat name for a long time. Recently I looked it up and found that it came, I think (as I can no longer find the site) from old English, meaning a nice animal to be fondled ... suits a cat, perfect.

My horrible Molly seems to have got 'Tiddles' as her newest nickname, but ironically.

'Are you going to behave yourself now? TIDDLES?' (NOT a nice cat!)

No. She chases poor Mouse. Or bites me. Typical.

[Janey]

Hi Lilith. Sorry about Tiddles, it must have been awful wondering where he was. It sounds ideal where you lived though, and being able to spot the bus!
Regarding the name, I have a little book of cat names and you’re right. According to my book, quote:

“Tiddles from the old English slang to indulge, nurse and cherish. For those pampered pets.”

I don’t know why I would have thought it came from cats who toileted inappropriately at some point

I remember a few Fluffy’s when I was younger. One friend had a cat called Penny, it was tabby and white. I wanted a cat but my family weren’t cat people, unfortunately. We had a dog who I loved, but he was pts when young sadly. When I married, as we both worked we realised a cat would be more suitable than a dog, and that’s where it all began. We went to CP and there was a little cat following the owner’s great dane about. She was the last of the litter (found dumped in a dustbin), and the one not yet picked. We felt sorry for her and I remember the lady taking her into her kitchen and I remember her looking just like my friend’s cat Penny. I thought to myself I will call her Penny, when coincidentally the lady said what will you call her? how about Penny she has a little tabby circle on her tummy, like a Penny, look! then I told her she was going to be called that anyway

eta photo of Penny, our first cat

[bobbys girl]

Years ago - when I was still a cats-less dog owner I was chatting to a neighbour about hear new kitten and told her if I ever had a cat I wanted a sleek black cat and I'd call him/her Willow.

Forward about ten years, we had move over here and I was driving into town on an errand for my mum, when a neighbours dog stood in the road in front of the car with something in his mouth. He dropped the something and 4 little legs waved in the air. A sleek, black kitten - Pussy Willow, the first one ......

[Ruth B]

My Family were the type that seem to acquire cats. The first we had was when I was about 6 years old. We had just moved down to Herefordshire from Yorkshire, when we had been to visit the property the owners had a cat. Me, being a typical 6 year old, told my parents that I would only move there if the cat stayed. Needless to say, when we moved in the cat had gone with its owners to their new home. My Father was a dentist and used this story as a bit of an ice breaker when chatting with his new patients, until one turn around and said 'My cats just had a kitten, I'll keep it for you'. Twelve weeks later and a follow up appointment came with the statement 'I've kept that cat for you'. So we got Rusty.

first thing to note, the phrase, 'My cat's just had A kitten'. Rusty was an only child, which meant he didn't have the normal inter kitten socialisation. When we went to collect him, the owner was really apologetic as the mother cat had taken him out to hunt hedgehogs, and he was riddled with fleas. However that cat, for all of his quirks, taught me more about handling an animal than anything else. He lived by the rule of three, he would warn you twice when he had had enough attention, the third time would be a hard strike with claws out. My parents were of the firm mind that if I didn't take note of the warnings, it was my own fault, and I quite agree with them.

He wasn't a ct you really owned, he lodged with us, more than anything else, and only sat on someones knee once, the day before he was put to sleep. That was when he taught me one of the most important lessons of my life. He became very ill, and couldn't keep any food and hardly any fluids down, the vets had done every test they could and the last option was to open him up and take a look. We got the phone call while he was on the operating table, the cancers had blocked the entrance to the stomach, they could wake him up and he could spend a couple of weeks on drips until he pretty much starved to death, or they could up the anesthetic so he would never wake up. At that point I realised that if he had been human he would have been sewn up and drip fed. I knew then that there are times we treat our animals better than we treat our fellow humans. Hard as it may be, at least I know I need never let my pets suffer.

I always knew that he was the first of many, all through my childhood there were several cats about the house, and as soon as I had a house of my own and was out of shared, rented accommodation, I contacted Cats Protection (League, as it was then, I still think of it as CPL) and got a beautiful mother and daughter pair.

[Lilith]

Hey, great stories and love the photo of Penny

Yes, it was a brilliant place to live - all built over now, of course I think I was too young to miss Tiddles very much, and I suspect he didn't come in the house much; I remember feeding him when he was a kitten, but there was a new baby, soon to become a manic toddler, and Tiddles probably got more peace away from us.

It was my next cat who I did grieve for, a fluffy ginger kitten, 'Tinkerbell' at the farm. The farmer would have let me keep her; the cats weren't neutered, and one kitten more or less made no odds, but by this time we'd moved to a new housing estate and my mother didn't want any animals to spoil the banal splendour of the three piece suite and fitted carpets. Cats are death to moquette - sod the moquette, I say But Tinkerbell was 'mine'; I bought her a collar and even took her home for a few hours sometimes. Then she died. I don't know what of. It was the 1950s; the cats weren't inoculated; they died from disease, fights, accidents and it was little thought of; it was, sadly, a case of the survival of the fittest.

I remember going into an empty outhouse and finding her body lying in the middle of the floor - and, eerily, a circle of cats sitting round her, quite still and silent, as if they too were mourning her. I'm certain I didn't imagine that.

I've always felt a tenderness for ginger cats since then.

[andyscouse]

Having moved away from the UK to America since 1996, my then-wife got me a cat after my mum had died in 2000. I named her "Tiddles", as a tribute to English cat names. She was with me and my boys during the subsequent separation and divorce in 2003 / 05. She was always a mouser, and would get them in and out of the house. She'd jump on the windowsill and meow to come in more often than at the front door.

She was with me for 7 years in a town just south of Boston MA until I had re-married and moved 100 miles west of Boston. Tiddles didn't really settle in the new house and didn't get on with the two cats that Nancy already had. She actually disappeared in Sep 2007, and we thought the coyotes must have got her (they're quite common around here). Well, in Dec 2007, we were in the lounge, when all of a sudden I see a cat walking from behind the house extension ... and yes, it was Tiddles! I have no idea where she'd been for three months, but I was glad to see her back.

We brought her back in, but again, she didn't "take" to indoor life. So, for the next 13 years, she has lived a surreal life living in the basement (access via a small window - it's really more of a crawl-space) and spending the days sunbathing, prowling and hunting. Even in advanced years, she was seen eating mice and birds!

She turned 20 in Nov 2020, and was still out and about, albeit old age manifest in her walk and aspect (but she hunted to at least July 2020), but she loved to lie next to the azalea I planted in August 2020. She made the most of the sun and air.

This week, I hadn't seen her for a while. I put food down in the basement (normally I'd feed her in the morning by the front door and she'd meow very loudly) and it had been eaten up until either Tue or Wed. I went down to check on Friday - and there was poor Tiddles. She'd died peacefully, aged 20¼. It was devastating to know she'd finally died, but then again, she was very old (and deaf, in her last year and a half). She is now at peace.

We have other cats, but Tiddles was my first American cat - and she outlived a few of our cats during her 20¼ years on Earth.

RIP, Tiddles. We love you and miss you.