Madeleine and Juan Carlos Gonzalez never expected to have pets because they were raising two children and like to travel.
But when a stray mama cat decided their backyard was a good place to bear her kittens, Tigger Garfield joined the family in 2007, followed by Celia a year later. The litters stopped after the couple took the mama cat to be spayed.
“We never knew we were cat people until we became cat people,” Gonzalez said.
They must be doing something right: their orange tabby boy and black long-haired girl are living very long lives.
“They are indoor cats and that helps tremendously,
because they are not subject to disease,” Juan Carlos Gonzalez said. “They live in air conditioning and eat and sleep whenever they want. They are relatively healthy.”
Celia “is obsessed” with his wife, though she lets him pet her, Gonzalez said. Tigger is his guy.
“Tigger is just a sweetheart,” Gonzalez said.
Cat people will approach a cat and understand that it is just like a dog, Gonzalez said. And Tigger’s antics prove his point.
“He’ll shake a paw, and sit if you tell him to. He likes to go outside and look around
and comes in when he is called,” Gonzalez said.
The cats also know when it’s time to be served.
“They eat canned food once a day and they also have dry food for snacking,” Gonzalez said.
“They are like clockwork,” he said. “At 2:55 p.m., they know it’s time to eat and they show up at the cabinet. At [the day light savings] time change, it’s a disaster.”
If you would like to introduce your pet to the readers of The Miami Laker, please email LindaT@MiamiLaker.com.