Tygrr Boy!

Describe a family member.

By Tracy Schruder

I would like to describe a very dear, member of my family, my cat Tygrr. He is a Flampoint Himalayan cat. He is the little brother to my older cat Gracee.

Gracee came from the same breeder. We got her in 2011. When they just started out in the business. She’s so sweet!

Tygrr came into our lives on October 08, 2015. We rescued him from this breeder, who wanted to put him down. 😔 I had to have him. Tygrr was the result of over breeding and had a host of biological issues. However, he didn’t have any problems serious enough, that he couldn’t be cured or treated. When we brought him home he was only for weeks old. We had to feed him cat milk for six more weeks, every four hours, every day. He was very weak and very small.

It was a bit of a bonding experience for me. Because I had to feed him every four hours, including throughout the night, I felt like I was caring for a baby. I managed okay but I had some tired days at work until it was done. It made me love him even more. I was happy to see him get stronger. I was even happier when he started eating solid food.

Once he was strong enough, he went to the vet for his first of two surgeries. After each one, he would need eight weeks to recover. We tried to put a cone on him, to prevent him from chewing on the stitches but he wouldn’t have it. He was very good and never bothered the stitches. He was able to recover in tip top shape.

He grew quickly and began to live – a somewhat normal – life. That was until last year. We took him in for his yearly check up and after blood work & X-rays, it was determined that he had a breathing disorder. Turns out that the over breeding had caused him to be born with a very flat face. His nasal passages are very small and his skull, very thick.

He has to take steroids to help him breathe. It’s working well but eventually, we will have to change over to a ventilator. It’s okay because I don’t mind caring for him. It’s not okay because it didn’t have to be this way, had the breeder not overbreed his animals. I know this because Gracee is absolutely perfect in breed and in health.

He always looks a mess. It doesn’t matter how much I wash his face or comb him out. His eyes are very weepy and they need constant attention. This is because of the flat face, I’m told. We do our best to keep him handsome. I guess you can call him a handsome mess 😹. Gracee doesn’t have the same issue, she’s very low maintenance. She’s so pretty 😻.

Tygrr is very loving and playful. He has a very gentle personality. He doesn’t like other people much but he loves me to pieces. Very cuddly but doesn’t like to be picked up. He comes to you. He loves catnip and teasing his cat – sis. He always steals the attention, jumping up to steal the spots on the couch beside me and pushing Gracee out of the way. Sometimes, she will give him a little swat and refuse to move. That works out too. I guess that I couldn’t write about Tygrr, without bringing up Gracee. The are good buddies and lifelong pals. I love my fur family. 😻