Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412100003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She canvased the woods behind her rural Roanoke County home every day for weeks, her 10-month-old son in a backpack with her. She put up fliers up and down the back roads, placed ads for her lost pet in the newspaper.
She checked animal shelters in Roanoke, Salem and Rocky Mount - first twice a week, then weekly, then monthly, then whenever she happened to be in the area.
``I didn't quit going to the SPCA in Roanoke till a year ago,'' the 39-year-old says. ``I just had a feeling, because I didn't have anything to bury, that she was still alive.
``I couldn't shake this Walt Disney attitude that one day she was going to come home.''
Tigger wasn't just any pet; she had been Hudson's lifeline. She found Tigger and her brother, Bear, in 1985 at a dairy barn in Delaware, where Hudson lived at the time. Abandoned at 3 weeks old, the cats were nursed by Hudson with formula from a baby bottle.
``When I left Delaware in 1987 Tigger was a real comfort to me,'' she says. ``My first marriage had just ended, and the cats kept me company.''
An insistent snuggler, Tigger slept with Hudson every night.
So for three-and-a-half years after Tigger vanished, Hudson refused to replace her.
The area mice flourished. Hudson and her second husband, Jim, meanwhile had another child.
Then two weeks ago, Hudson was driving back from her 4-year-old's pre-school, her 2-year-old asleep in his car seat. Just two miles from her house, she was stopped at the intersection of Boones Chapel and Starlight roads when she spotted a cat that looked remarkably like Tigger - minus two-thirds of her tail.
``When I got out of the car, she ran across the road in front of me,'' Hudson recalls. ``So I called out `Tigger' and whistled, and she immediately turned around and sat down. And then she started meowing.''
But could it really be Tigger after all these years? Hudson looked closer.
Same right fang broken in half, same missing bottom teeth. When Hudson got home she compared the cat's markings to old pictures of Tigger: same tiger stripes, same black paws.
Hudson's veterinarian is convinced, too. Tigger may be three pounds lighter - and less a chunk of her tail - but she's fine. ``He told me that somebody's been helping her because she's just too healthy and too friendly.''
Hudson thinks it's someone with kids because Tigger used to be skittish around her son Frank - but now the two kids poke her and pull her hair, and the cat doesn't mind a bit. And she still snuggles like nobody's business.
Hudson wants to find out who she has to thank for caring for her cat. She'd also like to clear up the mystery of the missing tail.
``I think she's been out there cuddling up to people till they've had their fill of her,'' Hudson says. ``I just want to thank whoever it was and tell them she's OK.''
Information putting the cat caper to rest can be phoned in to me at 981-3435, and I'll pass the word.
Beth Macy s a features department staff writer and Thursday columnist.
by CNB