Tiger Woods

Possibly because I am a Gemini, over the last 35 years my longtime companions have alternated between kind, light, gentle souls and their complete opposites. This has been true both for human lovers and individual cats, and it's been a rare moment when the same personality types were living together with me at the same time.



So it's time for celebration, because I am finally living with two of the nice ones, pictured above.



Two weeks ago, seemingly out of nowhere, I blurted, "We need a cat," after a few years of living without one. "But you said a cat has to find us, not the other way around," Tony replied. "Whoops. I did say that, didn't I?" Two days later we were having dinner at The Blue Muse on Grove Street where Michelle the bartendress asked within minutes of our arrival, "Would you guys happen to be looking for a cat? One of the regulars here lives in Oakland and rescued a whole litter of feral kittens, and there's one left."



After a week's exchange of emails, Monte delivered the coolest orange tabby boy kitten I've ever met: friendly, happy and a purring machine.



We named him Monte after the modern-day St. Francis who had rescued him but the name didn't stick. It was while watching the final day of the PGA Championship golf tournament that we noticed the kitten would jump at the screen every time Tiger Woods was pictured, and he'd try to grab his golf ball from the TV.


So Tiger is the name, which is perfectly appropriate since he looks like one. If you're at all interested in cute cat videos, click here and here for some serious Tiger bonding.