# tammi two bites



## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

we laid tammi to rest last night, a starving feral we trapped in our yard, she spent almost a year in a large kennal in the family room, at around a year old she was the wildest of wildest.. she became a house cat, but it was on her terms.. the two bites is what she gave everytime I tried to tame her the first few months (only cat I've known that could growl and purr at the same time) she lived 10 years that she never would of had outside.. sometimes the tougher ones are much harder to let go..


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Tghsmith, I'm so sorry about Tammi...
And I think you're right about the 'Wild' ones...
There is a bond that developes with a wild one, when you have the patience, that is different than with one you don't have to work so hard with...
They do leave a Big Paw Print on our hearts...
She was a very Pretty Girl and you gave her a chance to have ten years.
Hugs and Prayers. 
Sharon


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## jking (Feb 22, 2014)

I am so sorry about Tammi. You gave her the best life she could possibly have had and her spirit will always be with you.


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## Heather72754 (Nov 1, 2013)

Aww, so sorry you lost your girl. atback Sounds like she had a wonderful life with you and I know it's so hard to lose her.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

I'm so sorry about Tammi. What amazing dedication you had to transforming her from feral to house cat so that you could give her a much longer and happier life than she would have had outside.


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## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

tammi's story, the long version: we first noticed tammi as a white flash in the yard, you would look out a window and see the blurr of a cat vanishing.. Driving home I saw her in the front tall grass hunting grasshoppers.. I waited a good distance while she finished.. We started putting out food in the yard for her, she was hiding somewhere near because as soon as the coast was clear she was on the food and eating as fast as possible.. we had to watch from well back from the windows otherwise she would bolt.. this went on for about a month.. we decided she needed to be box trapped and minutes after the trap was baited with canned food she was in it..It was then we started to relize what we had caught, she beat herself bloody in the trap trying to get out, she was managed to get tranfered to a larger kennel in the garage.. the next day with the door open just a crack she bolted over my wife into the garage, launching at the windows finnally retreating to the rafters,, while getting her out of her cornered position she bit through my winter motorcycling gauntlets and just broke the skin.. she had to get quarentined, when getting her post jail shot she bit at the techs glove so hard she broke a fang.. we got back an even wilder cat now with a bloody mouth.. . during her jail time we set up a large kennel with a hamock, bed box, litter box and a folding inside partition.. two days in the new kennel and she was listless and weak,, we took her to our vet , one phone call to the shelter " oh we have distemper spreading in here like wild fire" our vet had her under so her broken fang was extracted, she was cleaned up, given meds..in about a week she was back to her growling, hissing and clawing self (we knew it was all in fear) for the first months it was just letting her be and trying to pet her through the bars,, after she started to tolerate that I would sit in the front of the cage and tose her treats.. then started trying to get closer.. she would bite me once or twice (tammi two bites) I wouldn't back off and after a while she relised the bites didn't stop me,, I'd hand feed her treats, pet her while she growled and purred.. after a while the cage door was opened and she would get to explore the house little by little.. soon the cage was packed up.. she did finally start coming up to get some quick petting or brushing.. never adjusted to getting held(always chirped her fear at getting picked up) never played much in front of us, but laying in bed in the evening I,d see toys flying in air at the foot of the bed.. in the last year Yeti figured out how to approch her and not get swatted,, the two of them would play race and chase, yeti clomping like horse and tammi never making a sound (lightfoot) her stealth "attacks" left him stunned..she was hard to photgraph,It doesn't show in the pic(she feared things pointed at her) but she had stunning light green eyes.. good-by tammi (seven spots, one fang, two bites, pale eyes, lightfoot) no fear now...


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