Chapter 2

Fitting In

Tsin’tia came into a household already ruled by 3 cats; Ouija, a black cat with a fluffy tail that I had since college, Tigger, a silver tabby cat I found in a tree on Cinnamon Path in Austin, yelling her little kitten lungs out, and Spot, a black & white cat who “took up with us” and who had loved my dog Tache. In fact, after Tache died, Spot missed him so much that she would go to a neighbor’s house and get in the dog house with their miniature Poodle.

Spot hadn’t quite made it to the vet on time for her spay. We had 3 kittens born behind the microwave stand. They were called Peepers (because he had runny eyes when he was tiny,) Missy (because she had white “mittens” on her front paws) and Willie. Willie didn’t have a name for a while until she started rubbing her cheek and head up and down on a picture of Willie Nelson on one of Lou’s T-shirts. Peepers got a home, so we had Missy and Willie and the other cats. They all loved the puppy although she got a clawless swat or two when she got too rambunctious. While we lived in Pflugerville, we acquired a dark grey tabby tomcat that Lou called Bubba and I called Fuzzy Butt, after a character’s pet in a Star Trek novel. He was a cat’s cat! What a sweetheart he was and he may need his own book.

Being a very playful puppy, Tsin’tia played with what she had; the cats and us. She had the sharpest little puppy teeth and claws, too! Lou has scars that look like surgical incisions to this day from her teeth and claws. I was never so glad to see adult teeth grow in on a puppy as I was with Miss T.

Tsin’tia also had the prickliest chin hairs ever! It was like being stuck with tiny pieces of straw. Oh, how her chin hairs could make you itch!! She always got me with them when I held her, too.

After we moved to a house on Saratoga Dr. in the West Lake area of Austin, her favorite place to nap changed to the couch, on her back. Her nap nick-name was slut-puppy. That girl never missed an opportunity for a nap in her life. Of course I can’t say that I’ve been known to pass on too many naps, either.

The Saratoga house was in a quiet neighborhood. If we stood on our tippy toes on the 2^nd floor balcony we could just barely see TownLake and the dam at LakeTravis. At that time a ranch occupied the opposite shore of the lake but now it’s all built up with houses. What a loss of beautiful country land! Oddly enough, Tsin’tia never much cared for lying on the upper porch. Even if I went out and read in the porch swing, she usually just laid on the bed where she could see me. She always wanted to be with me and would go to any lengths to be sure Mama was at least in sight. The rain on the tin roof was a soothing sound at night, and in daytime rain, sitting in the porch swing on the upstairs porch reading and sniffing fresh falling rain was great.

Her favorite playmate was our friend Margaret’s puppy, Bosco. He was a Boxer pup and cute as all get out! Downstairs, the house had a full circle from the dining area, through the kitchen, by the laundry room, through the living room, past the front door and back to the dining area (counter-clockwise.) They loved to race and chase each other around that circle, their own private race track.

We began to think T was never going to bark at anyone. We were wrong. On May 8^th, her first birthday, we ordered pizza. When the delivery guy arrived, Tsin’tia surprised us by barking her not-so-little head off! I guess she was just waiting for the right time. From that time on she barked at people coming to the house or passing by on the road. I could tell which it was by the tone of her bark. And she was not one to bark for no reason, so if she did, we listened.

One thing she barked at all her life was any man in a cowboy hat. The first time Louis came downstairs wearing his when she was under a year old, she barked at him like he was a certified mass murderer. Every time we met someone in a cowboy hat, it was the same story. I’m sure at some point she realized a cowboy hat was harmless but she always barked at them.

We found out what a good home protector she was when we went out one day leaving the side living room window open a few inches. The house was pier and beam, built on the side of a hill, and the front side living room window was a good 12 feet off the ground. When we got home, we found the screen off and window open as far as it would go and the door to the underside of the house, which was below the window, open. However, there was nothing touched inside the house. Whenever we were gone, Miss T liked to lie on the stair landing, out of site of the living room. We figured someone came along and thought they were going to get in and see what they could get, but about the time they stuck their head in the window, Miss T came at them in full bark mode. We hoped they broke something when they fell out of the window to the rocky ground below. Even if they didn’t break anything, I’m sure they were sore for a while. Tsin’tia would let anyone in with us, but if we weren’t home, there were only 3 or 4 people she would let in the house.

Tsin’tia loved to go on walks with me across the street is a narrow undeveloped strip of land. There were all sorts of deer trails in that area. Deer scats (feces) were everywhere and Tsin’tia loved to follow the scent trails. I would hide from her while she was preoccupied and make her find me. If she couldn’t see where I was by jumping up in the air and looking around, she would put her nose down and run in a circle till she picked up my scent trail and then she ran right to me. It was a great place to walk early in the morning on the weekends. Sometimes the air would be so fresh and damp you could smell everything. Fortunately deer scats don’t have much smell unless you are a dog down on their level. Cedar trees smell pretty good, though. Too bad they are such a fire hazard.

One of my favorite things was to take the dogs walking and often our friend Meg, with her puppy, Bosco, would join us. There was a route we could walk heading East from the house and then through the woods above the below-dam Colorado River/Lake Austin, which came out on a road that had a dead end. There was another wooded area and some steps cut in the rock in the hillside leading down to a wooden dock. We would walk down there with the dogs and have a good time looking at the woods and playing with the dogs. It was a beautiful walk in all seasons. I had no idea whatsoever that the water off the end of the dock was about 30 or more feet deep. I didn’t find out until the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) drastically lowered the lake to kill duck weed and I could see how deep the water was that my dogs had been swimming in! That was scary!

We loved that walk even though there were a lot of places where deep gullies cut across the land. I had a fear of one of the dogs falling in one of the gullies and having to be carried back to the house. 70 pounds of dog is a lot to have to fish out of a steep place and carry home. Fortunately, that never happened. I still miss having a nice woods walk to go on with the dogs. If I ever get the chance, I’ll buy a piece of property in the Central Texas Hill Country that has a nice wooded area with creeks and springs where we can walk with the dogs again. I know Tsin’tia will be there with us in spirit.

Another good time was going to LakeTravis, usually with Chuck and Angela. The first time we took Tsin’tia after she was mostly grown up, a mounted deputy came by checking on people. Tsin’tia was NOT having that horse near her mama! I had to grab her and hold on because she was determined to keep that terrible beast away from us. She never did really take to swimming unless it was that or drown, but she would walk in the edge of the lake or any body of water. One of her favorite things to do was squat in the water and pee. Good thing she didn’t like swimming pools!