Tiger

I was anxious to say the least. There was no real reason why other than the fact that I had anxiety and depression that had gone untreated for a few months. Maintaining a therapist seemed unreasonable at this point. We had no car and no licenses to drive anyway. I wasn't generally in the mood to walk to therapy every time I had an appointment. I had to be in the mood to go somewhere and cabs were a bit out of our price range.

So there I was walking to the store with my husband. I don't remember what I was agitated about that time but that's probably because my emotions were unstable and I didn't have any other real reason to be agitated. He was getting tired of my outbursts but he stuck with me through it all like he always did. Usually it was an outburst followed by me realizing I was just stressed and then crying on his shoulder until I was tired. It had been like this ever since our cat died and was gradually getting worse. My last few therapists had suggested a pet to help with my anxiety.

He turned to look at me with disbelief that I actually meant whatever I just said, "You need a cat."

I shut my mouth. That had become his was of telling me that I was getting upset over nothing and needed to calm down again. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I didn't need to worry about whatever I was worrying about.

"God I ask for peace. Help me to calm my mind," I whispered to myself, always acknowledging the Godhead first before praying to an appropriate demigod, "Harmonia I ask thee to keep Eris from my mind. Let my thoughts and emotions be filled with your peace and harmony," while I accepted all faiths as possible truth and took comfort in them I was quite partial to the Greek demigods for guidance. Occasionally I included the Norse as well but I found their stories confusing so that wasn't very often. (Author's Note: I have no intention of pushing my beliefs on others. This is a true story and as a character in it I feel telling what I did in that moment concerning my faith is necessary to allow my readers to understand me.)

It was only about ten seconds later that we walked past an abandoned house and I was greeted by the friendliest forest cat I'd ever seen. He walked right up to me and began rubbing against my leg. Smiling at the immediate answer I knelt down to pet the beautiful beast. He was wearing a collar but the band had been stretched so far that it was more like he was wearing a pendant. Daniel stopped to wait for me to finish. He had a smile on his face that told me he was glad I was getting my "fluffy fix" as we'd come to call it.

As I stood up to continue our walk towards the store the cat began to follow me. Even though his collar wasn't in the best condition he was still wearing it so I wasn't about to let the little fur ball worry his owners.

"No little buddy. You can't follow me. Thank you for letting me pet you but you have to go home," I told him, only for him to make a circle and meow at me insistently.

I heard a chuckle from a nearby porch, "If you want the cat take it. I've been feeding him for a year. He was my neighbor's cat. She's in jail for drugs."

"Won't she want him back when she gets out," I asked.

He shook his head, "By the time she gets out that cat will be long dead even if he lives to be the oldest cat in the world. She's got a thirty year sentence. Take him. You need him more than anyone around here does."

I have Daniel a pleading look, "Can we?"

He smiled and huffed a short laugh, "We can come this way on the way home and you can get him then. He can't come to the store with us and we need milk."

I nodded and the man came down off the porch, "I'll keep him inside until you come back. I'll be home all day. His name is (well at this point it wasn't Tiger's Eye but we lived in a mixed languages area and I couldn't pronounce the Hispanic name he was given to start with.)"

I bit my lip, "I don't think I'll be able to remember or pronounce that."

The man laughed, "Call him a different name long enough and he'll answer to it. He seems to like you well enough."

On the way home we stopped back and I carried home the cat while Daniel towed the groceries and the man's leftover cat food back to the house. I had come up with the name Tiger's Eye after the gemstone my parents had once recommended to me to help keep my mind clear and calm. Given that our little rescue was my new ESA(Emotional Support Animal; a pet job that requires no training or actual registration beyond a simple note from the doctor) it seemed like a fitting name.