A few months after our tiger cat passed away suddenly at the age of ten, I took my son and daughter to the local pound to look for a new addition to the family. There were not many cats there at the time so I went to the front desk to leave my name and number. A man walked through the door with a carrier and my kids rushed over to see what was inside – a 3-year-old calico cat with huge, leaf-green eyes.

Her name was Taz and my kids went crazy and begged me to adopt her. When we got her home, she hid under the couch for about a week and then finally decided to come out and take a look around. She’s owned the house ever since.

Taz is now 16 (she will be 17 in June) and is with us for almost 14 years. She’s hyperthyroid, deaf and has chronic kidney disease and arthritis in one leg, but she’s still going strong and still looks beautiful.

My husband is a hunter and uses our sun porch as his dressing room. One day I went looking for Taz but couldn’t find her anywhere. Just as I began to panic, I finally realized she was right in front of me on the wicker couch on the sun porch among my husband’s camouflage hunting gear. Her colors blended so well with the wicker and camo that it took me a while to actually see her!