Top ten favorite Tigger moments

I am sure I have missed a number of excellent Tigger moments. I really wanted to include when he peed in the office right at the feet of the CFO (who was ambivalent at best about Tigger) or when he ran almost a mile (stopping at the curb at the intersection because he knew not to leave a curb) when we moved into a new home running back towards his old home, or “The Shark,” which is what his uncles would call it as he walked figure eights nonstop in the living room as we sat talking or…well…lots of ‘em. Here are my ten. But please feel free and add any I missed. He loved all of you and certainly did something goofily Tiggeresque around you. Bruce.

Ginger, Tigger and Bruce at the lake

10. Trained to not go after tennis balls on a tennis court, he sits watching from a spot on the side of the court, gets up, wanders from one post to the other (staying close to the net) while play continued over his head to get in the shade on the other side. We never stopped, he/we didn’t care and maybe he would stop and look to see if anyone would play with him before proceeding and plopping down on the other side. Sometimes he needed to be encouraged with a “take a break.”

9. The infamous “tuck and roll” off the Danuser front porch as he stepped off the side of it by mistake. Eyesight not as good as it used to be he kinda missed the steps, as he tumbled over the porch he did a perfect “tuck and roll” into the shrubs and came out onto the lawn a little confused but ready to start walking. Would have drawn a 10 from the Russian judge.

8. Caught in one of those side road suburbia traffic jams Tigger proceeds to jump out the back driver side car window, “sticks” the landing (to avoid the opposite lane traffic) like an Olympic gymnast then immediately bolts around the back of the car to the other side to a small patch of grass he had spotted from the car and went to the bathroom (cause he knew to not go in the car). All the while I freaked out.

7. The tennis matches with my tennis partner’s son, Brandon, bashing Tigger with a big Flintstones plastic bat in the space where all the people sat watching the matches and Tigger just standing there staring at me through the fence with huge brown eyes pleading with me to let him come on the court.

6. The Hannibal Lector crate. After he had opened a single lock crate as well as destroyed the wall plaster almost 6 inches behind his crate as a puppy, I bought a new 2 lock crate, moved his crate to the middle of a room and elevated it slightly. Hannibal Lector couldn’t have got out.

5. The infamous Tigger “harrumph” after the ‘take a break’ command. The best command he ever learned was the “take a break” command (about the only thing that kept us all from killing him on occasion). But. While he would follow the command when he didn’t want to he would lay down with a loud audible “huff” or “harrumph.”

4. Uncle Jim’s shoes. My place was a hotel walking distance from our favorite bar Laseters for rotating uncles after tennis and beer. One morning we woke up to uncle Jim yelling “Tigger!” He woke up to find the tongues, and only the tongues, chewed out of a pair of $100 shoes. From that night on Uncles staying over would put their shoes up on their bed, or the futon, next to them.

3. Car sick on the way to the lake. In the car driving to the lake with a friend she says “I think Tigger is going to get sick.”

“huh?, Tigger never gets sick.”

“well, you know how people get green when they are sick, Tigger has that look.”

(I turn and look and he is sitting in the back bed of the car with a droopy look and a green muzzle. And she was right, he did look like he was going to be sick). “Wow, you are right. He does look green sick.” (he had eaten an entire bag of sour cream and onion potato chips, and part of the bag itself, and his muzzle was covered with sour cream “dust’). And, yes, he did throw up when we stopped.

2. Tigger and his nose. Tigger loved “giving kisses” to women (having learned this from an early dogsitter friend who let Tigger lavish her with kisses). He was intent on giving kisses regardless of situation. Unfortunately Tigger never grasped the length of his nose and mastered the “unintentional spearing” transgression. From a standstill he could spring (Tigger-like) up to nose spear, oops, kiss, up to maybe 5’ 6” or so.

1.Lastly. Oh. I believe everyone from the original Tigger family will probably be on board with this one. While Tigger loved women and was really affectionate with them he was a “guy’s dog.” My number 1 is the ongoing memory of Tigger by my side and from the distance we would hear a “Tigga-boo” shout from Uncle Gary, Uncle Jim, Uncle John, Uncle David, any uncle in the tennis crowd and from a standstill he would be running 100 miles an hour to see his favorite uncle (whichever one it was yelling). He lived to hear a “Tigga-boo” call in the distance. (although Aunt Jen could get a good sprint out of him also)

As a good friend told me…he adopted everyone.