Tsilli LOVED to get petted.  But she was also extremely polite. 

    She would go and visit the neighbors; sitting on the doorstep, looking in thru the screen (no AC in those rental houses), and waiting to see if someone would invite her in for a pet.  If they looked out and said, "No," she'd move along to another house and try again.

    There were no fences between houses on that block (all owned by the same landlord), so Tsili often wandered down the backyard garden patches looking for company or shade or a good sandy place to roll. 

    When Tsilli was at home, she was still polite.  If folks were talking when she can in, she'd sit down and wait until someone LOOKED at her -- and then roll over to expose her tummy for a pet.  In the picture above, Lois is being interviewed about her business, "Davis Wo-men's Books", by a Cal Aggie reporter.  When the photographer shot this, Tsili decided that MUST qualify as looking! and promptly rolled over.  He captured that also, but I don't have that photo any more so cannot scan and share it.

    I have lots more Tsili stories.  But would rather tell them in person than type them.

    Tsili came with a rental house we moved into on K Street near 2nd.  She had originally been named "Pricilla" and lived with some guys who rented the house.  Just before moving time, she had a litter of kittens out in the garden wilderness and the renters abandoned them all when they moved out. 

    When she and her furry family showed up on the doorstep, we found homes for the kittens, spayed the mom, and took her in.  We also changed her name.  There was another Pricilla cat on the block who was called "Prissy", so ours became "Tsili" or "Tsilli"-- rather more like a russian princess -- but we still sometimes called her Silly Cat, Felis Ludicrous, or Feelis Soft-and-furry.

return to Lois' family page http://gotouring.com/family/

photo published in Cal Aggie ~1973