I had a heated debate sometime back with a loved one on what exactly was a Tigger. My opponent's premise was that there isn't such a thing as a Tigger, so a Tigger is a tiger, just improperly pronounced by a child. Not so fast, I said. There may not in reality be any such thing as a Tigger, but in the mind of Christopher Robin, or should that be A. A. Milne, there most definitely was such a thing as a Tigger. Just because there isn't one in reality doesn't mean there's no such thing. Plus, as Ravi Zacchariah points out, in order to say that something DOESN'T exist, one would have to be all knowing; therefore making one a know-it-all.
Here are my arguments on Tiggers not being tigers. First, the word Tigger always appears in capitals in Milne's books indicating a name, but also indicating only one. Here's an example from the book House at Pooh Corner: "So that's what Tiggers like!" Just as Monday is the only day of the week called "Monday" and therefore always capitalized; for instance, "I'm going to the park next Monday." There's more than 1 tiger in the world.
The word tiger does not appear in any of Milne's Pooh books. All the other animals are pronounced and spelled correctly. Below is a list of differences I've noted between Tiggers and tigers (you may have to scroll down a ways, Blogger is having trouble with my table). After perusing the list, one could go to the Wikipedia and check out the first sentence in the entry for Tigger; but I'm not one to rely on consensus as a valid argument so ... nevermind.
Hopefully all of this will cement the argument and all will be well in the world. Tiggers are the same thing as tigers!? Don't be ridicarus.
| Attribute | Tiggers | Tigers |
| They're wonderful things | Yes. They are things not animals. As the next 2 attributes will attest. | Nope. They're wonderful animals. Full of wonder just as all of God's creation. |
| Tops are made out of rubber | Yes | Nope. |
| Bottoms are made out of springs. Disney portrays him with a spring in his tail. I contest this. I'm certain it was his bottom, since the original illustration by Shepard never shows him bouncing around on his tail. Besides, if the spring was in his tail, it would be "Tails are made out of springs." | Yes | Nope. |
| Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy | Yes | Well...I guess you could say tigers are all that. |
| Wonderful chaps | Yes | Too scary to be wonderful chaps. |
| Loaded with vim and vigor | Yes | They may exhibit some vim and vigor, but I don't think they're loaded with it. |
| Love to leap into your laps | Yes | Leap on you, maybe. But not specifically your lap. If you're sitting in a chair and a tiger comes in, he's going for the head not the lap. |
| Jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy | Yes | Jumpy maybe, but bumpy or clumpy? Sounds more like an overused stuff toy. |
| They're cuddly fellows | Yes | Maybe a tiger cub, but not a tiger. |
| Awfully sweet | Yes. Probably the reason for the next attribute. Too much sweet. | Fairly certain tigers don't taste sweet. |
| Dislikes the taste of honey | Yes | Fairly certain a tiger will turn up his nose to honey. |
| Number in existence | 1 | Around 2,000 according to Wikipedia. |
| Walks around comfortably on 2 feet. | Yes. One may argue that this is not a valid attribute since he's a contrivance, BUT Eore is a contrivance of a donkey and he never walks around on 2 feet! Ah HAH! | Nope |
| Never get lost | True. He states such and appeared to back it up when Rabbit intentionally tried to lose him and there has been no evidence to the contrary. | Unknown. I suspect they get lost, though. They're just too cool to let on. |
