I was there when it happened. I was just a cub reporter then  Working out of Camelot's Mexico City bureau. I'd met the Shoehorn, or the Calzador. His real name was Jose. He was a trumpet player in a small jazz band. I had seen him play a few times. He was a decent player as anytone. Why did they call him the Shoehorn or Calzador? Well, although considered low grade now, to tell the truth, back then Calzador was considered a big deal. Nobody ever called him this in front of him because they wouldn't want to call him this in front of him. It was a name to be snickered about behind him. Calzador right now. The man was into feet. Loved them. All the girls he dated said that's the one thing he enjoyed most of all was just touching their feet, which of course gets to the dating part of this.

Now, the thing about Calzador was, the man was a looker. He had those big, pouty, sensitive eyes that denotes sadness, and the perfect chiseled jaw that made the sadness appealing and not depressing  to be around. Of course he wasn't what you called the great trumpet player in the world. He probably would never have made big headlines if it weren't for Allison Kendric.

Allison was a bear-cat. The daughter of a US businessman, she had torn through Mexico City the second she arrived. Her father was Rex Kendric, a magnate of some sort who had set up shop in Mexico City. And let me tell you, that house was huge. Full of winding corridors. And he spoiled that girl. There wasn't anything that he wouldn't get if Allison asked for it. She wanted a diamond necklace; got it. But she wanted some more exotic things; she got it. The  thing girl particularly loved cats. Big fan of cats, any type of cats. She had 100's of cats ,but her favorite was Sasha who I had met once It was rumored to be a direct descendant of Cleopatra's cat. The thing was a mean little thing. It bit me once or twice , and also she was a tiger.

Boy when those two met it was fireworks.  She was in love with him. He was a young trumpet player, not ready to be tied down to no one and no way. Their passion was electric, though at a certain point he got bored as young, stupid people tend to do, and he was ready to move on.

Oh, if he had only not gone to that place, had gone to her one more time. Now of course this is where the reports get sketchy. And not a lot is known about what happened after this. And of course it's a kind of 'he said, she said' situation. She had claimed in a testimony later on that she told him that she had loved him, and then left. Of course nobody would have anything to doubt of her, but people doubt. Start to look around, it got mysterious.

A few days later she donated Sasha to the zoo. The tiger was a sickly looking sort of thing. And it happened to cough up a foot. Nobody was ever able to put anything on her; it was a sensation though for a while. She eventually moved back to America, settled down, had a family. The theory around that story eventually died down.

Now I can't say what is true or not true about the whole situation. I wasn't there that night. And I only met them a couple of times, but I'm just saying. Who knows?