In early January 2021, we took a drive down to the animal shelter in San Martin to see who might need a home. Sitting behind the front desk was a woman holding a tiny little thing...
Me: "What is that?! A chipmunk?!"
Her: "No, no," she replied. "It's a kitten. Found by the side of the road. He's about 4 days old. We're looking for a foster family."
Us, in unison: "We'll take him!"
We loaded the car with ourselves, the tiny kitten (who had already been named Tiger), and his BIG bag of supplies - when you foster an animal, the shelter provides all of the food, bedding, medical care, etc. We would be his home, but technically the shelter still manages his care. We knew from the start that our plan would be to adopt him out to a loving family... but it would be WEEKS before he'd be independent and functional enough to be adoptable. We buckled up for a long ride of excitement, frustration, sleepless nights, and endless adorableness.
Tiger started out with bottle feedings (every 1-2 hours x 24 hours per day!!) but we quickly weaned him to solid foods. You really have to teach the cat how to put the food into their mouth!
We had MANY cute and snuggly moments with the tiny kitten:
Tiger went from being barely-recognizable as a cat to a loving and cuddly house pet within a few short weeks. He quickly made himself comfortable on our heads, shoulders, and inside of our hoodie pockets... but he never fully warmed up with our other cat, Cooper (or, perhaps more accurately, Cooper never really warmed up to Tiger). We really enjoyed the experience of raising a tiny animal, and we reminded ourselves every day that he would eventually leave us for another family.
Imagine our DELIGHT and EXCITEMENT when a dear friend (who we see on a very regular basis) told us he wanted to adopt Tiger into his family!
The house felt a little bit empty after Tiger moved into his forever home 75 miles north... but he's certainly filling up his new house with a lot of adorable moments.
