Tigger Tuesdays | Boston Pet Photography

Tigger has decided that he’d like some more face time on the blog. He’s such a little diva, I have to oblige him. Otherwise, he’ll attack my feet and jump on my head in the middle of the night. Wait…that’s not any different from what he does now. Hmm. Ok, well, I really have no excuse. I love the little bugger, what can I say?

Tigger came to us as the result of me pestering Will unmercifully to get a pet. We weren’t in a place where we could have a dog, which is what I really wanted, so I figured a cat would be just as great. A sweet cat who would sit on my lap – that’s all I wanted. We did a lot of research about adopting a shelter cat, talked about it a lot, and crunched some numbers to make sure we could afford to take on a pet. One fateful weekend in October two years ago, I persuaded Will to come with me to the Quincy Animal Shelter – just to look.

Ha.

Taking me to a shelter “just to look” at the animals is pretty much on par with taking me to a bakery just to smell the pastries. Riiiight. Not gonna happen.

We took a tour of the shelter and met many lovely cats. They were all adorable, and they all needed homes. But, we were “just looking”…couldn’t take all of them home. Then we turned around…and there was Tigger. He was in kind of rough shape. He was just under a year old, and had been brought to the shelter by a couple that who had gotten him when he was a kitten and then broken up – neither wanted to keep him. He had just been neutered and had minor surgery done on his mouth, so he was wearing one of those awful cones of shame to keep him from licking himself. He had a big bald spot on his side and on his leg from where they’d had to shave him. Plus, those eyes, ahh! He didn’t stop staring at us the whole time we were there. We looked at each other, and knew we were lost. We had to take him home.

We filled out the application, assured Tigger we’d be back in just a few days to pick him up, then called our landlord the minute we walked out of the shelter to make sure it was ok that we got a cat. Oops. It was a little backwards, but it was all ok!

When we got Tigger home, he was everything that I’d hoped for. He was so incredibly affectionate – always headbutting us, crawling up into our laps, and purring so loudly his whole body vibrated. After a week, he got comfortable, and then the cone came off.

And THEN the Tigger we know and love and occasionally want to smack upside his furry little head really blossomed. Cat’s got personality, I tell you what. He does what he wants, when he wants. He does not sit on our laps, he stalks our feet, and he is convinced that 4am is absolutely the best time to run laps around the apartment.

But you know what? I wouldn’t trade him for anything. Even so…I can’t help but smile when I look at these pictures from the first week he was with us.

Back before we knew what we were getting ourselves into.