Decan Andersen unexpectedly became a father of three in the spring of 2014, and in the cutest way possible.
He watched as a month-old baby squirrel fell off the roof of his apartment in the Netherlands and landed in the garden. But it couldn’t just get to its feet and scurry away, because it had hit a branch on the way down and suffered a nasty gash.
So Decan kept an eye on the little guy, guessing his mother would eventually come and bring him back to the nest. And she did come back, but for whatever reason, she took off without him. Maybe she knew she couldn’t take care of him and tend to his injury on top of feeding her other babies, but Decan knew if he didn’t step in, this baby was a goner.
So he brought the furry baby back home and got on the horn with wildlife officials for advice. And while he was on the phone, a strange thing happened: His cat Coco’s maternal instincts took hold, and soon she was licking and nuzzling the little guy.
Little else compares to maternal love, but the squirrel’s wound needed medical attention. So Decan brought him in to a vet and got him patched him up, then took him back home to nurse him back to health.
Tintin — named after the movie his children were watching, “The Adventures of Tintin” — got so used to this cozy home life during his convalescence that the family soon realized they couldn’t release him back into the wild. Especially since he now had no fear of cats!
It’s been a few years now since that fateful fall that brought Tintin into the Andersen home, and he’s become just another member of the family, although his diet isn’t quite as varied. At home, he eats a combination of fruits and nuts, but he supplements his diet with whatever he can forage during his outings (on a leash, of course) into the great outdoors.
But when one of those insatiable cravings strikes at 3 a.m., he’s polite enough not to wake the rest of the family and just raids the fridge…
