A Tiger Tale
By Jen Clement Kelley
Our company’s name is dedicated to a cat named Tiger (featured image). I first met him in the late 1990s when I was living in Brooklyn, NY. . It was sometime in the early fall, and I was walking home from picking my then elementary school-aged daughter at school.
My daughter and I walked our usual route home which meant part of it was through the main business district of Brooklyn Heights. One of my daughter’s favorite shops to pass was the neighborhood pet store because they often had homeless cats and dogs outside who were up for adoption from local animal welfare groups. My daughter liked to stop and keep the animals company for a bit.
On this particular day, the store had three litters of kittens, saved by a group of college kids after the kittens’ mothers had been euthanized by city animal control. There was only one kitten that had not been adopted. So we stopped to give the little guy some extra TLC. Little did I know that 20 minutes later I would have a new kitten in my life.
Kitten, as we called him at that point, had a bloated belly, an infection in his left eye, and a meow that sounded more like a squeak. He was beautiful in his imperfections.
After that fateful happy day, Tiger became more and more a part of our everyday routines. It really was like living in the happy part of a Disney movie. I loved it and we loved him. He walked with me (I kid you not) to take my daughter to school and back home again. When we moved to a more suburban area and I started driving her to school, he would come along for the ride. He got to know our neighbors, the delivery people, and loved other cats and dogs too. Don’t get me wrong, the scrappy resilient Brooklyn kitty in him knew how to defend himself and knew who was approachable and who was not. However, I don’t think there was anyone – human, canine, or feline, he did not win over with his affectionate easy-going personality.
On bad days for either myself or my daughter, he was the one other sentient being on the planet who really knew how to make us feel better. He could even sense when others were sad. He just somehow knew and somehow cared about each and every person or animal he met. His veterinarian and vet tech would often sit down with him after a check-up just to be with him and re-charge.
We want to be like Tiger and that is why Tiger Hill Nature Sanctuary is named what it is and why our mission is to create a space for healing both for nature and for people. I think it is all about paying forward the love and kindness we received from our very special four-legged buddy named Tiger.
