Delgado

I always wanted to have a Maine Coon cat, always heard they are fun, and they have dog like personality, plus they look like a wild cat, we decided to start a search after we lost our almost 14 year old Golden Retriever to cancer, our hearts were broken including our rescue dog who was just 2 years old refused to eat for few days, we have a female tabby cat, who this year will turn seventeen, and a rabbit who loved to nap with our Golden girl, even though we still had 3 four legged kids, it felt so quiet, and sad.

We started a search through Pet Finder, I was in a mission to find a Maine Coon mix through a rescue, instead getting a pure breed one, and one day we came across these pics of these tiny kittens, that looked just like a Maine Coon, the only problem was, we live in New England and they were in Florida, oh well, just a quick trip, right? Since our rescue doggie came from Mississippi in a transport, and our female cat all the way from Luisiana after Hurricane Katrina hit, I thought I could figure out how to turn another southern four legged kid into a New Englander!

We started the email exchange with their foster mom, we wanted the girl, you see, we have always had only female pets, but the only girl was already pending for adoption.

Foster mom told me she had a male cat and he was a sweet heart, and that as long as they get neuter they won’t mark territory, which I was very worried about, so she offered “Tate”.

Now there was a second challenge, Christmas time was approaching, we were in the middle of the pandemic, and he was too underweight to travel, or to even get neuter, so he would need to stay longer in rescue, and as much as we did research we could not find a transport from Florida, still we were committed to this cute kitten, and my heart could not bare letting him down. This kittens were dropped at an adoption event cover in fleas, very skinny and were not even 6 weeks old, their foster mom knew how much we wanted him and the chance of a good life he could have here up north, so she nourished him, brought him to the right weight, took him to vet visits, because they were also filled with parasites, and the beginning had diarrhea, but she brought him to health and to the necessary weight to travel, and few days before Christmas my husband got a flight ticket to Jacksonville, then drove two hours to Tallahassee, picked him up, they spent their first father son night at a hotel, and they caught a flight back the following morning, yes our new boy got home right in time for Christmas.

This spunky little man brought life, since day one, to our broken heart family with his bigger than life personality, his first order of business was to claim a spot in bed in the middle of the two of us, he would sleep all nigh in bed! Which cat do that! We name him Tatte which is the name of one of our favorite bakeries that brings great memories of our daughter time in college, and also means Daddy in “Yiddish”according to the Owner. He claimed pretty quick a spot in our Rabbit hutch where he just hangs out until this day, and surprisedly our bunny girl kind of enjoys the company. He even brought the kitten back in our older cat who was already 15 at the time, she had a digestive issue that after so much testing and changes in food would not be diagnosed of or go away, she would puke at least twice a week her whole food, his presence and playfulness almost cured her, now she doesn’t vomit very often, could say very rarely, they enjoy stealing each others food, and chasing each other around the house, and the light in the eyes of our dog came back, with his playfulness.

This past year we got a puppy Golden Retriever, yes, I know, we are guilty, it is a pure breed dog, but we will always need one in our life! We brought our new puppy home 4 months after Tatte arrived, and it was love first sight!, she showed Tatte the doggy ways pretty quick. He realized that walking on a leash is just a piece of cake “if my sisters can do it I can do it too” they wrestle, retrieve toys, do training sessions together, and snuggle to take midday naps, he even learned to chew blankets and drag them out of his bed, he quickly grew this obsession for training treats, if he doesn’t get them soon enough, he will threw a fit and chase me around the kitchen, he will jump to the door handle to try to open the pantry door; If he manages that, I think from there he will run away and join the circus! Hahaha. Few moths ago he discover a new passion; Ice cubes, yes! If the dogs get some then he has the same right to get them!, no worries, I let them sit in the glass of water until the get kind of pores so don’t damage their teeth, the two dogs and him get each one one before bed time.
This days he has his own Instagram page Tattelattecocoalatte, in the hopes to become a celebrity and bring awareness about how fun a cat can be for people who things dogs are better, to show the importance of rescuing cats, neuter them/spaying them, to reduce the homeless population, and to show the world that yes cats and dogs can be the best of friends and maybe with rabbits too! and how much joy they can bring to our lives.



I could go on and on about how much he entertains us all, and not all cats might be as wild, crazy and fun as him, but just a hug from them and the warm they irradiate, takes away the stress of a bad or busy day!
Our lives have changed for the better because of him, we love this kid more than words
can describe, and we will be forever grateful to It’s Meow or Never of Tallahassee Florida, for trusting us with this beautiful boy, our Tatte Boy! Our Tatte Latte Cocoa Latte Boy!