Decan Andersen unexpectedly became a father of three in the spring of 2014, and in the cutest way possible.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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…
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“He quickly became like a third child to me,”Deacon says, so like all parents everywhere, he started documenting their day-to-day adventures and posting them on social media. He’s gotten some truly adorable shots over the years that show how closely he’s bonded with everyone in the family.
There’s nothing like having a fuzzy buddy around to keep you company while you’re studying:
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Like a lot of brothers, he and Decan’s human son do a lot of bonding during their outdoor adventures:
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But leading such a pampered life could easily lead to obesity and all its related problems. So he makes sure to make time for workouts, with an emphasis on calisthenics:
And as we mentioned earlier, he has no fear of the other animals in the Andersen household, and can often be seen curled up with one of the cats. Of if he’s just too tuckered out after a strenuous workout, he just hops on up, gets the cat to start purring and voila, a foot massage.
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With so much negativity in the world, I thought it could help lift people up … He makes people forget about their troubles for a moment so they can laugh and smile. He’s certainly brought light and enjoyment to me and my family. We have a special bond and are pretty much together, 24/7.
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More than a hundred thousand people now follow Tintin’s adventures on Instagram alone, and if images like these don’t make your heart go pitty pat, nothing else will. Listen to Deacon tell the story in his own words in the clip below.
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