I'd like you to meet my beautiful boy, Hurley.
I got Hurley when he was just a baby, from my local rescue centre. Hurley was one of a litter of, I think four, and he and his siblings had been rescued as almost newborns after their mother had been hit by a car.
When I went to take a look at the kittens that were available for adoption, Hurley was actually nowhere to be seen. He was hiding inside a cat tunnel, while his more boisterous siblings roamed around, waiting to find their forever home.
I almost didn't see him. It was just as I was leaving, for some reason I turned around and saw this beautiful, tiny, fluffy face peering out of the cat tunnel. And it was love at first sight.
The photo above is from the day we took him home. He was such a shy little thing, so timid and afraid, and it took him a really long time to get brave. For the first week or so that he came home, he basically stayed in the kitchen. Every now and again, he would begin to creep into the hallway, then scurry back.
His confidence eventually grew though. Soon, he was getting into all kinds of mischief, like getting stuck in abnormally high trees and needing friends to help rescue him! Poor little guy!
However, even though he is much bigger now, almost eleven years old, I still see him as that tiny ball of fluff I almost didn't see.