CHAPTER 1 You Must Be This Tall

 

  It was springtime, and Fosterland was full of baby animals. Inside an incubator high on a shelf, two tiny kittens awoke to muffled happy sounds outside of their toasty-warm nesting box.

  The tabby kitten, Elvis, rolled onto his back, exposing a soft belly covered in little brown dots. “Did you hear something?” he asked his friend.

  Elvis was small, but his orange friend, Ferguson, was extra-extra small. As the three-week-old kittens stood side by side, the bottom of Elvis’s whiskers tickled the tops of little Ferguson’s ears, making Elvis look like a giant by comparison.

   

  Ferguson sniffed the air. “I wonder what’s going on out there,” he agreed, grasping upward to try to peek out the window. But his tiny toothpick legs were too short, and he couldn’t reach the glass. “Hrmmph,” he said. “Can you see anything?”

  Elvis placed his paws against the wall and peeked out of the window with ease. “It looks like… more kittens!” he said, and Ferguson gasped. “Bigger kittens, five times our size… in hats!”

  Now Ferguson was really curious! He leapt over and over again until his teeny claws caught the ledge of the incubator’s window. He tried to pull himself up, but with his little back legs dangling desperately, his claws slipped, and he fell back onto the blanket.

  Eyeing his stuffed animal, he had an idea. Ferguson used all his strength to push the stuffie to the window, then he climbed on top to get a better view.

  Ferguson could now see that a group of kittens was lining up at the door, where a blond-haired lady and a silky black cat were placing colorful party hats on their heads. Every few minutes, new human guests were arriving, and the kittens were meowing with glee. It seemed like a celebration of some kind—and it looked fun!

  Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap! Ferguson scratched at the glass with his little claws, eager to get the attention of the kittens below. “Exsqueeeeze me? What’s going on down there?” he squeaked with all his might, longing to participate in the excitement.

  “And what’s with the hats?” Elvis added.

  A round-faced kitten looked up. She waved and grinned. “It’s adoption day! We all got big enough to go to our forever homes!”

  Ferguson and Elvis looked at each other, then looked back as the kitten primped for her family, adjusting her party hat and grooming her whiskers.

  Ferguson tapped the glass again to regain her attention. “Can we join? Getting adopted looks like a blast!” he squeaked.

  The kitten considered the tiny baby sitting atop the teddy bear. “Someday you’ll be big enough for adoption… but I don’t think that day is today,” she called back.

  Ferguson frowned. “Oh. Well, when will we be big enough?”

  The black cat, Coco, looked up at the eager little boy. With a small glimmer in her eye, she reached for the wall and scratched a line into the paint with her claw. “You must be this tall to be adopted,” she said.

  “Goodbye, Coco! So long, Foster Mom and Dad!” called the kitten as she and the others were scooped up by their families, and with that, the cheering sounds faded into the distance.

  The nursery was now quiet and empty, with not a trace left of the kittens except a dirty litter box and the mark Coco had scratched on the wall. Ferguson glanced between the mark and his own tiny body, wondering when he’d be that tall.

  Finally, the foster mom returned and began to clean. She swept and mopped and scooped and spritzed until the nursery was sparkling and new—then she plucked Ferguson and Elvis from the incubator, and it was their turn to explore the room.

  “We’re the big kids now!” Elvis said, stomping confidently across the plush shag rugs. Ferguson trotted to keep up with him, and together they sniffed the scratch posts, checked out the toys, and eventually found themselves staring up at the wall where Coco’s claw had left a mark, mesmerized.

  “Not long before we’re big enough to be adopted!” Elvis shouted, jumping up to tap the line.

  Ferguson jumped, too, but he couldn’t reach the mark. He shook off his failed attempt and gave a tiny smile. “Not long at all!”

  Each new day, as soon as the kittens blinked their eyes open after a good night’s sleep, Elvis and Ferguson would scratch a line into the wall to measure their growth. Elvis was getting taller by the hour, or at least it seemed that way to Ferguson. But as the days turned into weeks, with his claw line just barely going up, it seemed like Ferguson was hardly growing at all.

  Ferguson was so focused on his own stubborn claw marks that when Elvis gasped during their morning ritual a few weeks later, he was caught by surprise. He turned to see Elvis staring at his newly scratched line, which matched Coco’s exactly.

  “You must be this tall to be adopted….” Elvis gulped. He looked to his friend. “I’m this tall.”

  Ferguson, little heart pounding, stood on his tippy-toes to draw his own line, hopeful that somehow he might have had a sudden growth spurt that would allow him to be adopted, too. But as he stepped back to see his mark, it was just a smidge taller than his usual spot. He wasn’t even halfway there.

  Tears welled in his eyes as the black cat approached the room, carrying a small party hat for Elvis. But there was no party hat for Ferguson.

  It all happened so quickly: one minute they were together, and the next, Elvis was heading away with a smiling family and their little scruffy dog. With a long hug, Ferguson bid farewell to his pal, then ran to his pillow. Looking down, he saw shiny teardrops land on his paws with small splashes. He was happy for his friend, but he was sad for himself, too.

   

  “There, there,” Coco said, placing a paw on Ferguson as he wept. “Saying goodbye can feel so bittersweet, I know. But do you know what happens after we say goodbye in Fosterland?”

  Ferguson shook his head, sending tears flying from his eyes.

  “It means we get to say hello again. There are always more kittens who need us, you know, and you’ll surely have new friends to play with soon.”