Winter 2025 Update from Tigger House
Winter Greetings from Julie, Blinken, Corgi, Wendy and Champion -- just a few of our happy and healthy residents at Tigger House, which is still going strong after more than 21 years in full-time operation. We are currently caring for about 70 dogs as well as about 20 cats, both in our original shelter and vet clinic in central Kabul and a second shelter on the outskirts of the capital. Almost all of them, including the dogs in these photos, were rescued while facing hunger or danger on the streets, and now live in safety with us.
It is extremely difficult and expensive to send animals abroad for adoption now, but we are doing our best to care for those we can. Our two local vets spay and neuter all the dogs that reach our two shelters, as well as keeping all our four-legged residents vaccinated and in good health. One of our local staff members regularly takes food to hungry dogs and cats that are difficult to catch, and we also provide shelter for mothers with new litters, especially in cold weather. One of our local vets also regularly visits villages to treat working donkeys and horses for ailments, and we sometimes keep injured or sick equines in our larger shelter.
Our expenses to keep the shelters running are more than $11,000 per month, and we greatly appreciate any donations, which can be made through pay pal by clicking on the “donate” button in this website, and we send a receipt to every donor. In addition to rent, utilities, medicines, staff salaries, supplies and meals for the animals, we also have higher expenses in winter weather, including firewood, fuel, generator oil and blankets. Our animals appreciate every donation, no matter how small. For more information, you can also call 703-577-4460 any time.
Thank you and blessings to all creatures everywhere.
Thank you for your thoughts about Tigger House during this chaotic and constantly changing time in Kabul. All the shelter animals (70 dogs and 20 cats) and staff are safe at this time.
We need your donations to continue to support the animals, especially as we face Afghanistan's winter season. You can make a donation through this website on our donation tab.
If you would like more information, please email us at kabulcritters@gmail.com. And please keep in your thoughts the safety of the people of Afghanistan and our beloved rescue animals, as well as many more who are still out there in the streets, homeless and vulnerable to harm.
A MIRACLE FOR PAI KAJ
Our sweet and long-suffering PAI KAJ, an Anatolian shepherd mix with a chronic deformity in her front legs due to infant malnutrition, lived in Tigger House for five years and then came to the US in early 2021, in hopes of finding the right home. She got expert treatment at the Veterinary Orthopedic and Sports Medicine facility near Baltimore, where they fabricated custom braces for her paws and ankles, and she then stayed for many months with our dear friends at Southern Oasis Pet Resort in Maryland and at Dudes Dog House in Virginia.
Finally, in January of 2022, a wonderful couple in Falls Church, who had already adopted a delicate hound with three legs and an eager Rottie boy with badly deformed front legs from birth, welcomed Pai into their home, where she instantly bonded with the entire human and canine pack. Feline introductions are still a work in progress.
CONGRATULATIONS to Pai Kaj and eternal gratitude to Meg, Youssef, Daphne and Timmy for opening heart and home to our dear Pai. The photo here shows all three dogs mellowing out after just a few nights together.
Sometimes miracles really do happen.
Stop the Presses!!
We have wonderful news about Golden, Blinky and Butterfly, who arrived from Kabul in June and have been eagerly waiting for the right homes ever since. They stayed for many weeks with Andrew and Dan at Dude’s Dog House and Spa in northern Virginia, where they were treated like royalty by the loving staff, and introduced to many potential adopters. We are delighted to report that after much effort and dedication, all three dogs have now been adopted and are adjusting to life as American pets. Thank you so much to Denise in Orlando, Florida, who adopted our dear deaf Blinky, to Brittany and the Bowen family in northern Maryland, who adopted our sweet shy Golden, and to David, Maggie and Rusty in Takoma Park, who adopted our whirlwind girl Butterfly. Congratulations to all three families and their grateful new home companions!!!!
To find out more, please email us at kabulcritters@gmail.com
or call our US office at (703) 577- 4460.
This is Tigger House
Tigger House is a small, low-cost animal shelter and veterinary clinic for homeless, sick or injured small animals in Kabul, Afghanistan. It has been in operation since 2004 and has cared for several thousand dogs and cats, as well as the occasional bird, rabbit and monkey. It has a full-time Afghan staff of 10, including a para-veterinarian, and English-speaking manager, and two assistant vets. It provides vaccinations for rabies and distemper, deworming, surgical spaying and neutering, and treatment for a variety of ailments including skin and eye infections, respiratory and urinary infections, abscesses and vaginal/uterine cysts, and traumatic injuries.
You can read more about our mission and needs here.
Good News from Tigger House
At a moment of upheaval and hope for change, we share good news from Tigger House. This photo shows two of our shelter rescue dogs, Babs and Beaver, posing in front of their brand new winter dog house. We had 8 of them built by a local carpenter, and have replaced most of our old ones. They are sturdy, raised, roofed, and roomy enough for several adult dogs or a dozen puppies. The nights are frigid during the winter often near zero at night, and all of our dogs are much warmer and happier now.
The Cat Who Remembered...
It was a chilly autumn morning in Kabul. I came down the alley, dragging a heavy suitcase. It had been months since my last visit when the coronavirus had forced me to rush home. Now, I was not sure what to expect. Most Afghans, who often gather in crowded mosques and weddings, were fearful and hunkered down. The few foreigners I knew were locked into their compounds. It was going to be a lonely trip.
As I trudged along, passing guards with masked faces, I steeled myself to find no one waiting for me at my office entrance. For years, I had fed a variety of neighborhood cats each morning, then watched them play in the garden while I drank my coffee. It was a calming ritual in a place where violence could erupt at any minute.
One of them, a frail but scrappy ginger cat, I had taken home to the US with me, after a truck bomb blew out my office window where she often sat in the sun. Having miraculously survived, she would now be safe forever, and when I returned home, I knew I would find her napping next to the window in my office.
But I also knew that by now, the other cats of my Kabul alley would have probably given up on me and retreated into the shadows, nosing in garbage piles by day and hiding in culverts by night. I had always left supplies of cat food behind, but I was never sure if they would last long enough.
Some of them could have been injured or fallen sick in my absence, or perhaps even died. I would have no way to know. Each step felt heavier. I did not want to reach my door, find no one waiting, and hear the steel barricade shut behind me.
Then, with half a block to go, I glimpsed a familiar gray and white cat sitting on a wall. She was not one who had ventured into my garden, but I had often fed her outside the gate. As she heard my footsteps slowing, she crouched, ready to jump down and run, but briefly turned her head my way.
Her eyes widened, then lit up in what I can only describe as joyful astonishment. She uttered a long, plaintive cry, and I understood it as clearly as if she had been speaking English. It is you! You are back! Where have you been? Why were you gone so long?
Then she jumped down and ran over to me, swishing against my legs in that unmistakable ingratiating feline gesture. As I continued on my way, she trotted beside me. When we reached my entrance, it was indeed bereft of cats, but I suspected she would soon inform the neighborhood of the news.
Sure enough, early the next morning when I went out to the garden, there was a black kitten waiting on the wall and a shaggy tabby watching from under a rosebush. Twenty minutes later, the cat I was most anxious to see appeared on the roof and leaped down immediately. She was a slender gray creature with topaz eyes, keenly intuitive.
Two years before, after a close friend had been killed in another bombing, she and I had spent many hours together, sitting on a garden bench and contemplating the mysteries of life. When she curled up on the grass near my feet, I knew she would be back every day.
The gray and white cat, basking in the distinction of having spotted me first and announced my arrival to the waiting multitudes, regally ignored us all and groomed herself in a corner.
As I watched her, I thought about the concept of recognition. I had received a few formal honors in my career over the years, but the look of unabashed welcome on that cat’s face, when she spied me coming down the alley, was all the recognition — and appreciation –I could ever want.
Everyone Deserves a Home...
Winter in Kabul is cold and snowy, so housing is essential for the protection and rehabilitation of our residents. We are in the process of building additional dog houses and would appreciate your participation in this project. As you can see, Tigger House residents are thrilled to have their own home!
Click here to help provide a home for Tigger House residents.
Some Of Our Guests
