Happy spring, team TNR!

The sweetening season is here now, full and true, and I hope it finds you blissful among the blossoms and hang-gliding on hope.

Thanks to you, hope springs abundant for the community cats of Tabby’s Place.

We’ll start where we left off in March: the jittery, beloved bean that is Jared.

I wish I could report that Jared has fully flung himself into our affections, but the truth is he’s still on tenterhooks. Gentle but anxious, Jared continues to be scared of us. Rest assured we’re giving him the full Tabby’s Place treatment: tender love, at a pace that doesn’t terrify him. He continues to gain weight and to thrive, and we’re so grateful he’s here.

Meanwhile, fellow former-free-roamers Agnes and Toulouse are springing forward with courage. Agnes savors love and sunshine in our Director of Operations’s office, while Toulouse is the toast of the town in our Community Room. The girls are surrounded by windows, smitten humans, and a vigilant vet team, who treats their minor but nagging medical issues as they arise (Agnes’s gastrointestinal frustrations, Toulouse’s bad teeth, etc.). It’s all enough to make an ancient cat feel young again.

As it turns out, Toulouse and Agnes weren’t the only ancients at that local farm. We’ve also welcomed their sisters (cousins? distant kin?) Audrey and Edith from the same location. Like Aggie and Toulouse, these aging superstars are much too frail and much too loving to wander alone. Edith (pictured in the top banner) has joined Toulouse in the Community Room, where she’s a mega-mooch for ALL the love. Audrey, a bit more timid, is taking her time settling into our FIV+ Suite.

We adore them all…and you’ve made it possible for us to be there for each of these wondercats in exactly the ways they need. Love is never a one-size-fits-all matter, but it takes tenacity, patience, and generosity to be able to nurture each feline flower on such a personal level. It’s thanks to your generosity that Tabby’s Place can do just that.

Let’s close this update in such a way that you’re left with a minty-fresh feeling. No, I haven’t lost my mind. (That would imply I had it securely in my grip to begin with.) Our most recent TNR treasure is named…Colgate.

We could get fancy and claim he was named for the fine liberal arts college, but the truth is, he was 100% named for the toothpaste. Stay with me here.

Colgate came to us as part of a larger TNR project. While his friends and neighbors were neutered and released to their safe colony, Colgate made it clear that he was far too friendly to leave Tabby’s Place.

And how, exactly, did he make this clear?

He went into a state of bliss while being stroked with…a toothbrush.

Tabby’s Place toothbrushes every cat during our standard intake exam. But we’re not cleaning their teeth; we’re brushing their fur to test for ringworm. Most cats tolerate this weirdness quite well; some of them get angry; but Colgate utterly delighted in the experience…even from inside a trap.

We’re smitten. He’s so much more than minty-fresh. And as another month of love and lunacy and life-saving work rolls on, I thank you from the depths of my heart.

Have an awesome rest of April and a mirthful start to May, beloved sponsors!

Your correspondent,
Angela