Dearest Team TNR,
Here in the shortest month of the year, it is good to be together, isn’t it?
Whether you live down the road from Tabby’s Place or in a different hemisphere, we are all on the same big cozy couch in spirit. You truly are part of the cats’ family and mine.
As I look back over this year, you are at the heart of everything beautiful at Tabby’s Place. We have been on quite an odyssey together! When 2024 was new, none of us could have guessed that Team TNR would be called upon to rescue 138 fearful and fading cats, in the most daring TNR mission of Tabby’s Place history.
Yet here we are, 138 precious friends later, each one irreplaceable, incredible, and unconditionally loved.
As you and I go about our holiday hubbub, the colony cats are making their own festivities. Miracles are gathering momentum, like so many snowballs laughing down the hill.
This being Tabby’s Place, the “snowballs” are cats, curled in sleepy circles or vaulting through the air with joy. One by one, our most fearful colony cats are discovering fun … and life will never be the same.
It happens in a sort of chain reaction, like little votives lighting one another. One day, Hydrogen starts “caroling.” The next, Chromium is weaving like garland around volunteers’ legs. You can almost see the starlight passed from cat to cat: hmm. If SHE can cuddle humans and not get eaten like a gingerbread man, maybe I’ll try…
After months of hesitation, Hydrogen sang like a herald angel this month. Who could have guessed that the littlest black-and-white colony cat had such pipes? But there she was, wassailing for treats. From there, it was a short waltz to warmth and cuddles … with Chromium watching all the while.
Like a shy child slipping downstairs to glimpse Santa, Chromium followed braver “siblings.” Our little angel seemed as surprised as our volunteers were when she caught herself skating figure-eights among ankles. But then, love reserves the right to surprise us all.
Ready for another dramatic surprise … a grand Finale, if you will? Meet the last cat trapped in the great colony rescue. The aptly-named Finale was terrified on arrival. Can you imagine watching your friends and neighbors vanish, one by one, and then outlasting them all in eluding the trappers? Can you blame Finale for being flummoxed by her own rescue, not sure where the story was heading?
Can you believe Finale decided to believe in love, with all her heart, all at once?
Miracles abound … and now our lonely holdout is spending the holidays in a home of her own. We would call it a grand finale, except that love stories never end.
We’ll close this update with one last miracle. You are the reason one silver bell will get to ring in 2025 at all.
Just before Thanksgiving, gentle Gallium began to wobble. As one of the more timid colony cats, this graceful girl had just begun peeking out from under her snowflake blankets. All at once, and then with terrible speed, she developed neurological symptoms. It was time for a ride to the world-class specialty hospital that has saved many Tabby’s Place cats before.
I must pause the story to marvel at all the improbable pieces that had to come together.
Gallium was “just a stray,” one bony tabby in a teeming colony. Someone had to care about her as a precious, individual cat.
But then, she hid and hunkered down. Too fearful to return our love in kind, she could not “earn” the care that would give her a chance.
Love can never be earned. And at Tabby’s Place, love is never in question.
You, dear sponsors, are the “rum-pa-pum-pum” drumbeat of steadfast love for every cat. And thanks to your generosity, Gallium would get her chance … but she was fading fast.
Not a moment too soon, a gifted neurologist landed upon a diagnosis. Gallium had developed a sneaky ear infection that reached her brain, causing an abscess. The prognosis was uncertain at best. Antibiotics could save her, or else …
Thank heavens, we will never need to finish that sentence. Gallium’s holidays have just begun.
The bravest little girl beat the odds, recovering so quickly, she astounded her doctors and came home in a matter of days. And today? She’s the latest love-bug in the colony cat kingdom.
The year is coming to an end, but the best is yet to come.
And you, beloved sponsors, are simply the best. Thank you from the depths of my wonder-struck heart. May you and your dear ones have a gentle, joyous holiday season, and may you know you are loved!
With gratitude and great affection, your correspondent,
Angela
