January Greetings and Happy 2025 to you, and to all our kind and caring Kitten Fund sponsors!

December found the residents of the kitten room passing around (as kids will do) upper respiratory infections and loose stools. Thankfully, that has run its course for the most part, and as of this writing, kittens like twin tabbies Yuzu and Citron have recovered. Those two and several more little ones were adopted last month and have gone to their forever homes. Tabby’s Place’s Instagram page provides a visual summary of December adoptions, which are also described in Angela’s Epilogues blog post.

There’s doubly good news for little Coconut. Not long ago, there was deep concern that she had a serious medical condition. But after a brief stay in the Tabby’s Place hospital, she returned to excellent health … and the little Siamese went on to be adopted right after the New Year!

Still on hand is little lady Lilo, who’s a bit of a medical mystery. She started running a fever over Christmas and is now on antibiotics and eye drops in addition to subcutaneous fluids. Naturally, she will stay at Tabby’s Place under medical supervision. (That’s Lilo in the header photo above, taken by volunteer photographer Rob S.)

As some kittens moved on, there were more kittens being brought in. All needed food, shelter, and care, and everyone in the Advanced Needs Kitten Fund benefited from your generosity. To each of you who provided financial support this past year, thank you for your contributions to a small organization that’s dedicated to the mission of helping cats in hopeless situations.

Seen elsewhere on this page is newcomer Ribeye. The first time I visited the small dilute tortie, as she lay atop a piece of cat furniture — looking for all the world like a lounging duchess — she purred as though I was an old friend. They don’t necessarily arrive at Tabby’s Place that way, either. Human volunteers open their homes and hearts to foster these babies and help socialize them during the crucial first few weeks of their lives.

Tiana, the Foster Team Lead, tells me that over the past year, we had 33 foster families with a total of 215 new fosters! I’ve always known that cat people are good people, and the best people are the humans who help the cats that need it the most. (One of them, volunteer foster mom Ana M., provided the adjacent image of the tiny treasure she’s responsible for, who goes by the name Dragonfly.)

You’ll be hearing more about the kittens that they’re helping in the coming weeks, as the names Firefly, Canary, Archer, Merlin, Hawk, Mistletoe, Holly, Berry, Snickerdoodle, and Shortbread become better known.

Now, if you’re like me, right about now you’re saying “C’mon, more kitten pictures, please?” No sooner said than done! These last 3 show how we can learn from them with the simple actions “Eat, play, love.”

Until next month, wishing you all good things,
Your correspondent,
John