At least once a week, someone tells me they are scared to visit Tabby’s Place.
This always comes from someone blessed and challenged with a tender heart. They know their own softness. They fear they may not be able to bear the sight of cats who cannot walk, or seniors once discarded.
They picture Tabby’s Place being as solemn as January, when really it is as slaphappy as July.
So, I try to describe what can only be seen by loving.
Yes, it is true: you will see cats who cannot walk. They can only fly.
Peabody, struck by a car in St. Louis, boarded a plane to Tabby’s Place and has not come down since. Berry, born with spina bifida, has back legs that go airborne over every small happiness. They wrestle like gladiators and sleep in each other’s arms like twins. They came from different time zones to become each other’s everything. They are inseparable, incomparable, and incandescently alive. They make you remember that you are alive. They are getting into glorious trouble as I type these words.
Yes, it is true: you will see cats who have suffered. Now they receive double for the lost years. Willie‘s brain injury erased all memory of how to be a cat. He arrived vacant and bewildered, his pockets empty except for our promise: he would have time. Day by day, the light returns to his eyes. Surprise washes over his face as the sun warms his paws. He lays on a bed as soft as a coconut snowball and scans the room in wonder, looking for someone to thank. Fingers skritch and strum his shaggy mane, each one a new song.
Yes, it is true: no tender heart can bear such sweetness. It is the sweetness that will bear you. This is the mystery of Tabby’s Place.
Come to Tabby’s Place. Like a child hoisted up on strong shoulders, you will find yourself lifted higher than you could climb by yourself. You will see more than you imagined. You will believe in hope again, even if it has been a long time.
You will know that your softness is your strength, perhaps for the first time.
And every day, every week, every month, you will get to do it again.
Here is how we did it in July:
Arrived: Mazikeen, Reviens, Petey, Rizzo, Frenchy, Zuko, Kenkickie, Doody, Putzie, Scrabble, Corduroy, Jovi, Silver, Marlo, Pepe, Squiggly, Wiggly, Loki, Luna, Jam, Jelly, Maggie, Mr. Rogers
Adopted: Moss & Thistle (together); Makita & Kabota (together); Ridgid & Bop (together); Janice & Papillon (together); Cinnamon & Nick (together); Jolly & King (together); Navi, Fi, & Midna (together); Taquito, Soul Patch, Bam, Milwaukee, Corvus, Sarsparilla, Cleopatra, Link, Tiny, Baklava, Lionel, Oreo, Pierogi, Linnea, Merrill, Lorey
Forever Foster Fabulosity: Patches (with the luminous Cendrine); Smokey (with the extraordinary Donna)
Promoted to the Lobby: Miss Kitty, Ruchi
Promoted to the Lounge: Bernard
Promoted to the Community Room: Bologna
Promoted to Heaven: Dewie (whose Forever Loved post is coming next week), Abacus
If you have never visited Tabby’s Place, for fear that it will break your heart, here is the truth.
It will absolutely break your heart.
Peabody, Berry, Willie, and all the cats will break your heart wide open, in all the places it was dead-bolted.
You will be more fully alive than you were before.
You will cry more, stand taller, and find yourself less afraid.
So please come visit.
How’s August?