Dear Team Steven,

I hope your month has been as thrilling as ours!

You can’t begin to imagine how excited I am to share news of Steven with you wonderful sponsors. Our wise old Zen master and great big ball of orange fluff celebrated his sixteenth birthday!

At his age, this is almost a “cat- aclysmic” and earthshaking event (sorry, I just can’t help it sometimes). We simply could not let such a seismic episode pass by unnoticed, so… drum roll please! Earsplitting applause! Kudos all around! Hoorah! Huzzah! Ta da, rah rah rah, and siss boom bah!

I can’t begin to tell you how marvelous his birthday party was! Staff, friends, and volunteers gathered for Steven’s special day. Sweet Sixteen suits Steven, and he enjoyed the attention and that perfect pate confection. It was a cake fit for a furball advancing in years and aged to purrfection. Steven was one “sittin’ pretty” kitty.

Gala events like this do, however, come at some cost. It seems that Steven’s suitemate, Baby, wasn’t so thrilled about all the extra attention Steven garnered on his special day.  Baby expressed his protest by repeatedly urinating on Steven’s bedding.

More than a bit peeved that someone would choose to rain on his parade, so to speak, Steven began chasing Baby all over the Medical Suite. When apprised of the situation, our Executive Director asked, “How could Steven possibly catch anyone?” It’s a valid question: Baby and Steven are not particularly fast on their feet.

On a sadder note, Tabby’s Place lost two of our FIV+ and FeLV+ boys, Abacus and Dewie, within days of each other in July. We also had a kitten arrive with suspected FIP, only to be rushed to the emergency vet. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive the drive there.

But the wonderful thing about Tabby’s Place is that we are a huge family. We are here for one another through celebrations and grief. And you play a huge part in keeping our family so connected, even if you are far across the globe. Our loving worldwide community really is with us every step of the way in all we do.

Happily, there are so many other things to celebrate at Tabby’s Place. Later this month, we will be launching our annual Linda Fund Matching Challenge. This year’s poster cat is none other than official feline Development Office Supervisor, Willie!

We’ll celebrate our volunteers at their annual picnic later this month. Steven knows our volunteers are a vital part of our phenomenal family. We simply could not complete our mission without our volunteers and sponsors’ unwavering devotion to our quirky cast of cats.

Steven and I thank you with all of our hearts!

Your correspondent,
Tina