March greetings to you, and to all our kind and caring Kitten Fund sponsors!

This month, I want to give you an update to Salem‘s story.  Chapter One was here back in January.

In the two months since then, she has settled in to her new residence in the Community Room. Among her suitemates are 22-year-old Tux, incontinents Rori and Gulliver, and shy cats Riley and Jelly who, like Salem, don’t believe they can trust humans. The mission is to help them learn to trust, and there is no shortage of humans who want to help. Our own Kitty LeFey wrote about that late last month.

Each time I visited Tabby’s Place in February, I made sure to include a stop in the Community Room (CR). During one visit early in the month, I met Salem’s original foster mom, Lauren, who told me how she had tried to bring her out of her shell. She responded to play and to food, and Lauren encouraged her to come out of hiding.

On that same day, there was an enclosure located under a table that contained another cat who had just been assigned to the CR. Between the bottom of the table and the top of the enclosure, there was a dark, narrow space that Salem had squeezed herself into, with only her eyes visible in the shadow. She stayed there for the duration of my visit that day.

That was also where she was the next time I visited. This time, I had brought a wand toy with the long cloth part wrapped around the wand. First, I showed it to her, then moved it closer to her front paws, but she backed away from it, and I pulled it out of the narrow space.

That’s where I thought it would end, so I read to her for a few minutes. But then she surprised me by coming out of hiding, hopping down to the floor, and strolling across the room. I unwound the wand toy as I learned from Lauren, and Salem played with it. I also had some Churu on hand, and when I offered it, she accepted immediately and licked up every bit that I squeezed up for her.

At the end of the month, I visited Salem once more, and this time she was out of hiding, sitting comfortably on the top shelf of a piece of cat furniture. A staff member whose desk is in the Community Room told me that’s where she stays now. Again, we played with a wand toy for a while, and then I opened a pouch of Churu Bisque.  I called over to her, “Would you like…?” and no further words were necessary, as the little black cat leaped onto the table to help herself to the contents of the pouch in my hand.

So she’s definitely making progress, although I’m still not trying to pet her. It’s good to see her learning to trust, and it should bring a smile to everyone who has been working with her. I hope it does the same for you, because your support is making it possible for her to get better and become a candidate for adoption. Thank you for all your help.

Although kitten season hasn’t yet gone into full swing, Salem is not the only youngster under the care of Tabby’s Place. Kittens are arriving, but with the mandatory quarantine, it takes weeks before they can be fostered off-site, let alone move into the Kitten Suite at the main building. If a kitten has ringworm, like Yoyo had when he arrived, they go into isolation for as long as it takes to be cured.

Besides ringworm, Yoyo has another problem; he needs physical therapy because his hind legs aren’t supporting him well enough. It was determined that the best way to accomplish that would be to send him to foster with vet tech Drew. Word is that he’s been doing very well under her care and is “cute as a button.” We should be hearing more about him before long.

Before I go, here’s news about a few more little ones being helped with your support. Adorable orange boy Corduroy continues to have the occasional breakthrough seizure, and after some careful checking, no adjustments to his medication routine were required. Overall, I’m told, he is “very stable and happy.”  Macaw seems to have recovered from his extended mystery illness and is back to eating and staying hydrated without any interventions.  And to wrap up, a little more about Jelly:  more than once, he has been observed limping.  As a result, he was given pain medication, as well as a thorough examination (including x-rays), but when all was said and done, nothing out of the ordinary was found.  Staff will keep a close watch on him, though.

Until next month, I wish you and yours good health and all good things.

Your correspondent,

John