You have been waiting all your life for this day.

I am not exaggerating. I am telling the truth. I am being Corny.

This is your day to be Corny, too. Today is the day to Cherish the Kittens.

The Cherish the Kittens Fund Drive comes once a year, so that kittens can toddle our way all year.

Now through May 1st, your donation gets doubled, so our doors can stay open to orphans and newborns, niblets and smidgens. We turn to you in these last days of winter so our tiny friends can have a spring.

We turn to you because you are Corny.

Kittens like Corn do not know how old you are. As far as they are concerned, we are all a bunch of kittens, facing this big, loud world together. We are very, very lucky to all be here together.

There are orange kittens and calico kittens. There are kittens in blue jeans and kittens with mortgages. The only kind of kitten you will never find is a kitten who is not Corny.

That is very, very good news for kittens like Corn.

In one sense, there are no “kittens like Corn.” There is only Corn, the tiny legend painted like a creamsicle and gifted with a gentle soul.

There has never before been a Corn, and there will never be another. If we do not save him, our world will miss one of its greatest. This is why we Cherish the Kittens, kitten by kitten.

When Corn came to Tabby’s Place, every ear turned to him, as though he were the only kitten in the world. Whoosh. Picture it. All the affection and attention, huddling around a gentleman the size of a gerbil.

Corn was the picture of a shriveled old man. Corn was barely able to hold his little golden head high. Corn was dehydrated. Corn was — let us not mince metaphors — dying.

Corn was going to need a full field of cherishers.

And there you were.

This time last winter, you chose to be Corny. You did not know Corn by name, but your heart popped open. You gave, because you saw his face with the eyes of your heart. You cherished him, months before he was born.

That is the only reason he is still here.

If Corn’s past was rocky ground, you dug through his despair until you hit good soil. You nestled Corn in the home of a skilled foster family, trained to care for kittens “too far gone” for anyone else.

You were there in the room as they sat up all night. Your face shone in Corn’s eyes as the light returned.

You were there again when the darkness roared back. No sooner had Corn escaped death’s stalking, than he developed a disease whose very name scorches hope: feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP.

It is asking a lot to save a kitten in crisis. It is preposterous to save him twice.

You have to be completely Corny to commit to your kitten, this kitten, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many times you have to rearrange the fields and mountains to make way for life.

It’s a good thing kittens don’t know how old they are, or how old we are. This protects them from thinking anyone is ever out of time.

This hunkers them down in hope, even when there is no earthly reason to hope. This keeps them Corny enough to believe that love will save them, somehow.

If you gave to Cherish the Kittens last year, you are Corny enough to believe, too.

Tabby’s Place saved Corn, twice, because you gave without counting the cost.

Corn is popping with joy, somersaulting with strength, buttery with bliss in his forever home. Every day is the best day of his life.

And today is our day, because we get to do it again.

We turn to you because Tabby’s Place kittens are all “kittens like Corn.” They are the kernels too troubled or too tiny for the callous world. Their needs are colossal, costly, complex. Doors of hope slam shut on their strawberry noses.

They have nowhere to turn.

They turn to you, and to Tabby’s Place, because we are Corny.

We are Corny enough to believe that our lives have been leading up to each kitten, as though they were the first, last, or only kitten in the world.

We are Corny enough to cherish them after everyone else moves on to “bigger” matters.

I am Corny enough to trust that you will be here for the kittens yet to come. Please give from your golden heart. Can you just imagine the Corny faces we have yet to cherish?

Special thanks to Corn’s amazing family for these beautiful photos from his forever home! He now goes by the name of Muffin, and as you can see, he is utterly adored.

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