Donate
Beasts beyond the building

Beasts beyond the building

16376046348_1a1daf5d61_zIf you wisely observed Mumford Monday this week, you already know we can soon look forward to a song about Broad-Shouldered Beasts.*

But did you know there are Tabby’s Place cats singing their own Tabby’s Place songs beyond the gates of Tabby’s Place?Cosita + Furball = BFF and ever and ever and ever, amen.I don’t mean alumni. We all know that our adoptees are legion (give or take 1,500), and we rejoice in their adoptedness.

I mean the cats who continue to be very much Tabby’s Place residents…without residing at Tabby’s Place.

Let that one take root in the garden of your mind.

We’re talking the Furballs, the Zacharies, the Patcheses and Berties and Ernestines and Cocos and Chanels and Quinns and late Gingkos.

We’re talking fostered felines. And, today, I’d like to tip our collective taffeta hat at the unsung heroes who foster them.

Fabtacular Foster #1 is a woman we’ll call Fabtacular Foster #1. For a quiet, triumphant year and a half now, FF1 and her family have cared for two old, crusty, charming calicos. When FF1 met Cosita, it was love at first patch. Adoption was inevitable.

Furball learned the truth at seventeen: love is meant for her.
Furball learned the truth at seventeen: love is meant for her.

But a Cosita without a Furball is like a Captain without a Crunch. Unlike her slightly-younger soulmate, fifteen-year-old Furball had some formidable — and costly — Special Needs. FF1 wouldn’t dare separate the sisters-at-heart…but she knew they were meant to be part of her family.

What to do? Adopt + foster = forever love.

Daily, devotedly, FF1 provides both girls with the affection and medical care they need. Our cuddle-crazed calicos have a home beyond their wildest dreams. And, as she continues to get her medical care at Tabby’s Place, Furball remains — on the books — a Tabby’s Place cat.

This is “fostering.” This is heavenly. This is love.

Fostering can make doors spring open where there were once only walls. Consider Patches and Zachary. Less than two months ago, at age 18 and 19, these Southern-born seniors swept into Tabby’s Place with hearts full of love and miniscule odds of adoption.

At least, they’d be miniscule in the calculus of reason. But that puny math forgets the logic of love.

Patches rocks her forever foster home.
Patches rocks her forever foster home.

Within a month — a month, kittens — both of our super-seniors had homes of the forever variety. Patches has moved in with Sirius. Zach slides into Gingko‘s sadly vacated spot. They’re both still getting their medical needs met through Tabby’s Place, so they are — and shall remain — ours.

But they have the lives they may have given up daring to want: homes. Families. Adoration at all hours.

Not all fosters are forever, but they’re no less faithful for being way stations on a cat’s journey. Sometimes, only a foster family of extraordinary proportions can turn on the light behind a scared cat’s eyes. That’s the case with Bertie, Ernestine, and the Hand Fam.

That’s “Hand” as in Jess, one of our bravest staff members at Tabby’s Place. Jess, her husband, and her stalwart little sons are no strangers to scared kittens. So it was with fearless joy that they took on the challenge of raising little Bertie and Ernestine.

Kittens are cute. Kittens are charming. But when they’ve spent their first three months outside, kittens like Ernestine and Bertie are spitting, screaming, slashing mad.

Jess bears the scars already. But her smile also bears telltale signs of having witnessed purrs and progress. And, like former Hand-fam fosters Skyler and Marie, we know Bertie and Ernestine will owe their snuggly futures to the patience on which they feast today.

The same is true for tense little torties Coco and Chanel, currently thriving under the gentle hand of super-staffer Josie. This is the same Josie who brought out the courage in Carmine, Irving and Marjory. The best is so very yet to come for our tortie treasures.

Breaking news: we've found the first teen Zach cooler than Saved By The Bell's Zach Morris.
Breaking news: we’ve found the first teen Zach cooler than Saved By The Bell’s Zach Morris.

Finally, there’s Quinn. With apologies to Bob Dylan’s Eskimo, we’ve got the true Mighty Quinn in the Tabby’s Place family. Like that other Quinn, our little tuxie has experienced winter’s chill. Alas, our tiny girl was face-down and motionless in the north Jersey snow. A heroic rescuer worked ’round the clock to nudge the kitten back to life, but became dismayed when little Quinn seemed unable to walk or use her litter box consistently. Through a happy series of events, Quinn made her way to Tabby’s Place.

And, through an unfolding march of miracles, Quinn is getting better. Just click here to see her wiggle in her foster home.

We’re quite honestly not exactly sure what’s wrong with Quinn at this point. We are, however, very optimistic that she will continue to improve. Wherever her way should wobble, she’s in the gleeful, glorious arms of a fabtacular foster family. And, as a Tabby’s Place beastie, she’ll continue to get everything she needs.

So here’s to the fosters, the phenomena, and the beasts who blaze on beyond this building. Where there’s a love, there’s a way.

*Very likely inspired by the cats of Suite C.

3 thoughts on “Beasts beyond the building

  1. This is a beautiful story – and I don’t know details, but presume some wonderful person must be fostering Jeremy – with enough love and happiness to keep the little fella alive and happy way beyond his first grave diagnosis.

    1. Aieeee — yes, and I hereby win the Dunderhead of the Month award for completely forgetting about this most phenomenal of fosters. Jeremy has been thriving under the tender care of uber-volunteer Susan for over three years now. That’s three years more than he was expected to survive, and he continues to go strong — a testament to Susan’s miraculous love.

  2. Just yesterday, Patches figured out that if she lays down on my desk next to the mouse, she will get a steady stream of skritches. The old cookie is a smart cookie!

Leave a Reply