Breaking news from Adoption Room #2: there are cats in there!

More to the point, there are visible cats.

For the last two weeks or so, volunteers and visitors have had to take it on faith when we’ve told them that the Chester quartet, aka the Dessert Kids – Strudel, Trifle, Cupcake and Twinkie – were living in Adoption Room #2. Having seemingly made their permanent abode under the couch, the cats were quite invisible to any scary humans.

Just the way they wanted it. And who could blame them, after having only known humans in the context of a house of horrors?

But the Dessert Kids’ sweet names are slowly beginning to find a match in a sweeter reality. And how delicious that is to see!

Tiny Twinkie, six pounds of dynamite, has been the quartet’s fearless leader from the very beginning. She was the first to test out the cozy ledge on the window looking out into the lobby, the first to dare napping on top of the couch, and, now, the first to play with humans. Although I’ve heard that Twinkie, along with Trifle, is one of the more dangerous cats at Tabby’s Place (and Danielle and Kelly have the battle scars to prove it), she turns into a bundle of sweetness and glee once a feather toy enters the equation. Check out the video of Twinkie playing with Laura, our videographer, and these photos of Twink having a ball with volunteer Michelle and me.

Then there’s Trifle, who one of our staff members described as “a feline pit bull.” Our big tabby boy is following his tiny friend Twinkie’s lead in savoring life out from under the couch, and he can now regularly be found in a chair, on a blanket, or right out in the middle of the room. Unlike Twinkie, Trifle’s still not quite ready to interact with us, but I’ve enjoyed some “blink-fests” (where we gaze at each other and blink gently – a move I’ve been told is cat-speak for a smile or even “I love you”) through the window with Trifle.

The gentlest members of the quartet, Cupcake and Strudel, seem to also be the slowest to trust us. That’s okay. Strudel is just beginning to make his first forays out from under the couch, when he’s sure there are no human beans headed in. Cupcake, sweet sweet Cupcake, is perhaps the most timid of the group, still clinging to the safety of her sub-furniture world. I’m so eager for her to discover how much we love her, and to let us show her the affection and tenderness she’s missed out on for so long. But, I know that will have to come on her timetable, not ours.

With a role model like Twinkie and a “big brother” like Trifle, I’m very optimistic that Cupcake will eventually find her courage. What a great day it will be when she finds there was nothing to fear here, and only love to relish.

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