February, you frisky little thing, you are the kitten of the year.
Small and scampish, you leap before you look and fall smitten on unsuspecting shoulders.
You fit inside a teacup, but you are as bold as an “I love you” spoken out loud.
You shine into our eyes with the question that counts: be mine?
Tabby’s Place is your “yes,” February. Year after year, you find us smitten with every cat you send us. We cherish the early kittens and the surly curmudgeons. We give our hearts to the grumps who don’t want them and the cherubs who melt into feline liquid in our arms.
But February, you brilliant little thing, you are even more like a kitten than we know.
You are kind.
For, in the midst of all those Valentines, you seek the folks and felines who feel like the last truffle in the dish.
You send us cats who need us because you know our need is great.
The creamsicle clown with no tail … the blind FeLV+ tortoiseshell … the tabby who loves to be a baby … they are here for us.
We need to be theirs.
And February, you gentle little thing, you give us to each other.
So before we let you out the kitty flap and welcome March’s little lions, we thank you for everything:
Arrived: Kit, Shelly, Analisa, Yo-Yo, Yaya, Harry, Tabitha, Steve, Stella, Jordan, Joe, Michael, Katie, Sophie, Spicey, Vincent, Blue, Faith, Kyle, Bonnie, Oliver, Harrison, Ducky, Billy, Gracie, Heidi, Dahlia, Shane, Ilya, and the inimitable Mango & Jalapeno (our newest FeLV+ frat boys, pictured in top thumbnail)
Adopted: Harry & Steve (together); Stella & Tabitha (together); Cookie & Cici (together); Frank; KB (FeLV+); Adelaide; Leonard; Bongo; Corduroy; Alexis; St. Nick (FIV+); Mama Kitty; Evangeline; Kit; Vera; Salem (pictured in top banner)
Returned: Frank, Corduroy, Stella & Tabitha
Forever Foster Fabulosity: Kyle (with our dazzling Drew); Chicken Nugget and Cornbread (with our golden-hearted Karina); Mr. Grey (with phenomenal volunteer Janet)
Promoted to the Lobby: Deku, Luna
Trading Spaces: Gator (from Adoptions Office to Coat Room) and Theodosia (vicey versey)
Promoted to Heaven: Merriweather (the treasured Forever Foster of our devoted Gail)
Stuff We Learned: “Your Feline Valentine” is not just a nifty open house held the first Saturday of February. “Your Feline Valentine” is a group hug for cats and volunteers and donors and lovers and visitors and strangers and sponsors, where it is okay to eat three brownies, hug thirty cats, and turn the sign on the “Kissing Booth” to say “Hissing Booth” and back again as circumstances dictate. Love looks like being comfortable together. Also, roses have thorns, cats have claws, and beauty is worth its fierceness.
And now, March, friend of lambs and lions, make us more like both.
May we be gentle with the weak and protectors of the lonely.
May our soft hearts be stronger than fear.
And may you send us striped shamrocks and long-tailed leprechauns we’ll wonder how we ever lived without.