Oh July, July, you jellied jamboree!
How do you cram so many kittens into thirty-one days, like fireflies in a jar?
Where did you buy all this sunshine? (It was not discounted on Amazon Prime Day.)
Oh July, July, you paid full price, yet we are the ones rich in sweetness.
Yes, Independence Day and Bastille Day have come and gone, but the revolution continues at Tabby’s Place. We continue collecting kittens from a large, sickly colony. We continue embracing arrivals who break us by departing. We continue, most of all, continuing, which is what love does even when tears drive recklessly down its cheeks.
Our staff wears no armor. Our foster families do not hide under crash helmets. The greatest heroes of our generation may never be known outside New Jersey.
But July, July, you know their names.
You know them, as they rebuild fallen worlds for friends the size of hummingbirds. You know them, as they love and give and give and give, which is what love does as long as it lives.
You know them, July, because they are the reason all these cats will live:
Arrived: Schnitzel, Kuchen, Bratwurst, Spaetzel, Strudel, Kayko, Cindy, Zeppelin, Joplin, Phish, Aerosmith, Mr. Man, Camilla, Sweet Pea, Weston, Georgia, Chaz, Ganache, Penuche, Dawn, Buffy, Itsy Bee (pictured in top photo), Coconut, Vanessa
Adopted: Gomez; Banana Split; Brian; Lima & Fava (together); River & Robin (together); Cannellini & Chickpea (together); Adzuki & Europa (together); Sundae; Despina & Galatea (together); Jupiter; Copycat; Clover; Shelby; Affogato; Rupert; Slurpy; Rosie; Gelato; Spud & Jackson (together); Kahlo; Seagull; Schnitzel & Bratwurst (together)
Returned: Trent; Baguette; Ella; Lita & Sebastian (together)
Promoted to the Community Room: Bella, Amaryllis
Promoted to the Lobby: Jack, Stewart (pictured in top banner)
Promoted to Marcia and Jonathan’s Office: Baby Yoda
Promoted to Rashida’s (Development) Office: Calzone
Promoted to Heaven: Sweet Pea, Ash
Stuff We Learned: It is possible to be exquisitely French in New Jersey.
It is possible to get adopted at the age of nineteen. It is possible to spray the word “impossible” with a super-soaker of the soul.
It is possible to spay and neuter thirteen kittens in a single day (or as Carolyn called it, the Spay-Lympics and Neuter-Palooza).
It is not possible to get a signed release from newly-neutered kittens permitting our use of their inebriated photos, so it is possible I will someday get sued for using the image below.
To which I shall tell the judge, it was worth it.
Oh July, like all the heroes from Bilbo Baggins to Prescott Rosenberg, you know what it means to be underestimated. People think you are all about frankfurters and ice cream trucks.
But you are in the business of the life and light that cannot be extinguished.
Come with us into August.
Carry us like your kittens on the shoulders that never slump.