Early spring is a wriggly thing.
It is like a fat neon caterpillar with no symptoms of “butterfly.”
It is like the brassy sun that tries too hard and turns into a freeze warning by dusk.
It has one paw in the garden of “already,” and one ankle-deep in the slush of “not yet.”
In other words, it is a kitten.
In other other words, it is us.
I interrupt this regularly scheduled edition of Epilogues to remind you that your cherishment of kittens is urgently needed.
If you were born to comfort the little and the lonely, you are in the right place. We are in the midst of mercy’s big moment, the Cherish the Kittens Fund Drive.
So before we step into April, let’s make sure we don’t leave anyone behind. Give today, and your donation will be doubled for someone frightened and new.
A kitten: as fragile as the buds on the trees, but as strong as love’s promise.
Just like you and me, except we’re larger than McMuffins and generally expected to wear pants.
But we are a lot like kittens, aren’t we? Winter’s winds of war and grief have left us all a little trembly. So, this is the season to “kitten” each other. We do not dangle powerless between the dreaming and the doing.
We can shelter each other even while we are still shivering.
We can be incubators for the world we want, right here in the one we’re in. (Your donation will help buy actual incubators for orphans, too.)
We can hurry hope along, like bringing bare forsythia indoors to coax it into blooming.
And if all else fails, we can look to faces braver than our own. In other words, the cats. In other other words, the ones who let us believe we do the “saving” around here.
Just look what they did in March:
Arrived: Kamate, Chalupa, Fudge, Indie, Tag, Chance, Sasha, Parsley, Rosemary, Basil, Oregano, Marjoram, MJ, Skips, Tia, Wednesday, Taco, Naomi, the kittens inside Naomi (we await their arrival)
Adopted: Stella & Tabitha (together); Murray, Clara, Frank, Banshee, Grayson, Katie, Jamison, Giovanni, Trixie, Joe, Michael, Spicey
Returned: Sassafras, Trinket, Tchotchke (returning from TNR colonies due to age and medical needs)
Forever Foster: Annette, with angel Gail, who filled her final days with tenderness
Promoted to the Community Room: Ducky, Oliver
Promoted to Heaven: Theodosia, Annette
Gather your courage, dear ones. We are children of the springtime and kindred spirits of kittens. We are as small as dandelions and as large as love.
We were born to “kitten” each other.