Happy New Year, friends of Adam!

Adam and I hope that 2015 finds you happy and healthy.

Since we can’t know for sure when most of our beloved Tabby’s Place kitties were born, they all celebrate their birthdays on January 1st. Adam is now 6 years old…and acting every inch the hyperactive 6-year-old boy on a first-name basis with the vice principal.

He is still the same old Adam, swatting, nipping and generally over-excited by life. He really is just like that 6-year-old boy who purposefully knocks his friend to the ground after losing a soccer game, mostly because he is frustrated by losing the game, not because he is mad at his friend. When talked to about the inappropriateness of his actions, the boy replies that he did it “on accident.” What he means is that he knows he did it, and he feels bad that he did it, but he couldn’t stop himself. The vice principal reminds that boy not to do it again, and they talk it through. However, the boy forgets and does it again the next time he gets frustrated. There is no learning curve, because the impulse is just too strong.

This is our Adam in a nutshell. He has no impulse control. Neither time nor Prozac nor the vaunted “Calm” diet have tamed Adam. Just today, our Executive Director remarked that, when it’s his turn to medicate the cats, he spends 60% of his time in Suite A, and 40% in all the other rooms, combined. This isn’t entirely Adam’s fault, of course…just mostly.

Poor Adam suffered a bout of constipation recently, and required two enemas. This did the trick on the constipation extremely effectively, judging from the “explosion in Suite A” afterwards. I was there that Saturday morning to witness the aftermath of the explosion, and all I can say is Wow! Apparently Adam had been so blocked up on Friday afternoon that he was given an enema to help him urinate and defecate freely. By that afternoon, there was poop on the walls, the floor, the ramp and quite possibly the ceiling! Well, the poor staff cleaned up the room and got Tabby’s Place all closed up for the night.

The next morning, everyone walked into the same scene repeated again. Adam had had a second explosion! When I walked past the window into Suite A and looked in, the scene was out of a horror movie. The entire room was polka-dotted with poop. Ms. Claudette cowered in the litter box, which seemed to be the only clean spot in the room (oh, the irony!). The other cats had scattered to the far corners in an attempt to avoid the mess. Only Adam stood right in the middle of the room and looked at me through the glass. His eyes were huge! It was as if he were saying, “What happened?!!” Luckily, I got assigned a different room to clean that morning. I did feel for the two ladies who had to handle the Adam mess. It took them almost two hours to clean that room. (It is usually a 20-minute job.) That afternoon, Adam got a much needed bath! I’m sure you could hear him screaming from wherever you reside. I’m sure Antarctica could hear Adam screaming!

Our boy has had quite the eventful month. He wants to thank you for loving him, even in all his naughty glory. He doesn’t mean to be difficult. He just can’t control those impulses to be impish, although he really, really wants to. Adam and I wish you the most marvelous of new years, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you do for Tabby’s Place. You’re the best!