Dear Carrot friends,

Carrot has had a fairly calm month. The main reason for that is that Wilbur moved to another suite. So far Wilbur is behaving himself in his new room, but only time will tell if he can keep up the good behavior. Then again, Wilbur is now in a room with several tough cats, including Macaroon (who could just sit on him if he starts anything), Owen (who has crazy on his side) and Hank (who could eat Wilbur in one bite), so hopefully Wilbur will be smart and try to keep the peace.

Meanwhile, back in Suite B, Carrot and friends are glad Wilbur is gone. Carrot generally has great success staying away from the bullies, but for some reason Wilbur picked on Carrot and refused to come around to Carrot’s ways.

Cats can avoid each other very aggressively. One can only imagine the inner monologue of a cat ignoring another cat that they actually hate: “You don’t exist to me, but if you did, I would absolutely annihilate you!” I recently witnessed Misty sassing Carrot in such a manner. Carrot did an admirable job of actually ignoring her, instead of just pretending to do so.

I must confess something (even though Carrot asked me not to). I went into Suite B the other day and heard a lot of growling and hissing coming from over by the windows that look into the lobby. I went over to see what was going on, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Carrot, our sweet, easygoing, make-friends-with-anyone boy had new girl Sweet Pea backed up against the wall and was bullying her! I couldn’t believe it. Sweet Pea has her name for a reason; she is such a gentle, mellow and sweet girl.I said “Carrot!” in a firm tone, at which point Carrot quickly stopped what he was doing, walked away from Sweet Pea quickly, and tried to look innocent. I sat down with Carrot and had a talk with him (after I had made sure Sweet Pea was OK). I tried to explain that it is not nice to bully cats and make them scared. I’m not sure he listened, but he is back to easygoing Carrot and has stopped picking on poor Sweet Pea.

Carrot is mostly staying inside the suite these days, but he does still venture out to the solarium for short periods of time each day. He doesn’t stay long, but he likes to visit his die-hard outdoorsy friends, Steve and Faye. Those two are outside most of the time, even in this cold weather, and they only come inside if they absolutely have to warm up for a while. We do have heated igloos and heated water bowls out in the solaria for the cats, so at least they can stay somewhat warm.

There’s no medical news for Carrot this month, which is always a good thing. Our two new staff members are still trying to learn how to express Carrot’s bladder, but so far without success.

Well, that’s all the Carrot news for now. As always, thank you for everything you do for Carrot. We couldn’t do it without you. Try to stay warm; be like Carrot and only go outside for short periods.