Dear Carrot Friends,

What a month our favorite orange-and-white boy has had! First, he had a worrisome episode. Unexpectedly, Carrot became dehydrated, lethargic and withdrawn, developed diarrhea, and stopped eating. We became very concerned, because our Carrot usually enjoys excellent health.

Our vet team responded quickly, placing Carrot in our in-house hospital and treating him with antibiotics and subcutaneous fluids. After 24 hours, the episode resolved completely; Carrot is now eating well, bright and stable, and we’ve discontinued his medication. Bloodwork showed nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, we will continue to monitor him very carefully, but he has shown no signs of a repeat episode.

By the next morning, Carrot was completely back to himself, and he immediately let us know he had no intention of staying in a cage for another minute. He destroyed his cage repeatedly and was being a horrible patient. We were happy to return him to his suite ASAP. 🙂 As soon as he returned to his suite, Carrot was back to happy, easy-going Carrot.

On to happy and very exciting news! Carrot is in training to be part of “Aged to Purrfection” program. Cats from Tabby’s Place visit senior assisted living facilities and hang out with the residents for a couple of hours. The residents love when the cats come to visit, and it brightens their whole day. We do this twice a month, and it has been a huge success. We have to send a certain kind of cat, of course, and they have to pass a few tests before they can visit the seniors.

First, we test cats outdoors at Tabby’s Place, in a kitty stroller. If they are calm and interested in being outside, we move onto step 2.

Next, we test the cats out in public at a pet store. They are in a stroller, but we also take the top down (once inside) and have strangers come up and pet them. Again, we are checking that they stay calm and enjoy being out of their usual environment. If they seem stressed, or do not enjoy being in these situations, we do not enroll them in Aged to Purrfection.

Once they have passed those tests, they are officially enrolled in the program, and ready to visit the senior homes.

Carrot passed his tests with flying colors, which was no big surprise. He loved the attention and the stimulation of being outside, and at the store. The pictures I am including show Carrot in his stroller outside the pet store, and inside the store looking around curiously.

So our Carrot will be visiting the seniors now, and making even more people happy.
This is a wonderful program, and the cats and humans both seem to really enjoy their visits.

That’s all the news for now. Thank you all for your continued support of Carrot. Because of you, we will always be able to provide any medical help Carrot needs, and now Carrot can pay it forward by making some seniors smile.