Dear Carrot Friend,

Carrot and I hope the new year is off to a good start for you, and we wish you good health and happiness for 2022.

Carrot had a pretty quiet month. With the rise in the COVID numbers, we had to cancel all visits to the senior home. We need to keep everyone safe, and can’t put our volunteers or the seniors at any kind of risk. The Aged to Purrfection program will remain on hold until things improve again with the pandemic. We hate to put this wonderful program on hold, as we were just starting to reach out to the other homes we used to visit, but safety must come first. We are hoping we can start the visits again soon, as I know the cats and the seniors both love the visits.

Now that winter has decided it is really here, we also haven’t been able to do the stroller walks. We were able to still do stroller walks until recently, as it was quite mild weather, but now that the bitter cold has arrived the cats can’t go outside in this weather.

We do have a few socializers who come to spend time with the cats in their rooms, and we are hoping to expand that program in the next few weeks. This program is called Comfort Buddies, and volunteers in this program spend time with cats who want a friend.  They sit with them, pet them, play with them, give treats, and offer the cats a lap to sit in. Cats such as Carrot, who are very friendly with people, are in this program. The aim is to get a volunteer for each area, every day of the week, so all the cats get attention every day.

We have another program for cats that are not friendly with people, that program is called BFF (Befriending Fearful Felines). Obviously, Carrot would never need this program, but some of his nervous friends, like Mousy, benefit a lot from this program. Volunteers in the BFF program have to attend a special training class with our cat behaviorist, so they can learn about the correct ways to interact with our more challenging cats.

We also hope to get our Enrichment Program back soon, which is great for the cats. With the pandemic and also ringworm in the building lately, everything has to be paused for the time being. I can’t wait to be able to get all these programs running again!

Carrot has been in good health this month, which is always good news for our boy. Although he has been cranky for having his bladder expressed the last few days, we are not sure why. He has been very impatient while being expressed, and is rolling and pulling away, which he hasn’t done in a long time. He isn’t acting like it’s painful.  It’s just that he doesn’t want to stand still and have it done.

Carrot is very happy that Gator moved out of his room, as he didn’t get along very well with Gator (no one did), but new resident Oscar is posing some trouble for him. Oscar gets overstimulated and then can be aggressive to other cats. He attacked Carrot one afternoon and bit him in the back. Carrot recovered but is spending more time away from Oscar. Nyla was moved to here in Suite C as she was being bullied in Suite B. So far she seems to be doing much better in C and Oscar seems to be leaving her alone. Let’s hope Oscar settles down and leaves everyone alone.

Carrot and his friends have been outside in the solarium for short periods each day, but mostly they are hanging out inside. It’s too cold, even for Carrot, who much prefers the solarium to staying in the suite. He does venture outside each day for a while and sits on the heated beds out there, but eventually, he gets too cold and comes back inside.

I have seen Carrot snuggle with Siesta a few times lately, which is strange because Siesta doesn’t really like the other cats. He doesn’t seem to mind Carrot though and seems to like snuggling in the same bed with him. Carrot also makes sure he spends time with Mousy, who is painfully shy with people but loves other cats.

That’s all the Carrot news for now. As always, thank you for everything you do for Carrot, as we could not care for him without you.

Your correspondent,
Karina