Dear Colleen Supporters,

Even when I’m half way around the world–in China, to be exact–Colleen is never far from my thoughts. I have to admit, this month, because I was out of the country and traveling quite a bit, I didn’t get to spend the usual amount of time with her. And even when I was at Tabby’s Place, we seemed to have a shortage of volunteers on the day when I always go in, so I spent more time working and less time visiting with my favorite girl. In short, I feel like our typically frequent and lengthy encounters were cut short this month. When I was in China, I did take my iPhone with me, and I found myself gazing at her pictures in my photos folder.

When I did get to visit, of course, I did try to air lift Colleen on the ledge in the Community Room again. It was a sunny day, and I know how much she enjoys the sun. So after a bit of lap sitting, I just swung her around onto the ledge near the window and let her bask in the hot rays for a few minutes. She likes to soak up the heat and look around outside. Well, you know cats and windows. And there seems to always be someone in the parking area walking in so there is plenty to see.

On the medical front, Colleen is holding her own so far this month, though it’s never a simple case with Colleen. Colleen’s constant pawing of her face requires that we give her a steroid which carries the risk of pushing our sweet girl into diabetes. Her water drinking has increased–something I noticed when I was visiting with her–so we’re monitoring her blood glucose levels closely. At this time Colleen is not diabetic. Yet. But she seems to be leaning in that direction.

Colleen has also been receiving acupuncture treatments, in the hopes that these might alleviate the facial pawing. You can see in the pictures this month that she doesn’t seem to mind the acupuncture at all – you can even see the needles behind her ear in the photo to the left!

And Colleen still is having problems with a bit of yuck on her face, so we’ve been treating her with antibiotics, using a facial scrub, and we’ve even checked for skin mites in the off chance that they might be the cause (though it turned out they aren’t).

Keep our dear girl in your thoughts. We keep wishing for bright sunny days so we can hop on the ledge and have a few moments of peace. Until then…thanks for your continued generosity. Enjoy the summer. See you next month.