July Greetings to You, and to all Fenek’s Friends!

When I arrived, there were no other humans in the lounge, just the cats and me. All four residents were in various relaxed positions around the room. In a near corner, Fenek was meatloafed, his eyes closed, inside a brown cardboard box lined with a folded fleece blanket.

Naturally, I didn’t want to disturb him, so I closed the door softly and soundlessly, then eased over to the sign-in screen. After typing in the required digits and pressing Enter, I started back to the door.

And that’s right when I heard a meow, coming from that nearby corner. The following is an approximate transcript of what happened next:

“Fenek, buddy, I wasn’t trying to sneak out! You were napping.”
“Meow.”
“I’d *love* to sit down and pet you. But I don’t have a blanket for you to lie on.”
“Meow-ow.” He got out of the box and started to approach me.

“I can’t take away Lynette’s blanket, you know that.”
“Meow!”
“If you wait, I’ll go get one just for you. It would only take a minute or two, I’d be right back.”
“MEOW!!”
I froze. Then I reached for a chair.

And having made his point, the Distinguished Gentleman cat leaped into my unblanketed lap, where he and I enjoyed extended Quality Time. Neither one of us missed the blanket.

You get the picture:  Fenek’s feeling pretty good these days. He continues to get blood glucose checks twice a day, and sometimes the levels are just fine, so they can skip the insulin injection altogether. You’ll never hear Fenek complain about that.

I heard from one source that Fenek and Rashida got into a bit of an altercation this past month, but no one had to separate them and they settled things without bloodshed, as most cat contretemps are handled.

On one occasion, he got up from my lap without any coaxing or coaching and walked across the table to another lounge visitor, as if to say “Appreciate me now and avoid the rush.”

All this summertime good news is brought to you by — YOU! Thanks to you, Fenek receives the care he needs to live his best cat life every day. The Charity Navigator bestowed its highest rating on Tabby’s Place, so you know your donations will go to help the cats.

In the spirit of Karl Lagerfeld, a good-hearted human in Maine tried to set up her will to help homeless cats, but as this story reveals, things got complicated. But money can get incredibly serious, even among pigeons, or more properly, their human caretakers.

Until next month, wishing you all good things,
Your correspondent,
John