Hips, Hips, Hooray!  Welcome, Hips Sponsors!

There’s nothing wrong with your vision, nor did I spell that incorrectly. Hips is our very handsome gray-and-white boy living in the lobby. He got his name from his decidedly unusual walk, the result of trauma earlier in his life.

But nothing stops this feline from investigating anything new or attempting to get into food he should not have. In fact, over the past month, we have had to change a long-held tradition of placing unrestricted food on and near the front desk at Tabby’s Place because of him. Hips is on a high-fiber diet and is not supposed to have food outside of that, but he will go after any other food he can, and is astonishingly good at getting into it. This has led to several occasions of loose stool and/or straining in his litter box over the past few weeks, so we’ll just have to be more careful about where food is placed.

All cats are curious, but some elevate that to an art form; Hips is one of those felines! If you have been to Tabby’s Place, you have seen an area of the lobby blocked off for our Anka. Anka is a fine boy who adores people and human attention but will not tolerate other cats around him. There have been a handful of instances where Hips somehow made his way into Anka’s enclosure; these did not go well. We’re hoping Hips has learned to stay out of Anka’s enclosure at this point! Surprisingly, Olive actually enjoys sharing space with Hips. This is unusual in the biggest sense of that word!

In the coming months, Mary Anne, your regular correspondent for Hips (you may remember her writings if you were an Elliot sponsor—it’s so great that Elliot was adopted!) will be telling you much more about Hips, but it’s clear that any disability he has is more of an issue for the humans nearby than it is for him.

Meanwhile, by way of introduction, check out the photos with this update. Thank you for helping us help Hips.

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones, and a very Happy New Year!

Your guest correspondent,
Stephanie