We seem to have hit the wild, wonderful heart of kittenpalooza this month. We began with the soup litter. Having rebounded from their early health woes, Chowder, Gazpacho and Borscht were all adopted (the latter two together). Only Miso remained.
But don’t feel too badly for our little lady — she’s found some comically-teeny-sized kindred spirits in Zeppelin and Hendrix. These tiny tabbies are several weeks younger and smaller than Miso, but none of them have noticed, and they romp together gleefully. Perhaps they also bonded over being the last ones picked; Hendrix and Zeppelin’s little grey brother, Gandalf, had already been adopted. Good news, though: Miso is now in her forever home, too. I have a feeling that when her family arrived to visit Tabby’s Place, she fixed them with the “YOU WILL TAKE ME HOME NOW” look so adorably captured below, and what choice did they have then?
Across the sanctuary in our quarantine area, Mom Of The Year Juanita has experienced the peaks and valleys of motherhood. I’m so terribly sorry to tell you that little Ernesto is no longer with us. He had seemed to start growing stronger, but around the middle of the month, we noticed that his respiratory rate was elevated. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on, because he was purring so loudly even while being examined, and we hoped that he would pull through. But the next day he went into sepsis and we had to let him go. It turned out that this sweet little one had a massive abscess in his chest cavity; by the time we could detect what the problem was, it was too late to save him.
Though it doesn’t feel like enough, there is some comfort in knowing that he was so very loved every minute he was on this earth, by us, and even more so by his mama. When he was removed from her crate, Juanita seemed quite concerned. Our vet tech Denise gently allowed Juanita to examine Ernesto. Juanita sniffed him carefully, looked him over and then sat back. It was as though she understood.
Her other babies, Filiberto and Ignacio, continue to thrive…but they didn’t stay a twosome for long. The day after Ernesto’s passing, a starving grey infant arrived at Tabby’s Place. As needed, our staff bottle-raises such orphans, but we wondered…would Juanita accept an adopted daughter? She did — immediately, and with love. Baby Paquita is the newest member of the family, and she has all the confidence she needs to handle herself with two older brothers. Not long after, the family grew yet again — along with our admiration for Juanita — when another orphan arrived at the sanctuary. After giving him a quick sniff, Juanita promptly accepted little Alonzo as her own.
In case that’s not enough kitten news for you, we’ve also welcomed a flood of slightly-older singletons: Tom, who has a broken leg and was found by a big-hearted farmer (also named Tom); underweight calico Milan, a ringer for last summer’s Florence; and tailless, three-legged orange tabby Sinatra, who came all the way from North Carolina, and who amazingly has blue eyes long past the time most kittens’ peepers turn green.
Getting to know these kittens and their stories is such a life-affirming gift – pluck and innocence and pure love, all wrapped in tiny, adorable packages. Thank you, dear sponsors, for doing your part to help shape theses little ones’ lives.