Dear Kitten Fund friends,

What a difference a month makes…Last time I wrote, we had a paltry 4 not-really-kittens-anymore left in the kitten room. What’s happened since then? Well,

1. Ray found his forever home. Hoo-Ray!
2. Drita‘s test results came back, and she does not have storage disease. Or any other medical issue, really (unless you consider being adorably weird a medical issue!) And in short order, Drita found her forever home, too! Woohoo!
3. Dina and Rangpurr have graduated to grownup cat suites (they are following the Sadie-style two-year plan, it would seem), which is a good thing, since we may need the kitten room for little kittens again, soon. That’s because
4. We’ve already got two mama-and-babies litters! Three of the babies are already spoken for, but the others will be with us for a while, so we’ll be getting to know these sweeties well!

How do I know some of these kittens are likely to be here for a while? Well, as sponsors of Tabby’s Place kittens, you know that some kittens have a very straightforward kittenhood and find their forever homes when we’ve hardly had a chance to know them. Others? Well, sometimes the story takes a little longer to tell.

A little over a week ago, our vet tech Denise ventured to Philadelphia on a search-and-rescue mission of sorts. She was looking for a mama and her babies, who’d made their home in a very inhospitable (think cold, dirty concrete) industrial area. She caught two of the four babies pretty quickly, but their mom had hidden their siblings away really well, and Denise could not figure out where they were. Finally, Denise coaxed the mama out of hiding by having the babies to call for her, and before long, this Philly family was on its way to Tabby’s Place.

This mama cat is a super good mama cat, and while she was fully prepared to take down the monster (Denise) in defense of her family out on the mean streets of Philadelphia, once she settled in to her new home – and once she finished counting, re-counting, and double-checking her math once more to be sure she had all four of her kittens – she’s turned out to be a super sweet mama, too. And that’s a good thing for many reasons, not the least of which is that she’s not a good candidate to be re-released. No, unfortunately, the mama cat, whom we’ve taken to calling Halladay, has tested positive for the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). Her feral days are over…not that she seems to mind in the least!

Of more concern at this point is the status of her kittens. Overall, they’ve been healthy babies so far (I did mention that Halladay’s a good mama, right?). One of the boys, Cole, had a bit of an eye infection when he arrived, but his brothers Chase and Chooch and sister Mayberry have been fit as Phillies, er, fiddles. Because they are still running on their mom’s antibodies, we won’t be able to say for sure one way or the other whether the kittens have FIV as well until they’re about four months old, and that’s still roughly three months away.

We can only imagine what these sweethearts’ fates would be if they had to grow up on the streets, or if they were taken to a crowded shelter. That Halladay and her family are now home at Tabby’s Place, though, is a testament to the support you provide to our little ones. Thanks to you, Cole, Chase, Chooch, and Mayberry have a loving home to go with their loving mom, and no matter what their future brings, their extended family – you – will be there to help them along the way. Thank you!