Hello, friends of Pepita!

It is a great month to celebrate our feline friends! June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month so we are all hoping for many adoptions of our sweet felines this month. In addition, this weekend is our 5th annual Kitten Shower! We are stacked high with our newest and tiniest residents already, so the Kitten Shower is a wonderful time for potential adopters to enjoy playtime with the kittens, refreshments, and tours of Tabby’s Place. We ask visitors to bring a “shower gift/donation” of litter or food or other things from our wish list and kitten adoptions are reduced to $50. We often also see adopters find an older kitty with whom to fall in love. It is a day filled with visitors on tour so Pepita will see some extra attention, for sure.

Pepita continues to be in her glory in the solarium as the weather has generally felt more like spring and summer, despite the rainy days intermixed. I believe that our sweet girl wants the solarium all to herself as I have witnessed her swatting at some of her suitemates if they happen to cross her path in the solarium. She knows what she wants when she wants it! When I was visiting recently, she was full of joy, running from one part of the solarium to another, and jumping from one part of the climbing shelves to another to another. Most days I only wish I had as much energy as our sweet girl!

A new addition to the Suite A residents is Jimmy, a small brown tabby with white, who is settling in despite being a bit frightened of us initially. His back story is an interesting one: when Jimmy was a kitten he was found in the mailroom of the Washington Post. How he got there was never established. A couple took him home and gave him a wonderful life for many years but then fell into hardship and Jimmy came to Tabby’s Place. Our cat behaviorist and patient volunteers have been working with him and he has come around from his frightened state to settle in and actually start to demand attention from those he trusts.

This month there was a little mix-up in the feeding area, with Pepita’s suite mistakenly being fed non-prescription food one afternoon. Pepita didn’t suffer any ill effects from this diet mix-up, thank goodness. She continues her bobbling weight fluctuations, but the bobbles are so small that we aren’t concerned. Her nemesis, the urinary tract infection (UTI), did pay another visit this month, so (sigh) she’s been back on meds for that.

Earlier this month Tabby’s Place held its annual memorial service to honor and remember all the darling felines who were promoted to heaven throughout the prior year. This year we also remembered 3 volunteers whom we lost, with loving tributes from close friends of theirs. The memorial takes place in Cherny’s Garden, directly behind the solariums, so Pepita and some suitemates were seen watching with great interest as the staff and volunteers floated rose petals as names of beloved kitties were read, and as some ashes from each kitty were spread in the garden. What an amazing, loving family is Tabby’s Place.

Pepita continues to thrive and be filled with happiness and joy, all thanks to your generous love for her each month. We are deeply indebted to those like you who make it possible to give kitties like Pepita a loving home with all the medical care to meet their special needs.

Have a wonderful start of summer! We’ll be back with more news next month.