Greetings!

To you, my favorite sponsors, I send New Year’s wishes and kisses from your li’l black-and-white southern belle.

I have that good warm feeling (like eating a piece of fresh peach pie) in my belly that this will be a better year for us all.  As an itty-bitty kitty, I learned that life has no guarantees, so we need to make each day a special day and find the sunshine in the sky.

I am lounging on my favorite lobby chair and reflecting upon all of the changes this past year because of the pandemic.  Despite being closed to the public, Tabby’s Place was able to find homes for many cats while at the same time welcoming cats from hopeless situations.  I want to blink my eyes, open them, and greet visitors and volunteers.  There is something so exciting about going back to my happy place.

During the past year, I made many new cat friends in the sanctuary.  I really like Warren, a senior pal.  He and I like to share a lobby chair together.  I smile as I look across the lobby because Twister, Flip Flop, Patty, Harlem, and many more of my friends are starting their new year in their forever homes.  I am very fortunate because I have so many people and cats that I love who make up my Tabby’s Place family.  I have a special Sponsor (YOU!) who has always been there for me, and I look forward to this being a wonderful year for you and yours!

I was extra lucky this year because I got to celebrate two New Year Eves with my cat pals.  My celebration #1 was with my feline friends in the Lobby.  Now that I am settled into my “dual residency,” I enjoy a delicious dinner in the Lobby.  The bonus is a pre-dinner nap in my comfy cat bed on the reception desk.  The volunteer feeders are always so kind and make sure that I have food that I enjoy.  After dinner, I went to celebrate New Year Eve #2 with my Suite A pals, where we had our end of the year sleepover.  I am very sentimental when I go into Suite A because I have so many great memories of living there with my pals, Boom, Mary, Pepita, Steven, and Angelo.  Good news, there were fewer fireworks this year!

I am the Indiana Jones of felines and continue to explore new areas of the lobby.  I enjoy roaming the reception countertop, I feel as though I am on top of the world.  I have been really fascinated by the computer at reception and am pawing the mouse.  At dinner time I join my peers with a “dinner line up!” We know that the food is prepared in the laundry room area, so we patiently wait for the door to open and the feeding volunteer to emerge.

I have always enjoyed rolling myself up like a burrito into a plush blanket.  I would do this all the time when I slept in my night crate in the lobby.  Since I am no longer crated at night, I turn into a burrito while in the lobby.  My correspondent was in the laundry room tackling the piles of laundry.  She was so focused she barely heard a staff member run in and ask, “Where is Rose?”  The blood left her face and she and another volunteer looked for me everywhere.  Low and behold, there were two Rose ears sticking up from under a burrito blanket in the cat bed on the reception desk.

Have you had much snow this winter?  We have not had much snow in Ringoes, NJ, but I still hope for big flakes that we can watch fall from the sky and blanket the giant Tabby’s Place lawn.  Every year I dream of volunteers building a BIG “snow cat” on the lawn—maybe next year.  We are blessed with a wonderful and generous community who are so kind and give us amazing holiday gifts (and gifts throughout the year): cat food, cat treats, cat toys, cat trees, and so many other goodies.  Cotton and I were quite busy inspecting the gifts, and Cotton usually picked a toy to play with first.  I was gifted with my favorite catnip nanas by one of my sweet friends.

My health report is busy but on the right path to healing.  My urinary tract infection cleared this month and I was taken off antibiotics.  I lost some weight this month and had several notes of coughing episodes.  I have been given a lower dose of medication for this and staff continues to monitor my progress.  I also had a note of clear nasal discharge and several days of diarrhea, which are doing better.  So, from here things can only get better!  I am so lucky to be at Tabby’s Place and receive such amazing care.  Thank you for making this possible!

May the New Year bring you good health and happiness, and I am sending you winter whisker kisses!

Love,
Rose
(With help from your correspondent, Ilene)