December greetings to you, and to all our kind and caring Kitten Fund sponsors!
To begin with, I want to update you on Coconut, the pretty little Siamese mix. She returned to the kitten room after an extended hospital stay for treatment of her recurrent diarrhea. Although she has improved, she still has some loose stools, but now she’s just one of the several kittens in the room with the same treatable but persistent condition.
On the positive side, Stromboli’s ears were rechecked and looked great, allowing medical staff to clear him to go to his new home. He and Amber (like Stromboli, an older kitten) were adopted together. That’s Amber stretched out in the header photo above. Stromboli is on the right in the adjacent image taken by volunteer Natasha, along with Quark, who was also adopted in November.
I don’t know how the weather’s been where you live, but recently there’s been a serious lack of rain in and around greater metropolitan Ringoes, New Jersey. Late in the past month, though, cooler temperatures moved into the area, accompanied by welcome abundant rain which began to narrow the moisture deficit.
Yet through the dry spell, a catnip plant outside Tabby’s Place continued to produce small purple flowers into mid-November. In the bright autumn sun, those flowers attracted honeybees, hoverflies, and skipper butterflies, all of them buzzing, hovering, and skipping from blossom to blossom.
Although it seems iffy at times, nature takes care of things so the cats at Tabby’s Place will have sufficient homegrown catnip. The humans make sure they have everything else, in loving care and in material needs like food and medical care. Fulfilling those material needs is a result of your generosity and support, for which everyone at Tabby’s Place thanks you.
While the rains held off, the kittens continued to arrive. Recently, I got a haircut and, as usual, I showed the barber pictures of the kittens. She admired them and asked whether it was unusual to have so many kittens at this time of year. Well, yes and no; our volunteer Kitty LeFey blogged this past month about the continuing kitten season and the Foster Team that helps them grow up well-loved. Kitty observed, “Kittens are the most sweet and tender kinds of fruit.”
Comings and Goings: Tabby’s Place’s Instagram page provides a visual summary of November adoptions, which are also described in Angela’s Epilogues blog post.
On to the kitten pictures! Getting action pictures is always nice, but images with alert, contented kittens are irresistible, too. For the former, Cobbler and Crisp share space around the sink, while Yuzu and Crisp are side by side on a visitor’s lap.
Volunteer photographer Lorraine shows the complications that can occur while trying to freeze the action of tiny Lilo, before Lorraine and I team up so she can capture a sweet portrait of the kitten.
Thank you, as always, for your steadfast generosity in keeping our little ones thriving and adored.
Until next month, wishing you happy holidays and all good things,Your correspondent,
John