Happy August, community cat champs.

I hope your summer is balmy in all the right ways, with sunshine tickling your face and your fancy at every turn. Thanks to you, summer has just gotten sweeter for one little black cat.

Claire, all big-eyed and beautiful, is a living example of the promise, “Once a Tabby’s Place cat, always a Tabby’s Place cat.” We generally say this in regard to cats who have been adopted from us. That is, if you adopt one of our kitties, but one or five or twenty years from now, for whatever reason, can’t keep her, she is always warmly welcome back at Tabby’s Place.

But this lifelong family bond extends to the cats in our TNR program. Once we conduct TNR on a kitty colony, we keep track of our cats for life, staying in contact with their caretakers and providing medical care or even relocation as needed. Once you’ve entered Tabby’s Place’s canopy of care, you’re loved for life, whatever you may need.

That promise came due for Claire a few weeks ago. We first encountered this little raven beauty when we conducted TNR in a small colony last summer. Claire had a litter of kittens, who came to Tabby’s Place and were adopted. Claire, meanwhile, was quite feral, and the property owners were happy to continue feeding and caring for her. And so, she returned to her safe outdoor home post-spay.

All was well for Claire until earlier this summer. Quite suddenly, she began acting friendly — extremely, mushily friendly — towards humans. This was peculiar enough, but it became downright worrisome when it was followed by a less lovely change. All at once, Claire seemed to be completely blind.

Claire’s caretakers did the right thing and contacted Tabby’s Place, and one of our staff members trapped Claire. Back at Tabby’s Place, our little sprite was as sweet as pudding, far from the feral mama we’d met a year before. Our vet team confirmed that Claire seemed to be completely non-visual…but, as of yet, we’ve not been able to find any reason why.

As of this update, Claire — and we — are in the midst of a mystery. All the tests we’ve run so far show Claire to be in good health, and she seems quite happy to be getting oodles of love and affection. But clearly something happened, and we’re determined to get to the bottom of it. Meantime, we’re determined to lavish Claire with love, and she’s loving every minute. Her caretakers are ready and willing to take her back if she should recover completely and revert to her feral ways. We’re optimistic for the first change, but see no signs of the second. It looks as though Claire will be relishing the indoor life for the rest of her life.

I’ll keep you posted on dear Claire next month. Meantime, thank you for making it possible for us to keep our promises to all of our cats, dear sponsors. You see the precious value of each cat’s life — including free-roaming cats. Thanks to you, cats like Claire can thrive, receiving everything they need throughout life’s changing seasons.

On behalf of Claire and all our cats, thank you, and have a glorious August!