Happy March, dear sponsors.

I hope life is marching on merrily in your world, and that early hints of spring are finding you and filling you with hope.

In this funny season — betwixt and between snow and blossoms, with only St. Patrick’s Day to dot our calendars with delight — we’d do well to listen to the wisdom of cats. OK; this is true in all seasons. But perhaps now more than ever.

What the cats will eagerly tell us, if we listen, is that funny seasons are significant, even if they’re quiet about it.

This winter, we took in three timid young adults through our TNR work. Millie, Elsa and Celsey were not giddy girls when they first arrived at Tabby’s Place. Their watercolor beauty (aren’t they astonishing?) masked a deep-seated nervousness. Not one of the girls was sold on settling into Tabby’s Place — or indoor life at all.

And they most definitely did not want to hear any talk of “blooming.”

So we gave them the only thing they asked: time.

Sprinkled with powdered-sugar tenderness, but no more than they could take, as they could take it.

The girls got curious — about us, about their zingy new neighbors Pawla and Clawdia and Purrscilla, about this perplexing Place called Tabby’s — and then they got comfier.

And comfier.
And comfier.

Before you could say “spring awakening,” Celsey was charging out of her fears, playing and parading and purring at our touch. Not inclined to be left behind, Millie made her debut as a Lover Of Love — so much so, that she would soon be adopted. And elegant, irresistible Elsa eased her way into our view, step by spring-is-coming step.

There was no rush.
There was no timetable.

There was only the promise that, when they were ready, each of these brave teenage tabby girls would find a haven in our hearts. There was room for every shape and size of “bloom,” and grace for the fact that no one blooms all year ’round.

Dear sponsors, thank you for making such patient grace possible for these girls, and all the cats in our TNR program. It’s part of Tabby’s Place’s unique calling in this world to love each cat individually, in exactly the way she needs us, for however long she needs us.

Thank you for loving springtime into being for each and every one.

Your correspondent,
Angela