Happy “holiday season,” Team TNR!
Yes, we’re right in the jelly-filled center of it now, that “most wonderful time of year” that seems to bring stress and sweetness in competing measure. Amid all the holiday hubbub, I find myself especially grateful for the quiet contentment of cats, and the way they can restore my peace just by being themselves.
As you do so faithfully, all year ’round, you’re bringing peace to some kitties who might otherwise slip the radar. Did you know that every day, every month, regardless of the forecast, Tabby’s Place volunteers trundle out to feral cat feeding stations to nourish our community cats? That’s only possible because of friends like you. Thank you, now more than ever, for your steady heartbeat of support.
For the cats, feeding time is all the excitement needed in life…but, as we’ve learned, there’s always a bit of extra monthly adventure where TNR is concerned.
This month, that excitement took the form of kittens — winter kittens! — appearing at one of our colonies. It seems a couple of new adult cats had arrived, and where there are a couple of unneutered adults, there will be kittens.
We had it on the colony caretakers’ good authority that the little ones were young, so we were optimistic they’d still be within that precious window of socialization time. After about 8 weeks of age, something shifts inside a kitty, and the whole business of “trusting humans” becomes far more difficult. So we set to trapping and set to hoping.
Our first charming catch was baby Maurice. At around six weeks of age, he “should” have been socializ-able. Malleable. Open to the possibility of trust.
Maurice was many things. Trusting was not one of them. (See his intake photo below left for confirmation.)He was scared. He was savage. He was, despite his tiny size and outrageous cuteness, a little scary. He was two pounds of teeth and claws and tiny terror, wrapped in cloud-soft grey tabby fur.Our stalwart staff is not so easily daunted.
Day by painstaking day, sanctuary associates loved on Maurice, telling him in word and deed that all would be well.
And isn’t that the truth we all need to here, during the holidays most of all: all shall be well? Isn’t it scary to believe, too good to be true? Don’t we need to know it, deep down in the parts where words can’t reach?
In spite of himself, Maurice came to believe, to know…and to trust.
The word “mush-mouse” is now being used. (See above.)
In the midst of this meticulous, miraculous process, we also trapped Kitten #2: Maurice’s sister, Constance. This little grey girl must have been trying to impress Santa, because she skipped all the preliminaries and went straight to sweetheart mode.
A few weeks ago, these babes both faced a first winter outdoors and alone.
Today, they’re on the fast track to forever homes, forever mush, forever magic — a lifelong holiday of hope.
So, dear sponsors, we are especially grateful for you in these wind-whipped winter days of hope and hurriedness. Thank you for your faithful generosity to community cats young and old, indoors and out. Please give your own feline peace-bringers kisses for me, and may you have a blessed and beautiful holiday season. XO