Dear Friends of Tux,

The month of July can be summed up for Tux as follows: good health, good rest, good friends, and questionable behavior.

Just as human hospitals made adjustments to elective procedures out of an interest for public health, so too did veterinary and shelter medicine make adjustments to keep people and their pets safe. At Tabby’s Place, elective procedures and tests were placed on hold, so that we could focus our limited resources on daily essentials and emergency care. Now that the country is opening up for business in new ways with new sets of precautions and safety measures, our cats are once again back in the cycle of routine medical care. This month Tux had his annual ultrasound to evaluate his heart. I am happy to report that this test showed improvement since the last one. So Tux continues to experience good health.

As staff schedules have been adjusted, I find myself missing Tux and his Community Room friends. There is now only one day each week that I am working a full day on-site at Tabby’s Place. This means that I spend very little time at my work desk and even less time observing the Community Room antics. I did catch Tux waking up from a morning nap. He’s not a “spring out of bed and into action” sort of chap. He’s more of a slow blink, yawn, lick your lips, blink some more, and stretch slowly character. What I got to witness was a huge stretch that reached from Tux’s front outstretched paws to the tip of his tail. It was big, slow, luxurious, purposeful, and extremely satisfying. It served as a clear indicator that Tux experienced a very good rest.

After years of sharing a living space with polydactyl Sammy, it seems that she and Tux have finally sparked a warm friendship. On quite many occasions this month, the two felines shared a window perch in close proximity. What started out as an “oh, how cute that Tux and Sammy are curled up together” observation rapidly transformed into a clear friendship that seemed to bring comfort to both kitties. They shared a great love for a former roommate, Puzzle. Now it seems that they have discovered the value of a new good friend.

And so we arrive at the not good, but questionable. You may recall that Tux made some resolutions back at the beginning of 2020. Perhaps you did too. It seems like such a long time ago before the world went all upside down and topsy turvy.

Well, this month Tux was caught in the act of some questionable behavior. Feline inappropriate elimination is one of those behaviors that leads to many feline surrenders. It is a challenging behavior to manage. We have long known that someone was urinating on our administrative assistant’s desk, computer, keyboard, scanner, etc. We suspected, but we couldn’t be certain until the culprit was caught on camera. We don’t love Tux any less for his questionable behavior. In fact, the first thing we did was make sure there wasn’t an underlying medical reason for his inappropriate act. There wasn’t. He peed. Case closed. We all make mistakes.

Your Correspondent,
Lisa