Here's hoping you had a day full of fun and helpful family members.
But maybe not this helpful.
"Was Max not supposed to do that?"
"Hmm... Shall Max try the contrite face, the cute face,
or the 'Max owns the joint, so step off' face?"
Our quiet day at home consisted of five loud family members, an overly "helpful" kitten, a senior cat who nearly stole the fork out of my hand at dinner, and a dog who made off with the drumstick while we were packing up leftovers. The Roo hid upstairs from all of our uproar. You know, just your ordinary, average Thursday.
Wishing you a happy, safe, and warm Thanksgiving weekend with those you love. I'll be back late on Sunday with a pretty stupendous story. (If you follow us on Facebook, you might... just might... get a preview throughout the day)
I'm ba-a-a-a-ck! Did you miss me? What a whirlwind the past two weeks have been. It seems as if it just started. It feels as if it took forever. Since I last joined you, my business has tripled. I quit a part-time job, finished an online class, assisted in the running of a major school craft show, attended roughly 15 doctor appointments, several band lessons, and met 22 teachers at parent-teacher conferences. I still have three exams, 47 loads of laundry, and some serious catching up to do on the home front, but life looks do-able again...as soon as I recover from being run over by that truck. Phew. Anyway, enough about me. Let's get back down to some serious kitty business...
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I've been doing some schedule wrangling. If the stars align properly, it looks as if our dear sweet menace (oops... darling girl) Garnet will be on her way home to Alabama this time next week. Which got me thinking... When Garnet's gone, there's only one foster left in Teeny Tiny Tabby Town. It's time to go all out to find our girl a home. Which got me wondering...
Wouldn't be fantastic if we found another reader to adopt our Maisy-Mae?
Wouldn't be incredible if someone on the route between Michigan and Alabama wanted to adopt her?
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could deliver them both in the same road trip?
Okay, I agree all of the above is unlikely. But do you know what would be the best thing EVER?
Finding our Mae a home for the holidays.
And thus Operation Find-Mae-A-Home-For-The-Holidays was born.
That's kind of a mouthful isn't it?
So I've renamed it Operation Holimaes. Um... HoliMaes? HollyMaes? Yeah, let's go with Operation HollyMaes.
"Really, Lady? You break your brain coming up with that one?"
"Let's try a little harder next time, shall we?"
While Mae looks like she could be the next incarnation of Grumpy Cat, the truth is that she's anything but grumpy. She's 8+ pounds of love and fluff wrapped up in a stunningly gorgeous package.
Just look at this magnificent ruff!
While Mae appears to be a solid black cat, she has shades of other colors streaking through her fur. The underside of her tail and parts of her ruff shade a silvery gray (guess we know where Princess Torii got that from!). She also appears to have a bit of orange in the right light. It could be an optical illusion or she could seriously have a tiny bit of orange highlights or I could be losing my mind... which is entirely possible given the circumstances of my past few weeks. She even has a hidden spot of white. Maybe she'll feel like showing it to you later, but for now she's being modest and keeping it to herself.
Mae is a sweet and gentle girl who gets along with everyone. Living her first year of life in the outdoors and without much human contact, she can still be a tiny touch timid and a bit of a worry wart. But at the same time, she wants attention. She wants to be held and wants to be petted and wants very much to be loved by humans
Mae has a low, rumbling purr which comes on quickly and easily. She's a happy kneader and a bit of a drooler (don't tell her I told you that). She's been known to give kisses and head bonks and all manner of loving. My guess is that she's well on her way to being the lap cat that her daughter Max has become... and let me tell you, that girl is a permanent attachment!
Mae is a one year old female kitty. She has been spayed and is current on all vaccines. Her ear was tipped at time of spay since it was unknown at the time if she would be willing to move inside from her outdoor colony. The ear-tip gives her character and she is perfectly perfect in every way.
If you or someone you know is interested in bringing this special girl into your life, contact me at teenytinytabbies AT gmail DOT com. I'd love to talk to you about bringing our Mae home for the holidays... um, I mean the HollyMaes ;)
"Well, it's about time the right mama came along. Don't you think?"
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You know those old platitudes? It's always darkest before the dawn? Every cloud has a silver lining? Everything happens for a reason? Within 24 hours of Garnet's arrival back in Teeny Tiny Tabby Town, she was spoken for all over again... and I could never have dared to hope, dream, or pray for such a wonderful match as was made for our Miss Garnet.
You see, dear readers, our Garnet has been claimed by one of you! Someone who has loved her since she was this little:
Someone who fell in love with the stink eye.
Someone who adored her spunky sense of adventure.
Someone who gave her heart to Garnet months ago. Someone who had come to me in the past and asked to adopt her. But as life got in the way, our plans fell through. So Garnet went off to have her misadventure with another family instead.
Well, as luck would have it, this certain someone had become a friend on my personal Facebook page a while ago. So she became privy to the information regarding a kitten's return to Teeny Tiny Tabby Town before the rest of you. I didn't name names, but somehow she knew that her Garnet had become available again. And before that night's blog post even announced her return to the rest of the world?
She was spoken for all over again.
Garnet will still be with us for another two to three weeks while we figure out the logistics and plan a most excellent road trip. You see, our teeny tiny gem is getting ready to become a southern belle. Garnet is moving to Alabama in December... and I couldn't be happier about it. Call it Karma. Call it Fate. Call it whatever you want. I'll call it perfect.
You know what the best part of reader adoptions is, don't you? Updates, lots and lots of updates!
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There's still one more kitty left here in Teeny Tiny Tabby Town who would love a home in time for Christmas. And I would love to send her to one of you... provided you really truly love her and promise to send lots of updates.
Operation "Get All-the-Way Mae All-the-Way Home" commences later this week. Stay tuned.
Sometimes adoption placements just don't work out. Garnet is back with us and happy to be home. This move is for the best. Her purr motor has yet to turn off since her arrival. We're going to spend the next few days loving on her and putting together a plan to find her the best placement possible the next time around.
We will be keeping her here through Thanksgiving for rest and recuperation while she finishes a course of antibiotics and puts a bit of meat back on her bones. She will be available to the right home at the beginning of December. If you've always been a Garnet lover, and perhaps regretted not making a move on bringing this little splotch-head into your home, this may be your chance. We can start a conversation at teenytinytabbies (at) gmail (dot) com.
Mae's not certain she approves of her new roommate yet
She looks rather appalled at the very thought of it, doesn't she?
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If you're in the New York/New Jersey area and looking for a friend, look no further than Gail's beautiful baby boys. Three months old and ready for a home. Such a variety pack that there's bound to be a color and personality to suit your needs. Contact me at the above e-mail address for more information and I'll pass your message along to Gail.
At least Max is getting some rest while I've been AWOL.
"Well, DUH... Max is a kitten. What did you expect? Now go away and let the kitten sleep."
I know I've been missing in action, and you'll have to excuse me because I'll probably be missing a bit more during the next couple of weeks.
It's good news. My pet business unexpectedly exploded with new customers last weekend... plural... and lots of them. So, in addition to working 24-hours-per-week at my office job, I've been working several hours per day at my business plus raising three kids and a Maxie and a Mae (and did I mention that I'm taking an online course at the moment?)
My body is exhausted. My head is crammed full with tons of literally useless facts. I've got at least another week of the same condition before things will begin to calm down. Just in time for the holidays!
More good news: My class is almost over. My office job is almost over too. I'm getting so much business that I've decided to hand in my notice and let go of the safety net. I've just got to make it a bit longer.
You're really not missing much here right now anyway. My cats are cute and Mae is a doll, but we're not doing much that's newsworthy at the moment. It's a lot quieter around here without a crew of marauding kittens (which is good for me, because I don't know how I could possibly handle it all right now).
I won't disappear completely, but I won't be here every day for a while either. If you're on Facebook, you'll catch a status update from time to time. If you're not on Facebook, I apologize for my absence but one sentence updates are easier to flash out there than entire blog posts. I hope you understand.
In the meantime, if you wouldn't mind sending me all of your extra energy... I've got 2 days of parent teacher conferences to get through later this week (for 3 kids at 3 separate schools in 3 distinctly different municipalities... my brain hurts trying to figure out the logistics of it all).
And just in case you need kittens to get you through,
I present to you...
Gail's foster kittens!
Clockwise from top left: Washburn, Jayne, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, and Shepard (with Uncle Bitters)
If you live in the New York/New Jersey area and are looking for a kitten to call your own, Gail has four fabulous babies to consider. They are three months old, full of personality, and ready to make your home their home.
Or your hoodie their home, or something like that.
For more information about these sweet babies, send a message to teenytinytabbies AT gmail DOT com and I'll pass it along to Gail.
**Uncle Bitters is very sweet, very handsome, and very unavailable, thank you very much ;)
We've spent the past few days getting know Mae (and yes, I am singing a song from The King and I right now... you would expect differently?)
She's still a bit timid and shy, but coming around nicely. She likes to be held and snuggled and petted... and she purrs and purrs and purrs.
She briefly met her daughter this evening. Mae purred. Max hissed... brat.
Mae will be with us for at least the next few weeks while we finish her vetting and vaccination process. But if you're in love already, you can always start the paperwork process now.
You can read the beginnings of her adoption bio below:
Mae is a female spayed kitty who is approximately one year old. She became a mother early (probably close to 6 months old) and raised three spectacular children. She is a medium haired black cat with a small white area on her tummy and a big plumed tail. Her winter ruff around her neck is magnificent! I'm told her personality is much like her daughter Maxie's... much purring, very friendly and playful. She loves to be the center of attention and will definitely be a lap cat when she adjusts to her new home. She was ear-tipped at the time of spay, but otherwise shows no signs of being a "feral" cat. She will be up-to-date on all vaccines and vetting before we send her home.
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A Quick Update:
Looks like it could be taken at my house, does it not?
But it wasn't... this is Garnet peeking out of her hiding spot in the den of her new house. She is adjusting slowly to the noise and activity level that her family's younger kids are exposing her to for the first time. I heard she spent Halloween night snuggled up to her new mama, though. Seeing that her eyes are big and round is a promising sign for me. You remember what she looks like when she's scared and grumpy, right?
I know I promised you updates from our recently adopted kittens. They exist and they are coming. But I teased something on Facebook on Sunday morning and this news trumps an update... any day, any time.
The foster room is no longer as empty as it was last week. It looks empty because the newest resident found the hiding spot underneath the white upholstered chair. I know she's been out and about... food has been eaten, toys played with, litter box used. But she's not interested in making your acquaintance just yet.
Good thing I already have pictures of her from before she moved in...
Do you remember this face?
Perhaps if you saw this photo of her with her son?
It's Mama Mae!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, All-the-Way Mae (mama to our All Star kittens) is the newest resident of my front foster room. It seems she's not so feral after all. After moving into the kitten catcher's colony, she has become friendlier and friendlier. She not only demands attention, but insists upon affection. She started allowing herself to be petted and then held. So during Halloween week, a week that isn't exceptionally safe for all black cats who live outside so close to Detroit-proper, the kitten catcher just picked her up and brought her inside.
She's been vetted, tested (double negative---YAY!), vaccinated, and loved. She's here until we find the most amazing, very special home for her. More on that later. For now, I'll settle for her being held without trembling. It's coming. I can feel it.
Maybe tomorrow she'll let me photograph her instead of using old pictures from the colony.
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