Kind of a Throwback Thursday... The Alumni Edition

Remember this girl?

Well, I guess it would be hard not to recognize her since she looks exactly the same...

GORGEOUS!

If you can't remember all the way back to the winter of 2013 (and it's been awhile), Mama Clarice Madison moved into Teeny Tiny Tabby Town with her four bouncing babies. 

Bear

Grizzly

Levi

and Misty

Mama was diagnosed as FIV+, so she and her kits extended their stay while the munchkins awaited their second rounds of testing. If the anxiety of their unknown status wasn't enough, we also fought a round with the dreaded ringworm with these kittens. Well actually, it was only one kitten but they all experienced the joy of the treatment.  (Go ahead and click that link. It might have been my favorite post EVER. And if you like wet kitten posts, there are plenty around that date.)

Mama Clarice stayed with us for another few months while we waited patiently (and sometimes impatiently) for her forever family to arrive. When we heard from Heidi, we knew the perfect match had been made. Clarice packed her bags, changed her name to Clara, and moved off to the Windy City for her happily ever after.

We received an amazing update from mom Heidi for her Clara-versary (the anniversary of her adoption). If you remember, she was adopted last year on the 5th of July. Heidi might have been just a teeny tiny late in sending the e-mail update, but I am WAY late in passing along the glad tidings to all of you. Instead of paraphrasing, I'm just going to take the lazy way out and copy and paste her message for you:

As you know, July 5 was actually a VERY IMPORTANT milestone... because of course it was on July 5 ONE YEAR ago that I brought Clara home!!!

Well, Clara is doing really great!! She's healthy, very energetic, gorgeous, fluffy, sweet, affectionate and... what other adjectives can I use to describe her wonderful self?! :) She has brought me so much joy!!! She is SUCH a snugglebug, and such a gentle, loving girl (and I know you know!) :)

Health-wise, we've had a few developments (nothing bad). In October of last year the vet pulled out that cracked lower canine tooth -- and apparently it didn't want to be there anyway, because the vet said it popped right out. The gum healed over nicely and Clara doesn't seem to miss that rotten old tooth one bit. Then in November at the vet's suggestion I switched her over to a limited-ingredient diet, and did THAT ever seem to make her feel great. Things started looking like they should in the litter box, and I think her energy quadrupled. It was really amazing! She hasn't had any respiratory or other issues, and so far, if I didn't know she was FIV+, I wouldn't know!!

By several months in, she had noticeably relaxed too... she was always sweet and affectionate, but it wasn't until she'd been home for a while that she really started running around all crazy-like and playing with her toys with serious abandon. Of course it was a gradual process, but at some point I realized that she was visibly less tense and just had a relaxed air about her, which of course made me so very happy!!

Most nights when I come home, she's on her perch looking out of a large bedroom window, and as I'm walking from the garage, I stop and look up at her sweet face peering down at me (I live in a condo on the 2nd floor), and then once she sees that it's me, all I see is a white-ish flash of color--- which is the cream-colored underside of her tail as she "high tails" it to the unit's door to meet me :)

She's overall still quite a quiet cat, but once in a while she gets in the mood to talk, and then she'll tell me all about it!

One funny thing is that she does NOT like it when I'm on the phone-- which really isn't all that often, but every not and then it must be done. She'll make this funny high-pitched chirp that she doesn't make at any other time, and if she's been on my lap, she'll jump off-- the better to express her disapproval. The first time it happened, I thought that something was actually wrong, and I got all worried-- not yet having become aware of her dislike of this particular activity :)

I've attached a few pictures! (One might be a repeat?) And at some point I need to get some video too when we're playing with her Neko Flies toys... her leaps are truly astounding! :) (Kelly's note... YES, you do!)

Honestly, every single day I think about how blessed I am to have her here with me!!! Thank you so much for entrusting her to me. 

PS... She still has her "toe-hawks"!! :)

(It's me again...) No, Heidi... Thank YOU for making room in your home and your heart for our very special girl. Thank you for keeping us updated and sending the pictures. And thank you for only giving me a teeny tiny bit of crap for not updating the blog in months. I might do it again if someone sends me updates ;)

Wait, what? I have two Teeny Tiny Tabby Town alumnae living here that I could blog about? Yeah, yeah, yeah...