When I mail Christmas cards, I like to include a letter about the cats. This year, I decided not to mail cards, but I still wanted to write the letter.
The cat letter is a brief summary of my (and Ted’s) year with the cats.
The Cat Letter
Dear Friends,
I hope this letter finds you happy and healthy. Here’s our year in review with the cats.
We lost two of the outdoor cats in 2022. First, Charcoal in January. He had Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) for many years. Although we do not know what caused his demise, it was probably caused by the FeLV.
In May, Midnight, the black cat appearing in many of Heidi’s paintings, passed. He was an old cat. After a week of not responding to treatment while in the garage, we decided it was best to let him go.
The new outdoor cat that showed up near the end of 2021 decided to stick around. He’s a beautiful long hair cat and has become best friends with Pork Chop. Pork Chop decided that it was okay for Heidi to pet him this summer, and he purrs!
The indoor cats are doing well – Buster, Violet, Jake, Elwood, Taco, Nacho, and Charlotte.
In the spring, we discovered that Charlotte has a healed broken pelvic bone. The injury likely happened when she was a kitten (years before we adopted her). The position of the fractured bone explains why she struggles with constipation. She’s on a daily treatment plan now.
Heidi continues to help friends with Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for outdoor cats. Helping outdoor cats get fixed reduces cat overpopulation and the number of kittens born outdoors.
She helped a family with the mom cat, the dad cat, their kittens, the dad cat’s new girlfriend, and a random cat they had never seen before that had extra toes! One of the kittens had his leg amputated; somehow, his little leg was broken in two places. So they are making him an indoor cat.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Heidi and Ted
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Heidi Bender is the writer and founder of the Joy of Cats. She enjoys sharing cat information and providing helpful cat tips. She considers herself a cat lady and currently cares for eight cats.