Lover Kittles

How did we get here?

In February of 2021, my husband and I moved to a tiny town in Southwest Minnesota. We arrived with three cats, our beloved Igor, Henry, and Odin (as pictured). In the fall of 2021, because we have such a big house, we decided wanted to add one more cat to the group. Our fourth, Gaia, had passed in 2019, and we liked that number. Well, we took a look at the kittens my parents had at their acreage, and we just couldn’t separate the two little puffballs we fell for. We would name them Augie and Vivian.

In June of 2022, after a mysterious illness that no vet could figure out, our Odin passed away in my arms, early in the morning on the 26th. Back to four. But the cat distribution system had other ideas. By September of 2022, a mama cat moved into our yard, with her litter of four kittens. Uh oh. After we watched two of the babies die from illness and predation, we decided to bring the other two inside, as they were weaned and old enough to be on their own. They are Leonard and Julian. And they brought with them fleas and ringworm that had to be treated. Despite my best efforts, the ringworm spread to the rest of the cats in the house. That cost us hundreds of dollars in medicine.

By this time, a couple months had passed, and we eventually, coaxed their terrified mama inside our porch, and after a month of getting a read on her and letting her adjust to us, we brought her inside, too. Mimi (she remains terrified, but we love her nevertheless). Somewhere in all of this, we met a huge-eyed kitten at my parents’ house that I fell absolutely in love with instantly. My husband was reticent to not take on another cat, but by Thanksgiving, three minutes into being there for the holiday, he suggested we bring her home (you’ve seen her, you know). She, Theo, is now the light of our lives, perfection in every way. We were now at eight.

AND THEN (you knew this was going to keep going, right?), early 2023, an orange and white boy cat started coming around. Orange Boy, or OB. He’s still an outdoor cat (he comes home to sleep on the porch at night), but he’s been to the vet to get fixed, and we plan to see if he can do indoors this winter. AND NOW, now, there’s a pregnant mama. She’s another orange and white bb, who has been around about as long as OB (we think they’re littermates), but she was always super skittish, only coming around at night, and only hanging around the very edges of where our lights land, coming to the food bowl only when certain we were inside and no other cats were nearby. That was, until she came up to me, crying in absolute desperation for food. Heavily gravid, it’s clear she’s going to have her babies in the next couple of weeks, if not days. I got her to come into the porch, where I’ve made her up a birthing box, and given her every comfort as we wait for her kittens to come. She’s sweet as pie, and we’ve named her Greta. So that’s ten cats now, half of which have just shown up. There’s another few that come by for food or to sleep in the Kitty Tube (I would like to get at least one more Kitty Tube before winter); a gorgeous red bengal, a fluffy teenaged black kitten, and a big grey stripey boy, who unfortunately was killed by a car out on the highway. He’s now buried in our yard, near Odin, and Mimi’s two kittens. Big house, big yard. There are probably more cats we’ve not seen.

We can’t keep doing this, financially. We need help. We are of modest means, and as it stands, we’re spending between $200-300/month feeding and caring for all these babies that we love dearly. We will need to fix Greta after her kittens are weaned, and we have to save up for that. We will have to find homes for the new kittens, but I think it’s only right to keep Greta close as she has now bonded with us. Last winter, we went into debt by several thousand dollars, as we had car issues, and other expenses arise. We can’t care for ourselves when we have to devote our “extra” to these lovely creatures. So at least for a time, we need assistance.

Some of you have asked me how you can help.

How can you help?

Easy answer. Our Amazon wishlist. I looked into making a Chewy wishlist, but that’s only available to official rescues. We’re not there yet, and I don’t think that’s necessary. This is a small community, not a big city, and based on these last 2.5 years living here, we will get 2-3 new cats in our yard per year, and that’s doable, with your help. We will also need help finding homes for kittens, and raising money for spays and neuters when new kittles arrive.

I have made up our Amazon wishlist with things we need regularly, and things we will need once, which I will remove as they’re purchased.

More ways to help

If you’d prefer to donate cash, my PayPal is sarah.moeding@gmail.com (I would prefer those donations go to my personal email rather than business). My Ca$happ is $vugurself. Either way is great.

Another way to help is to promote my business! I know most of you already do, but getting the word out by taking photos of yourself in my pieces for social media, liking and commenting on my jewelry posts, sharing posts, etc helps enormously.