Happy 9th Birthday, Jolene!

Happy 9th Birthday, Jolene! Today, the Queen of our household and our lead Hedgewatch’er turns 9. Jolene is so loved. She brings life and love into our home. 

Jolene was 5 years old when she was adopted, after having watched all her kittens be adopted. Jolene has a genetic disorder that affects her mouth and only has four teeth. She gives so much love. I can’t believe she waited in the shelter for so long watching her kittens be adopted first.

Please remember when adopting that the moms, the older cats, and the cats with special needs all need loving homes too. They have so much love to give. They give as much love and joy as a kitten. 

While Jolene is much smaller than Simon and Jude, she is the queen of our household. She keeps both boys in line. Simon is younger, but bigger than Jolene. She still treats him like a kitten sometimes. The only thing she does not do is carry him around (he is too big for that!), but she certainly tries. Jude is very respectful of Jolene. He knows she is in charge. He does play wih her, but Jude does not play as rough with Jolene as Simon does.

You can tell sometimes by the look on his face that Jude thinks twice before instigating a play session with Jolene. He allows her to be in charge. Simon would be evenly matched with Jolene except that he is a few pounds bigger than her. She gives as good as she gets, though! Simon and Jolene often chase each other up and down the stairs. 

Jolene follows me everywhere and must always supervise me. She is frequently in the same room as me. If she is not in the same room, she knows where I am. She does get upset when I leave the house. I often come home to her favorite stuffies laying near the door. She piles them all there for me for when I return.

Jolene loves her stuffies and transports them all over the house. She has a toy box full of different stuffies. You never know which one she is going to take out or where she will take it. Her favorite stuffies are carrot and ghost bear. Carrot and ghost bear move every single day, even if the other stuffies do not. 

Jolene sleeps with me every night and I often wake up to find she has put her stuffies in bed with us. She loves both her brothers and can often be found playing, cuddling, or grooming them.

Out of all three cats, Jolene is the one who most loves to bird watch and to Hedgewatch. She takes every opportunity she can to supervise bird flight patterns. She loves when the windows are open so she can both see and hear the birds. She judges the squirrels that steal the bird seed out of the feeders and keeps an eye on all the outside cats and neighbors. 

Jolene will be the first to let you know if something is going on! She is well in tune with the entire neighborhood. She will see an outside cat out the window and knows which window to run to next to track their progress across the yard. 

Jolene knows her name and she answers to it. I have never seen a cat answer to their name as well as she does. She is more like a dog. She will always come when you call her. Unlike most cats, she does not ignore her name. If she hears it, she comes to see what is going on or what you need. 

She is the perfect daughter. Jolene is the first girl cat I have ever had. I could not have asked for a more loving child. I am so glad she picked me out at the shelter years ago (I had gone to adopt a dog!). 

Jolene brings so much love and light and life to our home. She loves everyone she meets. She is the friendliest cat. Jolene is very well behaved at the vet office and takes her medication when mixed in with a treat without fuss. She is the most amazing cat. She is my heart, the love of my life, and my hero. 

Happy 9th Birthday, Jolene! 

Please take time to look at and adopt the older cats, the moms, and those with special needs. Jolene was all of those when I adopted this mama at 5 years old with a genetic disorder. I could not have asked for a more perfect daughter. She is truly an angel from Heaven. 

Support Animal Shelters

Most people want to make a difference in the world and for their life to have meaning. This has become especially poignant in the pandemic with so many people dying. For me, the best thing I have done in my life is the cats. I like to think that I gave Kip and Kiity good lives with lots of love. I am trying to do the same for Jude, Simon and Jolene.

Since losing the majority of our humans in the pandemic, we have been fortunate to have many friends on Twitter. The COVID situation in American is bleak, dire, and the worst it has ever been at any time in the pandemic. It is a struggle to survive and be able to realize my goal of outliving the cats so I can keep them together. 

While the government may have my name on a euthanasia list and says my life is meaningless, my personal goal is to make the world around me a better place for pets. I do my best to be a good cat mom. I keep Jude, Simon and Jolene together and strive for them to be healthy, happy and loved.

Each month I also try to do a donation to an animal shelter. I am unable to adopt any more pets. I am not able to volunteer. I want to help as much as possible, so I try to make a donation to a shelter each month.

As the result of our Twitter presence, we were approached by pet luxury company Happy and Polly to take part in a promotion they have. We received a free item, a post box cat toy. We post photos on Twitter of the cats playing with the postbox tagging Happy and Polly for a month. We have a discount code, JSJR10 that people can use for 10% off their purchase from Happy and Polly.

There is more. For every purchase made using our discount code JSJR10, we receive 5% for helping to promote the company. We have entered into an agreement with local non-profit volunteer rescue CNY SNAP. Our 5% from the Happy and Polly promotion will be donated to CNY SNAP.

CNY SNAP is the shelter from which I adopted Simon. They are the cleanest, kindest shelter I have encountered. Simon was well cared for when I adopted him. CNY SNAP is also the shelter that helped me trap two of the outside cats this past winter. We were able to get two of the outside cats off the streets in the winter and away from the dog fighting ring. They have since been adopted into loving homes. 

There are still three outside cats that need to be trapped and taken into shelter to be adopted. I am waiting for CNY SNAP to have room to be able to take them in. CNY SNAP is run 100% by volunteers and is the largest cat rescue in my area.

Jolene’s birthday is coming up on August 24, and our Happy and Polly promotion runs through the month of August. In addition to using the promotion to raise money for CNY SNAP, I am hoping to use this opportunity to highlight Jolene during her birthday month. I want to bring awareness to mother cats.

Jolene had been dumped at the shelter in a box of her kittens. She was 5 years old. When I say dumped, she was literally dumped. Some of the kittens bounced out of the box when it was thrown out of the vehicle. The shelter volunteers found Jolene trying to get the kittens who had bounced out back into the box with her/the rest of the kittens.

Of course, Jolene loved and nursed her kittens. I have a photo of her nursing her kittens in the shelter. All of the kittens were adopted. Kittens are cute and fluffy. Everyone wants a kitten. 

The moms take longer to adopt. Jolene watched all of her kittens be adopted. She waited at the shelter an additional 6 months before she picked me out to adopt her. I was not planning on a third cat. I was at the shelter to adopt a dog. I was not finding a dog that would be a good fit for Jude, Simon and I, so I volunteered to socialize the cats. Jolene was in a cage at the far end of the room, at the bottom in a corner. She threw a fit when I walked into the room, making her presence known. 

Jolene picked me out from the moment I walked in the room. 

Jolene is the first girl I have adopted. She has my girl baby name. I am so blessed to have her. She may be spayed after having her kittens, but she still carries around her stuffie “babies.” She often brings them to me where ever I am in the house. 

Mother cats and older cats have so much love to give. Everyone is drawn to kittens. Please take time to look at the mother cats, the older cats, the shy cats. They all have so much love. They all deserve a loving home.

Since my life is going to be short in the pandemic, given the government’s desire to see me dead, my only goal now in life is to try to help pets as much as possible. I need to care for Jude, Simon and Jolene. I am trying to help animal shelters and homeless pets as much as I can.

Money is tight now for all of us. Even if you cannot donate right now, consider putting an extra can of cat food in your shopping cart, or even some extra paper towels. You can donate old towels and sheets to help animal shelters as well. 

If you are financially able, please consider our Happy and Polly promotion. Happy and Polly has items for both cats and dogs. They ship to difference countries. You get a fun item for your pet and save 10% using our code JSJR10. The 5% of your purchase that comes to us will be donated to CNY SNAP to help the homeless cats in rescue. Everyone wins! Our code is good through August 30. Go to http://www.happyandpolly.com

There is so much evil in the world right now. Please be the good human your pet thinks you are. Try to make the world a better place by helping the animals and animal shelters around you.