You may have noticed it’s been a kind of a catty week. Here’s why.

It’s Abby Week! This weekend, we are celebrating our 1-year gotcha day, with our nutty, cranky, endlessly-entertaining cat Abby (A.K.A. Stabby Abby, Grabby Abby, Crabby Abby, and at 3 AM, Gabby Abby). We took in our little buddy as a foster, but she was so unapproachable, we thought we’d probably be bringing her back when they found her a forever home. The poor little thing was nearly feral, having come to us after 12 years living alone in a basement with little human contact, no love, and not much stimulation. It was a real challenge getting close to her, but even with all the setbacks and struggles, after a few weeks, it was clear she was meant to be ours forever (and only partly because we knew we couldn’t get her back in the carrier). Though Herself is plenty social, plays hard, snuggles nicely (for about 10 seconds at a time), and has adapted to life with people pretty well, she’s still a perplexing collection of habits and moods, of personality tics and triggers. We have all learned to live together, but Beloved and I are constantly puzzled by our littlest family member.

While trying to figure out how to help Miss Abby get more socialized (and how to get her to stop shredding Beloved), I periodically turn to the internet for answers, and I have found an unexpected (if not terribly practical) treasure trove of useful information. Bizarrely, TED turned out to be one of the better sources of cat information. Go figure!

Have a happy Abby Day, all you cats and kittens!!