Prints are Now Available

As we shared on Tuesday, we lost one of our kitty friends in May -- former foster Bart Mittenfloss.

To honor this sweet boy, and to help the cats and kittens out, we had a print made of this lovely watercolor painting Craig created of Bart, and we're donating 100% the profits of the print sales to the Senior Cat Fund and Pet Food Pantry.  We gave Bart's mom, Sara, the original painting.


If you missed out on the last year's print of Charlene, there are still some copies available in the shop. Like Bart's print, all of the money we bring in will be donated to the Humane Society, too.

 


If you purchase any other item in the IBKC shop, 25% of that sale will be donated to the shelter too including this 5" x 7" print I had made of one of my "kitty magazine covers."  I'll do a postcard size version of that later once I've got enough magazine designs to do a whole set.


Please click HERE to visit the IBKC shop.




We've got one more name to announce today, and I'll be back with that shortly. Also, don't forget that our donations are being tripled by an anonymous donor. We've still got $521 to bring in to complete it, and the match ends at 6:00 PM (PST).  To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit HERE.

The auction for the naming rights to our little polydactyl girl is happening NOW! It's the last naming rights auction, so don't miss out on this if you want to name a kitten!

Thank you so much for sticking around.  It's so nice knowing you're here supporting us. xoxo



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In Memory of Bart

Many of you may have already heard, but this is my first time sharing the news here, that Bart Mittenfloss, one of our beloved former foster kittens, passed away in May. I'm sure you can imagine how devastating this loss was to his mama, Sara, who absolutely adored her young boy. Bart hadn't yet turned two.

Though Sara has shared the news of his passing publicly, she has been private about the details. Please respect her wishes to remain private.

Sara, we share this loss with you. We all know how special that little dude was -- he was always so joyful, buoyant and funny.  We will never forget the days we spent with that goofy boy and his brother, Darcy (who we knew then as Fielding). We wish more than anything that you could have been spared this pain.

I know many members of our Community who heard this news earlier reached out to Sara and offered her words of comfort. She expressed to me how meaningful it was to get so much love and support.  Thank you for being there for her.



We have something special planned to honor the dear boy.  Craig created this beautiful painting of Bart as a kitten, which we will be gifting to Sara. We've had prints made of this lovely piece, which will soon be for sale. All of the profits from the sale of the prints will be donated in memory of Bart and distributed to a fund(s) of Sara's choosing - she requested the money be divided between the Senior Cat Fund and Pet Food Pantry.

I hope knowing that the money raised in Bart 's memory will help cats and kittens will offer you some comfort, Sara.  And I hope you can feel all of the love we are sending your way.

Three Guaranteed Smiles

There are three videos on my bookmarks bar that are there for those days when I'm feeling like I need a lift. No matter how many times I've seen them, they always, ALWAYS, give me a smile.

I know you may have watched them before, but let's all watch them again and have a little smile this morning!

First, we have kitten pranksters Bart and Fielding Mittenfloss.



And this Wylla classic that is never not funny.



And teeny-tiny Hazel making itty-bitty biscuits.




Are you smiling?   Good.

: )

More Mittenflosses

I dumped a bunch of pictures and movies off of my phone and onto my computer last night and discovered a few more Mittenfloss moments.

Here are a couple of my favorites that I found.   

Gosh, those were some adorable kittens.  And Wylla sure did loves spending time with them!  

Let's Hear it for the Boys!

I've known Sara through Instagram for maybe a year or so and this past spring and summer,  I watched a sad story unfold on her feed. Felix, her handsome tuxedo boy, was diagnosed with cancer.  She was so devoted to dear Felix and fought hard to keep him here on this planet, but sadly he passed on the 3rd of July.  Sara loved that dear boy with all of her heart, so this loss was huge.

After some time had passed, she started considering bringing another cat into her life, and slowly began visiting local shelters.  Though she met many fabulous cats,  most visits ended in tears, and she could tell that her heart wasn't quite ready to love another yet. It still had some mending to do, so she put the hunt on "pause".  

But then a handsome gray kitty named Fielding Mittenfloss caught her attention on my Instagram feed. She emailed right away to see if there might be a way  to meet this little guy. I was not surprised to hear from her at all. She had commented on every picture I had posted of Fielding, and every comment ended with several happy, smiley face emoticons and many, many hearts.

I told her that Fielding had a brother and I was pretty committed to keeping them together. I asked her   if she would open to adopting a pair.  I shared a few photos of Bart, and thankfully, she loved the idea of two kittens. A few days later she came to visit the boys.

And she fell in love.

Well, she fell deeper in love.  I'm pretty sure they had her heart before she even arrived for the visit that day.

The boys were far from being ready for adoption at that point, and they had lots of growing to do. Sara had to wait a long, torturous month before her Mittenflosses could come home. I tried my best to send her lots of photos and updates, but I know that wait must have been hard.

Finally! Last weekend they were ready to go and Sara came down on Sunday to pick up her sons. We filled out the paperwork and Wylla soaked in her last few moments with the Bart and Fielding. She gave them very thorough head-to-toe baths which left both of them completely soggy. They loved every second of it.

While we were wrapping things up, I checked their intake date on the paper work. I did some calculating, and told Sara that their birthdate would have been about the 4th of July. That's when she told me Felix had passed on the 3rd.  How strange they would enter the world just as he left.

I always feel our kittens end up where they're supposed to land, and this little coincidence certainly helped confirm that theory.  

Because they were just a set of two, we got to know these guys a little better than our normal, larger batches. The humans and felines in our house all fell hard for these guys, so we're so happy they found such a devoted mom to love them.  We know they're in very good hands.

Thank you so much for adopting these special kittens, Sara. We wish you a long, joy-filled life together!

A Big Batch of Bart!

Here's a heapin' helping of everyone's favorite floofy tabby boy!

Boys and Girls on the Windowsill

Kitten Dance

Well friends, we parted ways with our little Mittenflosses this weekend. They got snipped on Friday morning, and midday Sunday, a very excited Sara came down and adopted her boys. I'll be telling their whole adoption tale this week, but I have a few more photos to share with you before we wrap up this chapter.

____

A house fly lured little Bart up to the windowsill the other day. The fly got away, but in attempt to catch this creature, Bart did the cutest little dance for the whole world to see.

Please make note of his adorable belly in silhouette.