Hello, everyone! Bandit the puddytat here, Cats Haven shelter manager and kitten school principal. How is everybody? Well, it's that time of year again. Time when all good kittens are rousted out of kitten bed at 6 a.m., fed a healthy and nutritious breakfast prepared by Lady Gwen (like this morning, we all had Moth Flakes with low-fat mouse milk and a rasher of chipmonk bacon . . . mmm mmm mmm), grab their kitten backpacks, and head off for a day of kitten classes!! It's hard to believe that summer is coming to an end and school is back in session already, but we've got a great group of new kittens, and I think they're gonna do great this year.

Hey, did everyone see The Other Sue and a little so-far nameless kitten on the Fox 59 morning news show on Tuesday morning? Wow, it was so exciting! The reason they were on is because the Indianapolis Artists Peace Project is helping us with a Name the Kitten fundraiser, and the kitten (who we're currently calling Baby) wanted to tell everybody about it. All you've gotta do is go to www.angelfire.com/ms3/jarrodssis/iapp2.htlm and vote for one of four names -- Cappuccino, Trinity, Tzurris (which mean Trouble in Yiddish), or Hopalong. You can vote as many times as you want, and each vote will cost $1. Fifty cents from each vote goes to Cats Haven, and soon Baby will have her real name! Baby is one of the kittens we got recently who had umbilical cord accidents. The cords wrapped around their legs, and unfortunately we couldn't save Baby's right hind leg. But she's doing great, will be spayed in a couple of weeks, and soon will be ready for adoption. And she looked gorgeous on television! You can meet Baby this Saturday at the Glendale Library, 62nd and Keystone Avenue, from 3 til 4:30. Barb'll be there, too, so stop by and say hi to them both, and cast your vote!

We got stuff going on at the shelter, too! Our good friend James came by a couple of weeks ago and got The Queen's Room wire for electrical, cable, and phones. My friend Alex worked really hard to move all the lateral file cabinets out of that room so James could do his magic, and next we'll be painting in there. Then we'll lay the flooring that Extreme Home Makeover donated to us, and voila, we'll have a new office!! Thank you Alex, James, and Dzana for all your hard work getting that room ready for us. It's gonna be so cool to have a real office!

I've got a couple of personal messages that I want to send out here. First of all, to my dear friend Teresa Eversole, I am very sorry to hear about the passing of your dad. Barb told me that he crossed a couple of weeks ago, and I just want you to know that you've been on my mind, and I hope you're doing okay. Call me anytime if you need anything. I was going to ask Lady Gwen to make a starling and grackle casserole for you, but Barb said you probably had plenty of food. You're in my thoughts. And to my friend Sue Hildebrandt and her friend Mil, I am so sorry to hear about Hoover. Hoover was so cool, and I know you guys must miss him a lot. And to Barb and everyone here at the shelter, I know we're all still reeling over the death of our Oci friend, Margo. She was loved by everyone who knew her, and her presence has left a big hole in our family. Godspeed, Margo. You will never be forgotten.

Now, lots of you guys ask me all the time what you can do for Cats Haven. As I mentioned the last time that I blogged, we need baby food for the tiny kittens (turkey, chicken, and ham, please), baby wipes to help keep them clean, and vinegar and paper towels to keep their living areas sparkling clean and germ free. But there are a few other things we need, too. We haven't been able to get paper goods from Walmart recently, and we're in big need of trash bags (kitchen trash can size as well as the big green ones), more paper towels, laundry detergent, and paper plates. Hopefully Walmart will get us back on their donation list soon, but til then we really need these supplies. You can either drop off supplies at the shelter, OR you can send us gift cards from Walmart, Target, or Meijer. Another thing you can do to help us is to come by the shelter and spend time with us all. We're always grateful when people stop in to pet us, brush us, or read to us. So c'mon by and just visit with us for a while! You can even attend a kitten class or two, if you'd like. Mondays and Wednesday, I teach The Art of Napping in the Sun, and Tuesdays and Thursdays you can join us for critter-catching lessons! I bet most of you guys would do really great with catching spiders, and Lady Gwen could give you some of her favorite recipes! Fridays are my favorite classes . . . How to Be Exceptionally Cute, and How to Ignore Your Human with Flair and Panache! So stop in soon and see us!

It's late, and I have to be up early in the morning to prepare for the day's lessons.  I hope all of you will stop by the Glendale Library on Saturday to meet Baby and vote for her name. We've got other events coming up that I'll tell you about soon, but for now, my bed is calling my name. Have a grrrr-eat rest of the week, everyone! - Bandit the puddytat