Happy New Year, everyone! As usual, January starts off with a bang of busy catch-up; for me, perhaps more than normal, as I was sick the whole month of December (bronchitis) and had to push appointments forward. Let me back up a moment to explain what also happened leading up to December:
At the end of October, we realised that our elderly cat, Allegra, was tired of life; she’d been sick for a while, but we’d managed with daily pain meds, and she was happy and active – until about mid-October, when she began doing little more than sleeping. We said our goodnights on 3 November, leaving us with 2 cats: Andromeda, 5½, whom we adopted from a local animal shelter, and Mira, 5, whom we adopted from a private family when she was old enough to leave her mother. We knew we wanted three cats, so mid-December, we returned to the same animal shelter and adopted Callisto, born end-August 2025. He has two speeds: Whirlwind and cuddle. Since around day 4 of his being here, he and Adromeda have been fast friends, playing, sleeping and snacking together.
A problem emerged with Mira, who would go out of her way to attack Callisto – when she wasn’t staring at him and stalking him incessantly. Fortunately, he has a sunny disposition and the attention span of a gnat, so it didn’t faze him! We thought Mira’s behaviour would taper off after a few days, but as the weeks went on, we realised that she was making it clear that she would be happier in a solo-cat home. She’d never really understood the body language of our other cats, anyway, and she’d never played with them; also, she doesn’t like surprises – and Callisto is full of them! We were quickly able to find her a good, loving home with some friends of ours who had lost their elderly cat and had not yet adopted another cat, so it was perfect timing! Mira is slowly coming out of her shell in her new home and starting to play again. Now to shake up our home once more and adopt another cat as soon as we can arrange it!
Between nursing a sick cat through to October, preparing all of my crafts for sale and being present at our annual Advent market, then being sick for a month, breaking up cat fights, and keeping an eye on an energy ball who is in that toddler phase of putting everything in his mouth – including electrical cables*, I haven’t had much focus or energy to write or edit; I don’t like wasting time, even when I’m sick, so I’ve been crafting – that’s free therapy…if you know, you know! [* We were sitting at breakfast the Sunday before Christmas, when half of our tree lights went dark; a cable shred was swinging helplessly as Callisto began to move on to the other cable! Our first deed of the day was to wrap as many cables as we could in chew-guard tubes!]
I hope your 2026 has started off well, and I look forward to what this year will bring!
Stephanie Huesler 