Hello again, friends. Here it is, nearly a week after Thanksgiving, and I'm finally coming out of my turkey stupor!! I hope you all had as good a Thanksgiving as we did here at the shelter. Lots of turkey and treats for everyone! Since this was the first Thanksgiving for the kittens here, I made a special point of telling them what Thanksgiving is all about . . . how the pilgrims brought their cats over from England because the English government had made mousing illegal, and how the cats made friends with the Native Americans so that everyone could have turkey and stuffing. Originally, Thanksgiving was going to be a cats-only event, and the main course was going to be stuffed chipmunk. But then the Native American cats told the English cats about turkey, and a holiday was born. Before we had our Thanksgiving feast this year, we went around the table and everyone told what they were thankful for. Overwhelmingly, most Cats Haven kitties are just thankful to be in the shelter where it's warm and they have food and friends. A few, however, are thankful for other things . . . like the Oci-Kittens are thankful for Barb's hair. (They sleep on her head, you know.) And Cameron is thankful for air. (He's a little strange.) Butterfly is thankful for a long hallway to run down, and Cricket says that she's thankful Tiberious went to a new home because he kept knocking her off of the big cat tree in the front room. Me? I'm just thankful for all of you who help all of us. If it weren't for you guys, we wouldn't be here. Most of us wouldn't even be alive. I reminded everyone here that we need to be thankful for all the volunteers and shelter supporters, and wholeheartedly everyone agreed. Except for Cameron who said he's still just thankful for air. There's one in every family, isn't there?

I haven' t written since we were at the big cat show a couple of weeks ago. Wow, did we ever have a good time!! And our old friend Gizmo got adopted there!!! His foster mom misses him very much, but he went to a home with kids and a dog . . . a very nice family. Way to go, Gizmo!! We sold a lot of toys, and at the end of the show, our good friend Liz Morken from Eagle Pack donated all the food in their booth to us. We also had some Royal Canin food donated, too. That weekend, we were also at the Gathering of Artists. We sold some Gypsy Cat jewelry and a couple of the Other Sue's knitted/felted items, so it was a good event for us. And then Thanksgiving weekend, we were at Starbase Indy, a local sci-fi/fantasy convention. Sandy Haney joined us for this event, and we got donations and sold toys, and we also got to hang out with Ray Park who was Darth Maul in one of the Star Wars movies!! How cool!! So the past couple of weeks have been busy for us all, but very fun.

This Saturday, we're gonna be at B-Java Coffee at 56th and Lafayette Road from 10 until 3. They make really good coffee and coffee drinks, so c'mon by and say hi to Barb, check out some of her Gypsy Cat jewelry, and have a mochaccino. (I love mochaccinos . . . with extra whipped cream . . . mmm mmm mmm.) And then Sunday is going to be the first day of our Holiday Bazaar Open House!! Woo Hoo!!! We've got tons of fun stuff for sale, and I bet you can do most of your Christmas shopping right here!! All of the proceeds from the Bazaar go directly to the shelter, so shop til you drop! We'll have snacks and beverages, and I'm trying to get the Kitten Chorus put together so we can sing Christmas carols while you're here. We're working on "Mousies Roasting on an Open Fire," "Deck the Halls with Sprigs of Catnip," and "Oh Come All Ye Kitties." I can't guarantee we'll be ready, however. Some of the kittens just can't carry a tune. And I'm not sure our choir robes will be ready in time, but we're working on it. Our Bazaar will also run next weekend, so check the Calendar page for times. We are all really looking forward to seeing you. And who knows . . . maybe some of us will go to our homes just in time for Christmas!

I better get back to work. It's almost time for my Kitten Yoga class, and I should warm up before this lesson. 'Hope to see everyone either this weekend or next. Ho ho ho!! - Raspberry

Hello, friends!! Raspberry here again, taking a break on a Tuesday afternoon to blog for a moment. I wanted to thank all the nice folks who stopped by our booth at the Christmas Gift and Hobby Show! We had a great time, as usual, and Ralph, Ralphie, Puma, and JuneBug had a chance to get out and meet their adoring public. We sold lots of catnip toys and other stuff, and many nice people gave donations. And Barb got to spend time with Ozzy, her new Sugar Glider friend from the booth next door.

We've got two places to be this coming weekend. We're gonna have all kinds of fun stuff at the Gathering of Artists in Irvington, including Gypsy Cat jewelry that I . . . er, I mean . . . Barb made. She's got a really cool selection of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings picked out for this event. And The Other Sue has a bunch of stuffed hedgehogs as well as new knitted/felted hats. All of the proceeds from these items go directly to the shelter, so check out the Calendar page to see the times and place for this event. It's a lot of fun! And we'll also be at the GINORMOUS cat show at the Fairgrounds this weekend, too! This is a really really BIG cat show with a billion cats already entered. Well, maybe not quite a billion, but close to it. Some of our adoptables will be there, bags packed and ready to go to their new homes. I know for a fact that Gizmo will be there on Saturday, so c'mon out and say hi to my friend Gizzy. We'll also have our world-famous catnip toys for sale, too, as well as some other Cats Haven stuff.

OH!! We're gonna be on Channel Six!! As part of the Channel Six Toy Drive, Cats Haven will once again be taping our one-minute segment on Monday, November 19th. But we need toys to take with us. If any of you guys want to donate a new, unwrapped, in-the-box toy, just drop it off at the shelter before next Monday. 'Doesn't have to be anything fancy . . . just a toy for a deserving boy or girl. 'Might be nice to make sure the toy is safe and not on any recall list (this is why I personally like catnip . . . when was the last time there was a recall on catnip, hmmm?), but just bring them over to the shelter, and we'll take them with us on Monday. We'd like to have a nice box of toys to donate to this worthy cause. After we do our taping with Kevin Gregory, I can let everyone know when our segment will air. This is so much fun!!! Maybe I can talk Barb into taking ME to the taping! I *am* the shelter manager, after all . . .

What's that noise? I thought I heard . . . Uh oh . . . Barb's been in the catnip again. She's got that glazed look on her face and is trying to curl up on the window seat. No time for a nap, Barb!!!! Later, friends. - Raspberry

Hi again, guys! I completely forgot to mention yesterday when I blogged that Buck-Toberfest has been extended into November!! We did great with this fundraiser in October, but we fell a little short of the gazillion dollars that I had planned for. For those who don't know about Buck-Toberfest, this is a fundraiser that I started last month. All you need to do to celebrate Buck-Tober is to donate a dollar - one buck - to the shelter and then ask ten other people to do the same thing. And then they ask ten people, and they ask ten people, and so on. We've got a Paypal link on the home page here, and you can donate through Paypal. Or you can mail a dollar to us at Cats Haven, PO Box 30206, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46230. Or you can leave a dollar at the Cat Doctor at 56th and Georgetown Road. Everytime a dollar comes in, the kittens and I do the Buck-Toberfest Dance.

And really quick, I want to thank Kate Franzman at Nuvo for her help with our ad in the Nuvo Shopping Guide! We're gonna have our very own ad for the upcoming Holiday Bazaar!! Thank you so much, Kate. Big purrrrrrs go out to you!!! Folks, keep an eye out for the Shopping Guide. Lots of good holiday shopping info in there . . . including us!!!

Back to work here at the shelter. With Barb at the Fairgrounds at the Christmas Gift and Hobby Show, I'm in charge. Lots to do!! - Raspberry

Hello again, friends!! I hope everyone had a good Halloween last week. I'm just now recovering from all the festivities here at the shelter. We have so many kittens that I had to take them out trick-or-treating in groups of 10, and we finally got the last group out at 9:00! But we stopped at every feral colony in the neighborhood and got all kinds of fun treats . . . catnip, valerian root, honeysuckle, and even a couple of mice! I think Barb really liked the mice because she chased them all around the house for an hour or so. And every now and then, she'd jump up on a chair and shreik for joy!! Maybe I'll get her a mouse six-pack for Christmas. I had no idea she liked mice so much!

Our Kitten Kaboodle at Pet Supplies Plus was a great success this past weekend. Skyler got a home on Saturday, and Mila and Meezer 1 went to their new homes on Sunday!! Lots of nice people stopped by and petted everyone, and one nice family bought a big bag of litter for us. Thank you so very much! We're going to do another Kitten Kaboodle next month, so stay tuned for more info on that. But this week, we'll be at the Christmas Gift and Hobby Show at the fairgrounds. We'll have a foster kitty there each day, and we'll have tons of our world-famous catnip toys! This would be a great time to stock up for the holidays. We'll also have other fun things for sale, and Barb will be there all day. We're scheduled to be in Booth #214, so stop in and sit a spell. Next weekend we'll be at two places at once! We'll be at the GINORMOUS cat show at the Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday, and we'll also be at the Gathering of Artists in Irvington. Now, the Gathering of Artists is a really cool event. All kinds of Indiana artists and craftspeople will have wonderful stuff for sale, and all the proceeds from our stuff will come to the shelter. Barb and I have been very busy making all kinds of jewelry, and The Other Sue will have her stuffed hedgehogs, some really cool felted hats, and even a couple of hand-knitted dog coats there. I'll let you know more about this when I blog again next week, but it's an event you don't want to miss!!!

Be sure to tune into WZPL 99.5 this week at 6:30 Thursday morning. The Other Sue will be talking with my good friends Smiley and KJ, and Gizmo will be in the studio with them. Who knows what they'll be talking about, but I'm sure it'll be funny. I'll be up and tuned in!

I hear my friend Dzana calling me for lunch. She calls me "RazBuddy!" Hahahaha!! But the kittens have had their morning lessons and are eating their own lunches now . . . I think Miranda fixed chicken on tuna toast. Mmm mmm mmm. And of course they all have their juice boxes. So it's time for my lunch, then a nap, and then back to class. This afternoon, we're studying "Selective Hearing: How to Ignore Your Human but Still Hear Every Word." Later, friends - Raspberry