As 2023 drew to a close, the mission experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We faced another brutal, cat-less drought, but rallied just in time for the holidays to cross our biggest milestone yet.
November 2023: The Second Drought
Winter truly is the mortal enemy of the 1,000 Cat Mission. For only the second time since the journey began, an entire month passed without a single feline encounter. November yielded zero cats. It seems the local feline population of Torquay officially went into hibernation, preferring warm radiators over contributing to my spreadsheet.
December 2023: Geoff, Mittens, and Milestone 100!
Thankfully, December arrived to save the day and end the year on a historic high note.
The month kicked off with a meeting with my step son’s girlfriend’s sister’s cat, Geoff. There is something inherently brilliant about a cat with a solid, dependable human name like Geoff. He provided an excellent pet and broke the terrible November dry spell.
But the real heroes of December, as always, were the home team. Sparkles’ kittens came through once again, delivering five solid pets to the tracker. This batch included the wonderfully named Mittens, who deserves a special shoutout for being part of a historic moment in the mission, and we decided to keep her (she’s the tabby one). We also decided to have Pandy spayed, so more kittens for her. She didn’t enjoy being a mum as much as Sparkles does.
Why was it historic? Because Geoff and the kittens provided exactly the 6 cats needed to push the tracker over the edge.
The Tally So Far:
- Previous Total: 94
- November 2023: 0 cats
- December 2023: 6 cats
- New Total: 100 / 1,000
We officially hit 100 cats! The first 10% of the grand mission is officially complete. If I can pet 100, I can definitely pet 900 more. Bring on 2024!