From Left to right, top to bottom:
Wendell Jefferson Hopps, Clementine Mayfield, Chester "Chet" Davenport, Gerald Leland "Jerry Lee" Pickett, Lovell Pickett, Edward Loomis Davenport, Beulah Mae Pickett, Auggie Mayfield, Fergus Mayfield, Alvie Pettibone, Mitzy Jean Hopps, Orson Angelo Davenport, Vinny, Agnes Pettibone, Twyla Pickett, Pierre, Virgil Pettibone, Inez Davenport, Rosalie Pettibone, Carmine Pettibone, Lottie Bouvier, Ruth Anne Pickett, Rex Von Trout, Willamena Bouvier, Reva Von Trout, Bernadette Mayfield,, Renatta Pettibone, Penny, Cecily Davenport, Maddie Bouvier, LeRoy Mayfield, Nadine Pickett, Cornelius Bouvier, Cassius and Porter Washington Mayfield
Above, you'll see all the kittens we have had the pleasure of fostering over the past year. I can't even begin to tell you how much joy these little babes brought into our lives. I feel so lucky to have met every single one of them.
I am posting these pictures today because a year ago today, this blog was born.
It all began with this photo.
It's been an eventful year, filled with very high highs and very low lows. Thank you so much for being there for us, day after day. I appreciate all the kind things you've said, your encouraging ways, and thoughtful gestures. I am so thankful that our precious babies have so many wonderful people out there loving them. I wish every kitty could have the same. THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU! You are FABULOUS! You've made this a remarkable year.
I look forward to what's (and who is) to come !!!
Lots of love, Laurie
PS In honor of this blogiversary, I've compiled a few IBKC stats to share with you. Enjoy!
Posts With the Most Views:
1. One Tear-Filled Tuesday
2. Itty Bitty Mani Pedi
3. Six Pack
4. Two Thumbs Up
5. The Saddest Day
Posts With the Most Comments
1. One Tear-Filled Tuesday
2. The Saddest Day
3. This Is Orson
4. Now Who Might You Be?
5. Lights,Cameras, Picketts
Highlights of the Year
(in no particular order)
Our fist time on Cute Overload
Maddie's Adoption
Watching Charlene Love the Babies
The IBKC on TV
The First Round of IBKC Cards
Most Searched Labels:
1. Charlene Butterbean
2. Jerry Lee
3. Willamena
4. Phyllis
5. Cornelius
Contries With the Most Visitors:
1. United States
2. Canada
3. UK
4. Australia
5. Germany
Citites With the Most Visitors:
1. Seattle
2. New York
3. Tacoma
4. San Francisco
5. Vancouver BC
6. Chicago
7. Brooklyn
8. Arlington
9. Houston
10. Austin
Congrats Laurie!!
ReplyDeleteOnly been reading since the Picketts and if I was any nearer I would of had a loveely Pickett lady :)
CONGRATS Laurie! I have been looking at this blog since "hand turkey" on Cute Overload. I have laughed, cried and even laughcried. You inspired me to become a foster mom...but then I failed when I adopted my foster pup...but thats besides the point. Its been wonderful looking at these kittehs thru your eyes. There are many lives of the feline (and even canine) persuasion that owe their lives to you and your cohorts. Congrats on you 1 year blog-a-versary!!!!! One last note...can I tell you how much I am in lurve with Mz Butterbean??!1?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I joined in on the party a little late, but better late than never. You and your kitties have brought many smiles to my face during the the toughest times.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to many more smiles!
I have laughed & cried along with you & the IBKC fans since the group with Maddie.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your 1 year anniversary!
Happy Birthday IBKC!!!! I'm a fairly new reader, too, and am actually GLAD I'm not closer, because I'd have WAY to many cats by now.
ReplyDelete~What you are doing is so WONDERFUL! This blog is part of our daily routine. We fall in love with all the kitties. Thanks for sharing! Glen and Mandy
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary! You've done such a good thing, not just the fostering (which all by itself is amazing) but also by sharing it with this corner of the world and helping people to be aware of how many shelter cats need good, permanent homes.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations and here's to many more precious little kittehs. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary! Thank you so much for all that you do for the IBKCs and thank you for sharing them with us.
ReplyDeleteI obviously have to do some viewer recruiting -- Boston isn't on the top cities list.
Love,
Deb
Many, many congrats to Laurie, Craig, Kim, Sue & Sarah (did I forget anyone?). A whole year of IBKs is a great thing!
ReplyDeleteReading comments from fellow IBKC groupies brought tears to my eyes today. It's warming to know that there are so many caring people all across this great country and this great globe, who also adore these innocent critters. I'm honored to be a part of such an incredible group.
Happy Anniversary IBKC crew! Thanks for such a terrific ongoing experience, filled with tears, laughter, and inspiration.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Laurie!
ReplyDelete(I'm still waiting to hear back on fostering ... I'm so excited!)
Congratulations! I found you through cuteoverload and read the entire blog in one afternoon. I laughed, I cried...I was hooked. Since then, your blog has become part of my daily routine and I tried to spread the word about the IBKC. Thanks for all that you do.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great day for the IBKC!!! I enjoy your blog just as much as I enjoy you and the rest of the 'team!' Keep it up! Way to go! Congratulations to all of you who pour your hearts into fostering!!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations (or should that be "ConCatulations"?) and Happy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteI found this blog through your Flickr photographs and was immediately hooked.
Thank you for everything, over and over again.
Thanks, Laurie, for sharing these highlights from the past year. This blog has been a daily fixture in my life since last September. I was still deeply grieving the death of my eldest kitty, Armand. I immediately became hooked. This blog has been such a source of comfort and amusement. Your work has not only made a difference in the lives of the kittens you've fostered. It also has made an impact on the lives of your daily readers. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Laurie and the IBKCs, both past and present. As you probably know, I'm practically a "rabid" fan of the IBKCs and your blog. Having a blog myself, I know the dedication it takes to do this, but you've shown the dedication already with your care and love of these special bundles of fur and whiskers. You deserve all the most wonderfulness there is! Thanks for sharing it all! A big snorgle to you and yours!
ReplyDeleteBig Purry Hugs,
Robin
Thank you so much for sharing your everyday life with us. You always seem to end up with a very entertaining bunch of characters!
ReplyDeleteHappy Blogaversary! I think the Picketts were the first litter I followed from start to finish. I first showed up, like a stray human, when I was bored and Googled "kitten" and somehow found your link.
ReplyDeleteSince then, I come here multiple times per day to catch up on you, Miss Butterbean, and your lovely charges.
I would be interested to see what kind of hit counts you're getting, but I suspect a lot of them come from people like me who come several times a day for the IBKC fix!!
Cheers to you!!
Of course, my favorite was Willamena :) I bet she's grown up to be a purrrfectly beautiful girl!
ReplyDeleteYanno, those photos would make a wonderful poster. Maybe Cafepress?
ReplyDeleteThank you Laurie and friends for what you do! I found my Alice here and have been back every day since then. Thank you for the wonderful home and love you provide your own foster babies and for the pictures so that we can share them with you. (And thank you for including Sue's foster babies as well).
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary!
Happy one year anniversary Laurie and the rest of the IBKC crew!
ReplyDelete*sends snuggles from Vancouver BC*
PS: More Charlene please. :)
Happy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteI found you thanks to CuteOverload and have been hooked ever since.
This is the first time I've seen that marvelous, initial photo. OMG, could it be any more of a 60s/70s album cover?
Congrats to you, Laurie, and your wonderful and supportive friends/family members on the one year anniversary of this great, fluffy, cute group you call the IBKC!!!! Also sent here via CO's turkey drawing post and have been a stalker, I mean, fan ever since :) Looking forward to many more posts!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Laurie!!! Thank you for doing such an amazing thing for these kitties. I am so thankful every single day for this blog because otherwise we wouldn't have our little Ramona!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, yay for the Six Pack getting some of the most views!!!!
Thank you for this wonderful blog Laurie!
ReplyDeleteLet JOY be unconfined! (I've often thought of having a kitty named Joy so I could say that whenever I took her outside). This blog is the best thing on the internet and possibly in the world. It's not just the kitties and their beauty and poignancy, which would be enough, but it's also the loving marvelous caregivers and the wonderful IBKC junkies who are such a delightful part of my world now.
ReplyDeleteThank you Laurie, kitties, Committee members and friends.
XO Anne
Congratulations to Laurie and her family on a great year of fostering.
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased that Wendell is the first kitten on the grid and Porter the very last. Those two in particular caught my imagination with their befuddled little expressions. I'd love to know how they are both doing now. Then dear little Bernadette the tiniest sweet soul, and Jerry Lee, a darling little mite who had the best last day ever. Oh my! What a year!
Happy Blogiversary! We've been reading since you were on Cute Overload. Thank you for caring for all these sweeties! And thank you for the marvelous pictures chronicling their lovely days with you and Miss Butterbean!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on one year, Laurie! I started in with Cornelius. Looking through these pics and the stats laughing & crying (I still miss Bernadette and Jerry Lee.)
ReplyDeleteYou have a special gift for bringing out the best to show the world of these lucky IBK's who come to you. Your photographs are so darn good - yes, they are.
Checking out the new IBK shots first thing in the a.m. is a special treat. It starts my day out right. Thank you for sharing them with the world!
Congratulations, Laurie!
ReplyDeleteI was hooked after I saw the pictures of Charlene Butterbean on Cute Overload in May. I read the entire blog that day, and have checked daily for updates.
I cheer when kitties are adopted, and I sobbed uncontrollably reading "A Tear-Filled Tuesday".
After leaving my kitties behind in Montana, this blog has been such a source of joy... Due to circumstances, I can't have my own kitty right now, so I live vicariously through you in this blog.
Congratulations again! And thank you for bringing us readers, the IBKs and their parents (past and future such a source of joy!
To Laurie and ALL the IBKC: yes, congratulations, and Mazel Tov! and *megwetch*. I peek in a few times every day, delighted with the new pictures but no less pleased with the ones I've already seen. You dear folks are performing a true blessing, sending out precious kittens perfectly socialized and loving; I can assure you that your love spreads all over the country to every cat in every household. I'm sure WE all (out here) invariably go give our own kitties extra snuggles after looking at the IBK. And you ARE a gifted photographer - there are hundreds of "cute kitten pictures" but NO OTHERS capture the moods, the personalities, the tenderness that you do. I hope that the finest of blessings of joy and pleasure, laughter, delight and prosperity rain into your lives. In ancient Egypt they would say that you are Blessed among All People by Bastet, the Cat Goddess (who protects home and hearth).
ReplyDeleteI´m from Germany and have been a kitten lover all my life. I have two cats myself who rule my life.
ReplyDeleteI´m looking at this site every day and I would have liked to adopt a kitten myself...especially Fergus.
Congratulation to this anniversary...and keep up this work.
There are so many kittens who need loving and responsible people.
Happy Blogiversary! One year of bringing utter joy to millions - the itty bitties who find homes thanks to you, and we junkies who follow their stories. Each and every one of you IBKC members (humans and the Fabulous Charlene Butterbean) have my undying gratitude for what you do and how you do it.
ReplyDeleteI came here in late March while on vacation, which was very fortunate, because once I saw the Mayfields and the Holsteins I had to read every post in the archive. Those Easter pictures and the Holstein Kitty Profiles just did me in. (I'll never forget Patty Cake's confession of her Minor Imperfection - "Well, to be honest I’m attending court-ordered 'Stop Nibbling on Fingertips' classes." Or Emmett telling us how he dislikes cow tipping, because: "... Really. It’s not funny.") For the record, I agree completely with you Emmett.
It's still impossible for me to look at a photo of Jerry Lee without crying, but I'm so very grateful I got to know him through you.
The community of fellow junkies (or followers, for those of you who aren't quite as obsessed as I am) is also a delight to read and interact with.
Many blessings on you all for making this "Teeny Tiny Bloggy About Itty Bitty Kitties" such an extraordinary sanctuary, a haven for us to visit.
Love, hugs and appreciation,
Lynda
It's great to know I'm not the only person out here who is in love with Ms. Butterbean! She is one charismatic kitty. She has lifted my spirits many a day.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your blog!
ReplyDeleteSo nice to see all the IBKs in their little passport photographs! It really brings home just how much has happened in the past 365 days...
Yes, I am completely smitten with Ms. Butterbean as well. And, I've even taken to calling one of my kitties (who looks a bit like her) my little butterbean. :-)
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!! I hope this blog continues for many many more years, with many many more kittens. I hope they know (and that you know) how much joy this blog brings to the internet!
ReplyDeleteThank you for helping all these kittens. You're a fantastic person for doing what you've done. I found your blog about the time of Jerry Lee and it moved me. I've enjoyed reading your blog and watching as each litter gets adopted.
ReplyDeleteI really have to take off my hat to Butterbean. I understand that cats don't take to new editions and Butterbean has welcomed each litter and cared for them as if they were her own. She's the best furry foster mommy any kitten can ask for.
Here's to the next year (and beyond) of helping the itty bitty kitties!
Congratulations! I love this site and all the kittens. I'm glad I don't live in your city, because surely my house would be over-run by kittens right now!
ReplyDeleteI found your blog a few months ago - who knows where - and started reading it as I became more and more excited about the day we'd be able to adopt our own two cats! That day came last week, and we couldn't be happier, but I still peak in on the itty bitties all the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if that Arlington is Arlington, Virginia, which is where I am. If it is, perhaps some of your Arlington readers are looking to adopt themselves. And if they are, these very adorable kittens are looking for a home: http://chezschmanz.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/two-beautiful-kittens-still-looking-for-a-home/. My husband and I adopted a different pair, but these two sweeties are so deserving.
Happy first year!
Happy Birthday IBKC!
ReplyDeleteYou share a birthday with my cat Buzzo! He turned four on Friday.
Happy Birthday Buzzo!
ReplyDeleteWhat a landmark!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all you and your team of IBKC mentors have done (and will do) for the kitties.
Sharing their lives with us is an incredible gift. I treasure it daily.
What a trip don memory lane....and I found that I must have missed a few stories.....((gasp!!))
I will have to rectify that
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!
ReplyDeleteyou are all so wonderful!
xoxoxoxox
Laurie + kitties
Happy birthday IBKC! Maddie's adoption was definitely the highlight of my year.
ReplyDeleteHappy 1 year! I love this blog!
ReplyDeleteYou should totally make those thumbnails into postage stamps XD. I would TOTALLY buy them. I wonder if there's a place where you can customize postage stamps.. *scratches head*
I love all the IBK's <3 They're all so precious. I love my 6 retrievers, but I miss having my cats at home. Thanks for supplying them for me XD
Congratulations! I'm in awe of all that you have accomplished in just one year. One statistic you didn't mention is the number of blogs spawned from you excellent example. There's all the IBKs who have blogs and fosterers like me who are inspired by you with their own efforts. hoosierkitty.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI've been with you since day 1 and I'm so proud of how you've taken this philanthropic thing and exposed so many people to the wonders of fostering kittens! You rock, Laurie. Always have. Always will.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Laurie and the whole IBKC Team! You are all wonderful people and I really LOVE and appreciate EVERYTHING you do and have done for all those lovely kitties in need of so much love, warmth and joy in their start in life.. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and keep doing the great work... -Jeanne
ReplyDeletePS: I am so happy I found your blog
Thank you so much for this wonderful blog, Laurie, and more importantly for all the kitties you fostered. I can't remember how I found IBKC, but I fell immediately in love with Maddy - and the story of Alicia's adoption of this sweet girl had me hooked! Since then the IBKC has been a daily fix -and attitude adjuster - for me!
ReplyDeleteLori- you have touched so many lives - critter and human - over the past year through this blog!
Happy Anniversary!
Happy blog-o-versary! I feel like I've been through so much with you, and my life has definitely been richer for having the kittens in it. I've been reading since your first CO spot, and I've never turned back! Thank you for all you've done, Laurie and co.!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all that you do for the kitties and for us readers. I found your site a few months ago when I rescued a litter of 3 feral kittens that were 3 weeks old. I found a home for one of the boys with a friend who had a big sister kitty for him to play with. I kept a brother and sister and they are the joys of my life - Tux & Ginger. I love to visit and look at all the cute pictures and read the stories. If I'm having a bad day this site can always bring a smile to my face!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever thought about asking for photos from the kitties' adoptive families? It would be so much fun to see a then and now picture for them! I love looking back on pictures from the kitten days and compare my grown kitties to their baby pics! This site is so much fun and you obviously love what you do...it shows in every detail!
ReplyDelete