This is going to be another one of those wordy posts, but we'll break it up a bit with some photos. Those of you who really have to skip straight to the spreadsheet can click here.

Cornell already doesn't think this will be a fun post...

First off, we're glad to report that Yale seems like she's doing just wonderfully. She's still several ounces behind her siblings in weight, but she's gaining at a very appropriate rate now, and playing, and generally being a healthy kitten!

Ivy had another hair-pulling episode the other day. She's not doing it very often, but nonetheless, we've arranged for a vet visit for her tomorrow afternoon. We'll be leaving shortly after 1:00. The kittens are old enough now to stay home, so it'll be just Ivy going away for the afternoon.

Ivy disapproves.  Of everything. — Ivy disapproves. Of everything.

As you are probably aware, Kitten Academy is really just a couple of people who foster kittens out of their home. We're super appreciative of all of your help and contributions. We think, because so many people have donated and sponsored us on Patreon, that it's about time we start to open the books, so you can know how much money we are spending -- and also how far we are from "breaking even."

Before we share the (still very incomplete) actual numbers, please allow us a moment to explain them.

The spreadsheet is broken into three sections: vet bills, food costs, and miscellaneous.

VET: This section contains all the vet expenses from Kitten Academy kittens and momcats for this year, to date. We believe all the vet vists are here, but our records don't always include what each visit was for, so some of the data is empty. We can say for sure that these bills were entirely for Academy kittens and momcats, and not for faculty, since the faculty goes to a different vet -- Grayslake Animal Hospital.

FOOD: Unfortunately, we have not, so far, tracked food costs separately for Kitten Academy expenses and for our own faculty cats. We don't want to put misleading or incorrect data on the spreadsheet, so this section is mostly empty. We will start tracking it separately going forward, and fill this out as we go along. There's a couple of entries here, because we ordered some food off Amazon specifically for Toffee and company. We previously estimated the food cost minimum at $335/month for a Patreon goal, which is almost certainly low.

MISC: This section contains the technology that allows us to do the live stream, as well as things like our scales, cat trees, thermometers, and other items that are specifically for Kitten Academy use. This, too, we've not tracked well. We started it out with a few things we know, but there's plenty that we've spent that's not accounted for here. We want to be perfectly clear that these are not items that will be paid for with donations; these are completely our own expenses. There's a couple good reasons for us to include them, however.

Firstly, we might open up a separate option to donate for infrastructure concerns like this. If we do, then we need to be able to explain what's being paid for.

Secondly, we've been considering becoming a legitimate non-profit. So far, it doesn't make sense financially to consult with the required lawyer, accountant, and to pay the filing fees, and so forth. But there's a chance that in the future, it might. Once it does, we'll want to be in the habit of tracking these kinds of expenses for the non-profit.

Hopefully that's all the necessary explanation, but please let us know if you have any questions. You can email us at headmaster@kitten.academy

Click here to access the spreadsheet.

Bonus Photos: