I was not doing well mentally over the summer, so I made myself a personal 100-day challenge that began September 1st. My plan was to discuss it here at some point. Honestly, the plan was overly ambitious and stressful, so after about two weeks, I gave it up. The only part I kept was the #100happydays photo challenge.

I’ve done this particular photo challenge three times in the past, all during particularly stressful times in my life. The point is to find and photograph something that brings you joy every day for 100 days in a row. I completed this challenge in the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2018 – again, all particularly difficult periods of my life. Since I was struggling again this summer, I embarked on the photo challenge again. Now, I’m a quarter of the way through, and while I’m not going to post every photo here of course, I wanted to post a few of my favorites from the first 25 days of this challenge. In no particular order:

From 9/20 – On this day, Angus and Ghost had their neuter surgeries. They were gathered up and taken to the vet very early in the morning, which is always a bit traumatic for the kittens. They’re terrified of being caged or forced into situations where they have no control – it’s leftover from their feral days. Gherkin can’t get her surgery yet, so she was left alone afterwards, and she was extremely anxious all day. Very clingy in a way that isn’t normal for her. I spent a lot of the day comforting her, and it made me so happy to be able to do so. This kitten has come to trust us so much, and she was always the most wary of the four.

From 9/7 – Snail!!! (I love these little guys!)

From 9/9 – Ghost is the most beautiful of our foster kittens. Those grey stripes and amber eyes…

From 9/23 – Jason bought me this Halloween/sugar-skull vase and flowers for the beginning of fall.

From 9/18 – Ghost, Angus, Atticus. Kitty-piles never fail to warm my heart.

Some of those photos are going to end up as favorites for the month too, I can tell. And as you might expect, they’re quite kitten-centric. In fact, for the first 25 days of this challenge, 11 are cat-based, and that’s with me actively trying not to choose cat photos daily! The cats are the biggest happy in my life right now. And frankly, I’m not doing terribly well, still. My mental health is still really unwell. So I’m glad I have this one touchstone to hold onto.

If you want to see more of the challenge photos, I’m posting them both on FB and my Instagram.