When I first set up this page it was in memory of my beloved Niblet, a sock-flinging furry creamsicle who hung around just long enough to break my heart when she vanished forever into a bitterly cold winter night in 2007. It was also a response to various supporters who'd suggested that a tip jar might be handy to anyone who wanted to reward me for going the Creative Commons route with so much of my fiction; the cat angle just made it all seem less needy.

People continue to chip in after all these years, and I continue to feel vaguely astonished at such chronic generosity. (Although I have to admit the biologist in me is also a little offended; such altruism doesn't seem very Darwinian, after all.) And the Kibble Fund came in really handy when I had to go up against the armed capuchins of Michigan's Border Patrol in court.

The thing is, up until the summer of 2014 this out-of-date page has been pitching the Fund as a way to pay homage to Niblet's successor, Banana— "regal and grumpy and dignified… as voracious as a black hole and nearly as massive." But Banana died back in 2012 (tearing yet another cat-sized hole in my heart). So did Chip, the contact-lens-swiping fuzzbot, a year later, and Minion, in 2019.

So will all the others, eventually. There will always be others.

So it's still the Niblet Memorial Kibble Fund— but it's named now not for one lost cat, but for the first in a series. And any bucks that may accumulate herein— while I might occasionally embezzle them for a pizza or a movie— will largely remain in reserve against the inevitable repair and maintenance expenses for the Magic Bungalow's ongoing complement of ageing and/or misadventuring felines (currently BOG, Nutmeg, Swiffer, Blueberry Panda, and Doofus— although the names and the faces will continue to change with time and entropy, as they always have).

So if— having availed yourself of all the free wordage on this site — you feel the urge to contribute to their upkeep, by all means click on the donation button and accept my thanks. (You can use a variety of credit/debit cards if you don't have a Paypal account.) For the most part your gift will just sit there with the others, not even accumulating interest.

Some day, though, another dark spot is going to show up on another X-ray. And all of us here will be grateful to all of you out there, all over again.