as some of you may know, Daddy does a radio show on a local college radio station. he plays show tunes and sound tracks. the Tony Awards are awards that recognize excellence in Broadway theatre, and are on tv right now. which reminds me about Antoinette, a former foster kitteh here.

two years ago, on Sunday, June 13, 2010, a young kitteh showed up at our back door and applied in purrson to enter Furry Bambino Foster Academy.

of course, we accepted her application. Mom named her Antoinette because it was the day of the Tony Awards, which are named for Antoinette Perry.

initially when Mom saw Antoinette on the back porch, she thought i had gotten out! Antoinette bears a striking resemblance to me. don’t you agree? that’s me on the futon.

Antoinette has a gold flame mark on her forehead.

i don’t have a gold flame mark on my forehead, but Cookie does.

Antoinette was young, approximately 10 months to 18 months old. as we soon found out, ahem, she was strongly desiring a ManCat’s attention. loudly and repeatedly! not to worry, Mom got Antoinette an appointment for her ladygardenectomy just a few days later!

Antoinette was affectionate, but would abruptly swat at Mom and Dad (with claws extended) when she had had enough petting. Mom and Dad were concerned about how they would be able to get Antoinette adopted if she might swat at somebody!

in addition, Antoinette was VERY unhappy to be confined to the kitten room, but she hated all of us Furry Bambinos, so she could not have access to the rest of the house. she meowed out the front window to complain about her plight.

one evening, our next door neighbor and his girlfriend knocked on our door because they could hear Antoinette meowing. Tiger Lily, the girlfriend’s cat, was missing, and they asked if we had found a cat. the next door neighbor was a young big burly guy who worked at a fitness club. mom was worried what he might do about us having his girlfriend’s cat. (well, most of her anyway. heh.)

luckily they were just happy to have their cat back. so, Antoinette graduated from Furry Bambino Foster Academy and was “adopted by” (AKA “returned to”) the next door neighbor on Friday, June 25, 2010.

Post Script from Mom: When I tell this story to most people, they find it hilarious that I accidentally had the neighbor’s cat spayed. However, another volunteer in PAWS one-upped me and said “I spay my neighbors’ cats on purpose! If they let their cats outside and they have not been spayed or neutered, I catch them and have them fixed. They go missing for a day or two and then show back up fixed.”

Our now former neighbor let his house fall into disrepair (let the gutters fall off and left them off for several years as one example), quit paying the mortgage, and the house went into foreclosure. His house has FINALLY been sold at auction at a ridiculously low price, which has lowered the values of all the houses on our street. The house is currently being renovated by the new owner who we suspect will try to flip it.

So, yeah, we are REALLY glad that we got that cat spayed!!!  Would do it again, on purpose.

This great graphic was created by the lovely Ann from Zoolatry.

Today, we will show you photos of The Cats Who Came Before, The Current Furry Bambinos, and all the kittehs we have fostered.

Mohawk, One Who Came Before, would be THRILLED to hear that today is Mo Cats Day!!! Mohawk often went by his nickname “Mo”. Mom adopted Mohawk back in January 1991, when he was about 4 to 5 months old. Mohawk was all white, except for a black stripe on the top of his head. The stripe grew out by the time Mo was about a year old. This photo was taken when Mohawk still had his stripe.

This photo shows Mo’s beautiful green eyes. As you can tell, Mohawk enjoyed his pillows!

Clyde is also One Who Came Before. He was a ginormous grey tabby ManCat. At his largest, Clyde weighed 19 pounds! This photo shows Mom holding Clyde. You can get a sense as to how big he was!

This photo shows Clyde’s gentle face closeup.

Now, for the current Bambinos.  This next photo is a close up of Padre.  Note how similar Clyde and Padre look!

Next up is me, Panda Bear. Here is a wink for all the laydeez:

Meerkat, pausing during her inspection of the back yard to pose. Me and her are biological siblings.

Cookie likes to greet all visitors to Casa Furry Bambino, by sitting on this chair by the front door.  Notice how Meerkat and Cookie have such similar markings!

Caramel is the only floofy Furry Bambino. Here she is snuggling a pair of Mommy’s slippers. Check out that floofy tail and those toe hawks!

Now, for the Fosters. The first fosters we had were Cookie and Caramel, whom Mom and Dad adopted!

Our next fosters were Matthew (renamed Neo), Mark, Luke (renamed Shadow), and Joann (renamed Inky). They were here between late September and December 2009.

Joann is attacking the pink boa. Doesn’t she look like a cute little black bear cub?

Our next fosters were Daisy (renamed Bella), Bo (renamed Watson), and Luke, who were here between mid-April and late May of this year. Daisy is the dilute tortoiseshell, Luke is black and white, and Bo is the buff tabby.

While Daisy, Bo, and Luke were here, Niecy and Trish also joined us, bringing our TFC (Total Feline Count in the house) into the double digits at 10! You can tell how tiny Niecy and Trish were by comparing their size to Daisy. Daisy weighed about 2 pounds in this photo. Trish (white) weighed 12 ounces, and Niecy (black) weighed just 10 ounces at this time. They tried to nurse from Daisy, and looked to her as a surrogate mother.

After Daisy, Bo, and Luke got adopted, and while Niecy and Trish were here, Antoinette showed up at our back door one Sunday afternoon. We have a great adoption story for you about Antoinette, but we will save that for another post!

Niecy and Trish went to their furrever home on Friday, August 6, 2010. Our next fosters moved in the very next morning on Saturday, August 7! Beyonce, Kelly, and Michelle are three bootilicous tortoiseshell sisters! Beyonce has already been adopted, and has been renamed Angel. Kelly and Michelle are still here. Beyonce is the long-haired tortie on the top, and Kelly is the speckled faced tortie on the lower side. Doesn’t Beyonce look JUST LIKE Caramel? Beyonce’s nickname was Floofs Junior, and Kelly’s nickname is Miss Speckles.

Michelle has a face that is exactly half orange and half black! Her nickname is Miss Rainbow, because she is timid like our cousin Rainbow.

In addition, on Tuesday, August 10, our next fosters moved in: Winnie-the-Pooh, Kanga, Hidey, and Mr. Bibs. Winnie-the-Pooh is a male black and white tuxedo. I am pleased to report that he is full of cattitude!

Kanga is a female solid black kitten.

Hidey (yes, that is spelled that way for a reason) is a solid black female feral kitten.

Like Hidey, Mr. Bibs is also feral. He is solid black with a white bib and white belleh.

Yesterday, Hidey and Mr. Bibs went to their furrever home, but we will save that story for another post, too.

So that brings our Mo Cats Day blog post to a close, with a grand total of twenty-four (!) different kittehs featured! How’s that for Mo Cats?!

As you know, we love our Daddy very much.  He feeds us, he scoops our poops, and he cleans up our horks.  Dad puts up with all of the fosters that Mom insists we take in.

Recently, Daddy has been very busy working for the U.S. Census.  He has been a crew leader and it was his job to sit in McDonald’s several hours a day.  We have no idea why the Census is so interested in McDonald’s.  Maybe it had something to do with revising their “billions and billions served” sign.  Sometimes he sat in two different McDonald’s in the same day.

So you know that us Furry Bambinos want to show Dad our appreciation for all he does.  I have been helping Dad with his paperwork as Crew Leader.

Caramel and I assist Dad with organizing his Census binders.

I have inspected the binders.

Padre did his part by horking up a hairball on the dining room carpet.  This morning.

Meerkat did some serious shedding in the fambly room.

And Cookie taught the fosters how to claw the furniture!

Speaking of fosters, we told you that Daisy, Bo, and Luke are now in their furrever homes.  Well, now we have Boo …

and Shadow …

AKA The Itteh Bittehs …

as well as Antoinette …

Notice how much Antoinette looks like Meerkat?  Antoinette showed up last Sunday, the day of the Tony Awards.  She knocked at our back door.  Seriously, she did.  She had to jump a 6 foot tall fence to do it, too!

So it has been busy here at Casa Furry Bambino!

Happy Daddy’s Day!