Baby Pictures – The Furry Bambinos – Cleveland

Panda Bear Caban: May 16, 2007 – January 21, 2018

The Human Parents — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 14:15:47 +0000

Our lovable tuxedo cat, Panda Bear, one of the original “Furry Bambinos”, passed away a year ago today on January 21, 2018. It hit us so hard that it has taken a year to write this entry.

In Panda Bear’s last few months he had been valiantly fighting both heart disease and kidney disease. On the evening of January 20, 2018, heart disease began to win. On the morning of January 21 we found him too weak to move, and so we made that difficult decision every pet owner wants to avoid.

Now, even a year later, sadness still lingers with us, as we lost one of our best cats ever.

Panda Bear was born in May of 2007, under a porch in a Cleveland, Ohio, neighborhood with seven siblings. Shortly thereafter, they were taken in by a local rescue group. Unfortunately, the calici virus passed through the litter and Panda Bear had to have his right eye removed. One of his siblings had both eyes removed, and one of his sisters had some retinal scarring.

Panda Bear came into our lives in October of 2007. We had lost our cat Clyde to lung cancer in February 2007, and were finally ready to look for a new cat. We saw Panda Bear and his sister with the retinal scarring at Petsmart. Panda Bear jumped into Sue’s arms, and we knew he was going to be ours. We adopted him, his sister and another older cat who reminded us of Clyde. We named the sister “Meerkat”, and the older cat “Padre”. We affectionately labeled them “The Furry Bambinos”, and that’s when we started this blog.

In the beginning, the three Bambinos hung out together frequently, and most of their early life is well documented here on the blog.

When we captured this photo, it became the header for the blog for several years.

Over the years, we also took to shortening Panda Bear to “P.B.”, so in shorthand, “P.B.” was an “O.G.” (original gangsta) Bambino. Here he is working on a new blog post with Sue.

Panda Bear was impish and could get himself into trouble, but he would lovingly climb into your lap to apologize. He would follow us from room to room, and camp out and keep us company. He made friends with every human that walked in our house, and almost every foster kitten we brought through the door, too. In short, Panda Bear was the kind of cat everyone would love to have, and we were the luckiest guardians on Earth.

Panda Bear would willingly pose with toys. In this early photo of him, notice the blue nail caps. We used to use those before simply just getting better at trimming his nails.

Panda Bear loved to “help” get work done, but he would easily get distracted and start playing.

And he was the reason we stopped putting up a Christmas tree every year.

We tried to do a Halloween card one year in which we dressed all the cats up in costumes. This was the year Panda Bear was a clown.

Even as a one-eyed cat, he could catch flies, mice, and feather toys without any trouble.

He loved to jump and play. In fact, we had just finished a rousing game of “chase the feather on a string”, and he was breathing heavily when we captured this photo of him.

Panda Bear was rambunctious and impish, but he was also the most calm and chill cat we’ve ever had in our lives. He was able to get along with just about every cat and human being that came through our house.

If you know us personally and had ever visited our home, you met and came to know Panda Bear. He was one of our resident “greeter cats” when anyone came to visit.

He was always calm for his vet visits with his vets Dr. Amy and Dr. Jo at Village Veterinary Clinic, and would confidently walk around the room and allow them to poke and prod him.

When the “Coventry Cats” cat store in Cleveland Heights celebrated its 20th anniversary in May of 2008, Panda Bear went to the party. He seemed to enjoy the car ride immensely.

At the store, he had fun browsing through all the toys …

And the store owner, Sheila Blecman, gave him lots of love!

Panda Bear purchased a new Catnip Banana at the store.

In 2011, we attended a blogging conference in Virginia, and Sue attended a workshop where people could create a “flat” version of their pets. Basically, it involved taking a good photo of your pet and pasting it onto some thick foam board. The idea being you could then take your flat pet with you everywhere that real animals aren’t allowed! So, Sue made “Flat Panda Bear”.

Dr. Amy at Village Vet even played along and once gave Flat Panda Bear an exam.

He passed with flying colors!

Flat Panda travelled with us frequently, and ended up going as far west as Columbia, Missouri.

Over time, we became involved with the rescue group that saved the Bambinos. The first two fosters we took in were named Cookie and Caramel. Panda Bear loved them, and so did we, so we adopted them!

Here’s Panda Bear teaching a very young Cookie how to drink from a human’s glass:

And he would frequently wash her head.

Here he poses with a very young Cookie showing her how to sun herself in the patio door.

With the addition of Cookie and Caramel, The Furry Bambinos were now at total of five!

And everyone got along great!

Panda Bear was the explorer (escape artist). Even in winter.

This was his favorite Gizzy Quilt

We have been involved in animal rescue since 2008, and just about every foster kitten that came through our household had a chance to meet him, too. Invariably, they would warm up to Panda Bear almost immediately. We labeled our foster room the “Furry Bambino Foster Academy”, and Panda Bear was the “Guidance Counselor”.

He was the one to meet them and help them socialize as they went through the foster program. All told, Panda Bear was a Rockstar Guidance Counselor to over 150 kittens during his life. That’s how easy going and lovable he was.

He was a lap kitty, too, and he regularly would sleep next to us or near us on the bed and on sofas. When David worked at his computer or sat watching TV, Panda Bear would regularly curl up in David’s lap for scritches and snuggles. If Sue was reclining on the sofa, Panda Bear would knead her chest for almost exactly 15 minutes every night like clockwork. None of the other cats have loved us so equally and affectionately.

P.B. was talkative, too. All we had to do was exclaim “Panda Bear!“, and he would bleat out a short happy response to acknowledge his presence. Then he would flick his tail a couple of times in short, staccato movements like an orchestra conductor waving a baton. Even as he slowly lost weight and his ailments took their toll, his bleat was music to our ears.

Within our own household Panda Bear will be most missed by our other cats Sunny and Sky. They latched onto Panda Bear as shy fosters, and never let go. They followed him almost everywhere and would regularly cuddle up with him, walk beside him, and brush up against him.

Sunny was especially close to Panda Bear, often sleeping with him in the front window.

Panda Bear even made friends with the very shy, skittish, and semi-feral Samoa, who we lost back in 2015.

We can’t say it enough: we’ve lost one of our best cats ever, and we are grieving hard.

Panda Bear is survived by his sister Meerkat, his best friends Sunny, Sky, and Padre, and his step-sisters Cookie, Caramel, and Farrah Fluff.

“Panda Bear!” … we were honored to be your guardians. We loved you dearly, and miss you terribly. Rest well, dear friend. We’re so happy you’re no longer in pain and now able to run freely. We look forward to calling your name at the Rainbow Bridge someday and hearing that lovely bleat in response!

Clyde’s 20th Gotchaversary

Sky — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:45:41 +0000

Hello Furriends! Sky here, Silver Tabby Extraordinaire.

Today is a Special Day in Furry Bambino History.

Twenty years ago today, Mommy and Daddy adopted Clyde as a wee kitten.

Look at those ears! Mom says that yes, Clyde did eventually grow into those ears.

Sometimes Mom or Dad calls me “Clyde” instead of “Sky”. The names sound similar, and we are both Handsome Grey ManCats, so it’s OK. This is a photo of me!

Clyde resides at the Rainbow Bridge now, since February 15, 2007.

We have Clyde and Mohawk to thank for breaking in Mom and Dad for us. We love you Clyde-o!!!

Mama Rose and Her Babies, part 4

Cookie — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:53:00 +0000

Hi Efurryone, it’s me Cookie! We are very excited because Christmas is coming! We have been getting pretty holiday cards from our furriends, and that is so much fun!

If you would like to exchange holiday cards with us, please email us at TheFurryBambinos AT gmail DOT com. We can send cards overseas, too. We would love to send you a card!

When we last left off telling you about Mama Rose and Her Babies, six bebbeh kittehs and Mama Rose had been trapped in humane traps in Penny and Bob’s yard next door. Mommy and Daddy transferred the feral fambly to cages in the garage. Now Mommy and Daddy needed to start work socializing the bebbeh kittehs.

Mommy did not know much at all about working with feral kittehs. Feral kittehs are different than “domesticated house cats” (for lack of a better term). Not all stray cats are feral. Just because a cat does not have a home does not mean it is feral.

So what does feral mean, then?

Feral kittehs have not had contact with humans during their crucial kitten development time. If a kitten is not handled by people when they are very young, they grow up being afraid of people. They view people as potential predators, and are understandably terrified when a person tries to get too close.

Like most of your parents, Mommy has lots of books about kittehs. She looked through every single book, and found hardly anything at all about feral kittehs. So she asked her good friend Google for help. Mommy did some crash course reading online to try to learn how to work with and hopefully eventually get the feral kittehs to trust her, Daddy, and other people. There are some great online resources available – Alley Cat Allies in particular, but we will list resources in another post in case you are interested.

The whole goal of the process is to help the feral bebbehs learn to TRUST Mommy and Daddy, and other people too. Mommy was cautioned to make sure to let other people work with the feral kittehs, or else the bebbehs would be tame JUST FOR MOMMY. Which as you can imagine would defeat the purpose of taming the bebbehs so that they could be adopted to other famblies.

Mommy started off by not trying to touch the bebbehs for two whole days after they had been trapped. She read that it is best to give the kittehs some time to see that Mommy and Daddy did not mean to harm them. For those first two days, Mommy just reached into the cages to change the water and food. Mommy placed the food and water dishes near the doors to the cages so she would not have to reach too far into the cages. Mommy also removed the litter boxes from the cages, and Daddy scooped the boxes while the boxes were outside the cages.

The bebbeh kittehs would cower in fear every time Mommy reached into the cages. The bebbehs went to the far corner of the cage, and would huddle together. Their Mama was NOT HAPPY AT ALL any time Mommy reached into a cage containing her bebbehs. Their Mama would stand up and HISSSSSS and GROWWWLLLL at Mommy. Even inside of a cage, a feral Mama cat was pretty intimidating!

Mommy read that you should not try to come at a feral kitteh with your hand open and aim for their face. So next, Mommy began gently touching the feral bebbehs with the back of her hand. She gently stroked the bebbehs on their lower bodies – their hind legs area.

Mommy also read that it is VERY IMPORTANT not to stare a feral kitteh in the eyes for extended periods. Staring a feral cat in the eyes is a sign of aggression and will cause the feral kitteh to become even more defensive. So Mommy and Daddy made sure to make only very brief eye contact with the feral fambly. Mommy would look at the kitteh, then look away, then look at the kitteh, and then look away again.

Mommy also read that feral kittehs are terribly afraid of human voices. So to help them get used to people, Mommy read that it helps to leave a radio or TV playing in the room. So Daddy found a radio, and then put it in the garage with the feral fambly, and turned in on low volume. Mommy’s good friend Dorothy told Mommy to make sure to turn the radio OFF from time to time, because constant NOISE is a form of torture.

After a few days of gentle touching, Mommy began to try to pick up the bebbehs and hold them for brief periods of time. When Mommy picked up a bebbeh, she made sure to “scruff them” – to pick the bebbeh up by the scruff of the neck. This does not hurt the bebbeh! When a bebbeh is scruffed, they relax and go limp! This is a natural reaction that they have so that when their Mama Kitteh picks them up, they don’t get all squirmy while she carries them in her mouth.

Mommy started by holding the bebbehs for very brief periods of time – like 20 seconds – and then returning the bebbeh to its cage and immediately feeding the bebbeh. This is so that the bebbehs would begin to associate getting held with getting food! At first, the bebbehs would not eat in front of Mommy when they were returned to their cages.

Next, Mommy would hold the bebbehs for longer periods of time – one to two minutes. Mommy held the bebbehs close to her chest with both hands securing the bebbeh so they would not escape. At this time, Mommy began to try to determine the gender of each bebbeh, and choosing names. Mommy’s good friend Christine (and advisor in PAWS) suggested giving the fambly “outdoorsy” names since they were found outside.

Mommy confirmed that the little calico was a girl! Mommy and Daddy named her Marigold.

Mommy confirmed that the dark orange tabby with swirls was a boy! Mommy and Daddy named him Rusty.

Mommy confirmed that the buff tabby with white bib and white paws was a boy! Mommy’s friend Christine suggested the name Hunter.

Mommy learned that the little brown tabby was actually a boy, not a girl like she had originally guessed. Mommy named him Woody.

Two of the bebbehs were too squirmy to hold and also check their gender, so those two would have to wait to get named. They were the silver tabby and the dark orange tabby with the white bib and white paws.

And to go with the outdoorsy theme, Mommy thought the name Mama Rose was appropriate for the Mama. Can any of you guess why?

Next time, teaching feral kittehs how to play with cat toys!

Merry Christmas Efurrryone!

Mama Rose and Her Babies, part 3

Cookie — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:12:17 +0000

Hi Efurryone, it’s me Cookie! First of all, Mommy asked me to say thank you to all of you for the birthday wishes. She especially enjoyed the comments requesting photos of her enjoying her birthday present. (We are working on that.)

Second, if you would like to exchange holiday cards with us, please email us at TheFurryBambinos AT gmail DOT com.

When we last left off telling you about Mama Rose and Her Babies, four bebbeh kittehs and Mama Rose had been trapped in humane traps in Penny and Bob’s yard next door. Mommy and Daddy transferred the feral fambly to cages in the garage. But Mommy and Daddy knew that there were more kittens – another two or three by their estimation. When it got dark, Daddy rigged the cage so that the door would not close, in case another animal such as a raccoon, possum, or skunk got hungry and went into the trap.

Mommy and Daddy were very worried about the other bebbehs. They worried all night about where they might be, if they missed their Mama and siblings, and what they would eat. It was a sad night at Casa de Furry Bambinos, despite the fact that four bebbehs and Mama had been trapped.

The next morning Penny called Mom. She said that there were two bebbeh kittehs in one of the traps! The wire that was holding the trap open must have broken! What good luck that more kittehs were trapped, and not a skunk!!! Mommy and Daddy were very grateful to have caught two more bebbehs!

When Mommy opened the door from the house into the garage, the sound must have startled all the feral kittehs. So much so that two of the kittehs were squeezing between the bars of their cage to escape! Mommy got there in time to push the dark orange kitteh back into the cage, but there was one itteh bitteh calico kitteh on the loose in the garage!

Luckily Mommy saw where the calico went, and was able to pick it up by the scruff of the neck and put it back into a different cage. (Mommy thought that maybe she should separate the two genius kittehs who figured out how to escape.) So then Mommy grabbed some bricks from the back yard and blockaded the bottom of the cages to prevent any more escapees.

Finally, Mommy went next door and brought the two kittehs in their trap to the garage. Mommy put them into the cage with the orange kitteh who tried to escape.

At this point, Mama and all the bebbehs were very very scared, so Mommy did not try to touch any of them yet. These two bebbehs were trying to hide between their litter box and the cage wall.

Look how frightened they look!

Mommy and Daddy were not sure which bebbehs were girls or boys. Mom had some guesses, though. Orange tabby (striped) kittehs are usually male – Mom read somewhere that 75% of orange tabbies are boys. One of the bebbehs was a dark orange tabby with white toes and a white bib. (He’s the one huddling with the silver tabby in the two previous photos.) Mommy guessed “boy” for this little one. He was also the biggest kitteh in the litter.

Another kitteh was a dark orange tabby – the one who tried to escape with the calico. Mommy also guessed “boy”. His markings were very pretty – bulls eyes and swirls instead of striped lines on his sides.

Another bebbeh was a buff (light orange) tabby, with white toes, a white bib, and a cute little white strip on his nose. Mommy also guessed “boy”. He was one of the last two to be trapped.

As you may know, calico kittehs are ALMOST ALWAYS girls. The Mama was a calico, and since she was the Mama, they knew she was a girl.

One of the kittens was a calico – the one who escaped the cage – and looked almost exactly like the Mama. So Mommy guessed that the bebbeh calico was a girl.

However, calicoes can be males – at the time, one of Mommy’s friends was fostering a MALE calico. It is estimated that only about 1 in 4000 calico kittehs are male. To be calico (or tortie for that matter) a kitteh needs to have two X chromosomes. So male calicoes are XXY – a genetic mutation. Enough science – back to our story.

So that left the silver tabby and the brown tabby. Since both of the silver tabby Furry Bambinos (Angel Clyde and Padre) are boys, Mommy guessed “boy” for this little one. He was also pretty big compared to some of his siblings.

The brown tabby was tough. It was so tiny – must have been the runt of the litter – so based on body size, Mommy guessed “girl”.

However, until Mommy could pick up and handle the bebbehs, she did not want to assign names yet. She started thinking up names though!

Originally, Mommy had thought she had seen SEVEN bebbehs with the Mama. So she and Daddy tried for several more days to trap the remaining bebbeh. They don’t for sure if there were seven since they all moved about so quickly – it was very hard to count them. Mommy thought there might be another calico kitteh – but maybe when she was counting, she thought the Mama, who was very tiny herself, was a bebbeh. They never did catch a seventh bebbeh, and we’ll never really know for sure if there was one.

Next time, we will tell you about naming the bebbehs!

Mama Rose and Her Babies, part 2

Cookie — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:21:09 +0000

Hi Efurrybody! It’s me, Cookie! First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to our furriends here in the U.S.! We hope that you all get as much turkey as you can eat! Just remember, no onions! Onions are toxic to us kittehs. So we won’t be able to eat the stuffing since it has onions in it. Mommy and Daddy are busy cooking, so I thought I would take this opportunity to fill you all in on the next part of the story of Mama Rose and Her Babies.

When we left off last time, Mommy and Daddy were headed next door, armed with humane traps and cat food. They wanted to start trying to trap bebbeh kittehs before they grew up and decided to be scared of people.

When Mom and Dad got next door, Penny and Bob showed Mom and Dad where they saw the kittehs go under the deck. So Mom and Dad put cat food on paper plates and put the plates of food into the traps. But this time, they set the traps to trigger the doors to close when the kittehs stepped on the thingy in the traps.

Mom and Dad went back home and waited nervously. Would the bebbeh kittehs go into the traps?

Just a few minutes later, Penny called Mom. Two kittehs were inside one trap! Mom and Dad raced next door, and found two adorable bebbeh kittehs, frantic to get out of the trap!

At the time, we had four fosters living in the kitten room – Kelly, Michelle, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Kanga. So the new (feral) kitties needed to stay in the room where The-Room-That-Moves sleeps. Mom and Dad call it “the garage”. Mommy had a large cat cage that the people in PAWS refer to as a “condo” that would be a safe place for the feral bebbehs to stay. The condo belongs to someone else in PAWS, but gets loaned out for situations like this.

Mommy and Daddy transferred the two kittehs to the condo and brought the trap next door again and put more cat food inside. As soon as Mommy and Daddy got back home, the phone rang again! Bob called to say that two more bebbeh kittehs had been trapped! So Mommy and Daddy went to get them, and transferred those two bebbehs to the cat condo in the garage.

Mommy and Daddy were very happy to have caught four of the bebbehs so easily! So they brought the trap back next door and set it again. They wanted to catch the rest of the bebbehs before dark. Because after dark, the possums, raccoons, and skunks (!) come out to play. Mommy and Daddy did not think that Penny and Bob would be very happy if a skunk got trapped in their back yard!

So Mom and Dad set the trap and went home again. When Bob and Penny called the next time, the news was not as good. The Mama had gotten caught! Oh noes! They really did not want to trap the Mama until much closer to the scheduled surgery date. Now what would happen?

So Mom called her contacts in PAWS. They said to keep the Mama rather than to release her, because she might never go into the trap again. More cages were needed because the one condo would be too small for everybody. The whole point of trapping the bebbehs was to work with them to try to tame them. There was NO WAY that Mama was going to let her bebbehs get handled if she was in the same cage. And there was NO WAY that Mommy or Daddy was going to put their hands into the cage with the Mama to try to reach for a kitten!

So Mommy and Daddy borrowed three more cage condo thingies to house the feral fambly. Luckily, the weather had not gotten too cold yet, so it was comfortable in the garage. At least it was safe from wind and rain.

The kittens were scared.

Mama was NOT PLEASED to have been trapped. Not happy at all. In fact, she tried to break out of the trap, and hurt herself on her lip and nose.

(Oh, and those are NOT ears growing out of Mama’s butt. Those ears belong to one of the bebbeh kittehs in the next cage.)

But there were still more bebbeh kittehs out there! So after CAREFULLY transferring Mama to a cage, Mommy and Daddy set the trap out once more in Penny and Bob’s back yard. And waited.

By dark, the other bebbehs had not been trapped yet! Mommy and Daddy were worried. What happened to them? Were they hiding under the deck? Had they run away when their Mama got trapped?

Mom and Dad were very sad, but did not want to risk trapping another animal, like a skunk. So they left the traps in Penny and Bob’s yard, with food inside, but set so that the doors would not close.

More next time …

Mama Rose and Her Babies, part 1

Cookie — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:45:27 +0000

Hi Efurryone! It’s me, Cookie! As regular readers know, my sister Caramel and I were Mommy and Daddy’s first two fosters ever! And then we became Mommy and Daddy’s first two failed fosters ever!

The “problem” with failed fosters is that sometimes foster homes decide not to foster again, because of the risk of “failing” again. After Mommy and Daddy adopted Caramel and me, the nice people in the animal rescue group (PAWS) asked Mommy if she would be willing to foster again. They asked Mommy if she would foster “just one” kitten.

Mommy said no.

She said it would be too dangerous to foster “just one” kitten. So she asked for a lot of kittens – and that is when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Joann became fosters. All four babies got adopted into terrific furrever homes!

Since then, we have fostered lots more kittehs – Daisy, Bo, Luke, Niecy, Trish, Antoinette, Beyonce, Kelly, Michelle, Winnie-the-Pooh, Kanga, Hidey, Mr. Bibs, and Dakota. We will tell you stories about them some other time. This time, I will tell you about Mama Rose, and Her Babies. There is so much to tell that I will break the story up into several posts.

This past July, we began seeing Mama Rose in our yard – a calico kitten about 9 or 10 months old. She was usually carrying a mousie in her teeths! Then one day in August, we saw two bebbeh kittehs with her! And then another time, we saw Mama Rose with six or seven bebbehs! So Mommy got busy on the phone, borrowed humane traps, and started feeding Mama and babies in the traps. Dad made sure the traps would not close by using a hanger wire to keep the trap doors open. This was so the kittehs would get comfortable going in and out of the traps.

Mom asked our nice next-door neighbors Penny and Bob not to feed the Mama or the babies, even though they really wanted to! The reason they did this was to ensure that Mama and babies kept visiting us and eating from the traps.

In the meantime, Mom contacted people in PAWS about appointments for Mama to get her ladygardenectomy, and for the babies to have their ladygardenectomies or hoohaectomies. So the original plan was to keep feeding Mama and babies until the day before their scheduled surgeries.

However, the scheduled appointments were still about three weeks away. Mom and Dad were concerned that the older the kittens got without human contact, the harder it would be to tame them. They had learned from fostering Hidey and Mr. Bibs that by three months of age, feral kittens are REALLY hard to “flip” and may not ever decide to trust humans.

It was really hard to guess how old the kittens were since Mommy and Daddy could not get close to them. So, on Saturday, September 18th, when our nice next-door neighbor Penny called Mom to tell her that the kittens were hanging out on the deck in their back yard, Mom knew what she had to do.

She and Daddy brought the two traps and some cat food next door, in hopes of trapping as many babies as they could.

To be continued …

Baby Pictures!

Panda Bear — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:23:41 +0000

In our final Birthday Post for Cookie and Caramel’s First Birthday, we decided to post some Baby Pictures! We must warn you, you may need to protect your ears from excessively loud SQUEE-ing on the part of your humans.

OK, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Mom got the photos from Mama Gina, the kittens original human Mom. The photos are labelled as Kittens with a number after it, so we think the number is the number of days old the kittens are in the photo.

On day 1, this is the four babies (all females). Caramel is the one on the top of the photo, and Cookie is underneath the pile. You can just see her gold flame mark on her forehead.

This next photo shows the four little girls at day 15. Cookie is on the far right at the top, and Caramel is at the far right on the bottom.

This day 21 photo shows the girls nursing and shnuggling with their biological Mom. Caramel is looking directly at the camera. Caramel was exhibiting her Diva-in-Training qualities from a young age. Cookie is above Caramel – just look for the gold flame mark on her forehead.

Get ready to SQUEE efurryone! This next photo on day 36 shows three of the girls cuddling together. Again, Caramel is looking at the camera. Notice that her eyes are still blue and not their gold color! And you can see her gold toe on her left front paw! Cookie is at the bottom of the pile, in the foreground of the photo. Note how large her gold flame mark looks compared to how tiny her little head is! Their sister kitteh (grey kitteh on the left with her chin on Cookie’s back) has a gold flame mark on her forehead, too.

This final photo, taken day 48, shows little Cookie looking into the camera. Oh my SQUEE! Isn’t she just ADORABLE?! Look how blue her eyes are at this age!

* * * * *

Caramel and Cookie say: “Thank you so much for attending our Coming-Out Party! We enjoyed meeting all of you! Mom is happy to make a nice donation to the Humane Society thanks to all of your comments! You can continue to comment on any and all of our birthday blog posts through next Wednesday to be included in the count toward the donation. We will be thanking each of you purrsonally over the next few days by visiting your blogs!”

Please leave us a comment to tell us you were here! In honor of The Girls’ birthday, Mom is going to donate $1 (US) to the Humane Society of the United States for each comment received on any of their birthday blog posts. All comments must be received by 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

In addition, one lucky winner will receive a Gift Certificate to The Animal Rescue Site store! To enter, leave us a comment on any of The Girls’ birthday posts! One chance per household will be entered. We will have one of us draw the name of the winner on Thursday, March 11, 2010, in the evening EST. All comments must be received by 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

Party On, Dudes!