Christine (Mommy’s good friend and advisor in PAWS) reminded Mommy about using positive reinforcement with the magical elixir, food of the Gods, Gerber’s Chick-hen Bebbeh Food:

(Turkey flavor will also do. Just read the label to make sure there are no onions!) So, each time Mommy picked up a bebbeh kitteh and held him or her, Mommy dipped her finger in bebbeh food, and let the bebbeh kitteh lick it off her finger. The bebbehs loved the bebbeh food!!! They began to associate getting held with getting bebbeh food.

Eventually, Mommy was able to figure out that this little one is a boy, so she named him Sky.

It is therapeutic to start out taming feral kittehs by keeping them in a cage. However, you must move them into a larger space at some point in order to continue working with them. The next step was getting the kittehs to trust Mommy and Daddy enough to come to them. When Mommy reached into a cage to pick up a kitteh, it did not serve this purpose.

Luckily, we have a foster kitteh room (AKA The Mohawk and Clyde Shrine) that is perfect for this. Once our current fosters had been adopted into great homes, Mommy and Daddy moved the feral bebbehs into the foster room. After a few days, the bebbehs became comfortable in the room, so Mommy and Daddy started to “make the bebbehs work for their bebbeh food”.

This meant that Mommy or Daddy would start out by bringing a finger covered in bebbeh food to the kitteh to lick. The next taste, Mommy or Daddy would put a finger just out of the kitteh’s reach, forcing the kitteh to work up the courage to come a little bit closer. Mommy and Daddy kept this up until the kitteh was very close to them.

Before the bebbeh realized what was happening, they were touching Mommy or Daddy!

Once the bebbehs became comfortable approaching Mommy and Daddy for bebbeh food, The Kitten Whisperer (Daddy) got to work teaching the bebbehs how to play with toys.

Daddy chose to use toys that let the still-timid bebbehs keep their distance. For example, he started by using the orange boa toy on a stick. Daddy waved the toy around, and the bebbeh kittehs had fun playing with the boa. The three bravest kittehs were Woody, Marigold, and Rusty.

Hiii-yaaaa!

Mommy taught the kittehs how to play with the trackball toy. Again, that is Rusty, Marigold, and Woody having a high old time whapping the little ball in the track.

After several days of this, with all the baby food as rewards, and the fun games, some of the bebbehs began to trust Mommy and Daddy. This is Rusty, Woody, Hunter, and Marigold with Daddy’s legs.

Sky and his brother Sunny (Mommy was finally able to determine his gender) were still much more timid than their siblings. They both still hissed a lot, at Mommy and Daddy as well as at their siblings. Woody and Hunter got big hiss from Mr. Airplane Ears, Sky.

Sunny and Sky both still flattened their ears a lot. Sunny spent most playtimes cooped up in his pink Man Kitten Tent.

Mommy had read that not all feral kittehs from the same litter will tame at the same rate. She read that she should continue to work with the shyer bebbehs, and to be patient as they took their time getting used to people.

Next time: How to give a pill to a feral kitteh! You don’t want to miss this one! Complete with video!

and me, Caramel!

Today, we become Young Lady Cats, as we are now One Year Old! Today, I officially graduate from “Diva-in-Training” to “Diva”! I am so happy! Cookie is delighted to be a Young Lady Cat as well!

Please make yourselves at home! We have food and beverages (please drink responsibly),

nip (please use nip responsibly, unlike Panda Bear as shown here),

toys,

cozy napping spots,

treats,

fun and games,

friends and companionship!

We received some very lovely gifts from Mom and Dad, and we are happy to share with you!

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

Enjoy the Party, Efurryone! Stop by tomorrow to see what Panda Bear gave Cookie and me as Birthday Gifts!

sorry about that last post efurryone.  we have had two fosters boarders introoders living here at Casa Furry Bambino for the past week.  while they were here, they hijacked our blog.

mom explained to me (blah blah blah …) that these kittehs are called “fosters” and that we are “paying it forward” by letting them stay with us while they wait for their furrever home.  just like how someone fostered us furry bambinos before we came to live here.

what-evvvverrrrrrrrrrr.

the pipsqueaks are off at boarding school right now (Parma PetSmart).  yay!!!  we have the house to ourselves again!  while they were here, there was a gate at the top of the stairs, and that really put a crimp on our games of thundering herds of elephants.

panda bear and i were especially annoyed at the placement of gates that restricted our air space.  panda bear is a very clever escape artist, so the gates didn’t last long before mom and dad gave up.

the only good thing about them being here is that we scored some cool new cat toys out of the deal.

in other news, the neighbors next door have multiple barky dogs that are disturbing my beauty sleep.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreehhh!

I am Caramel! My sister Cookie and I are staying here at Casa Furry Bambino while we await our furrever homes! We sure hope that we will be adopted together! Here’s our story so far.

It was a cold and snowy winter day when our MamaKitty was taken inside by a very nice lady and man. Our MamaKitty, unbeknownst to the lady and man, was about to have kittens! US!! And our two sisters, four girl kitties in all. Our MamaKitty, along with MamaGina (the nice lady) and PapaRomie (the nice man) took furry good care of us while we were babies.

But now we are big girls! This is my glamour shot.

And this is a photo of Cookie. You can see where her tummy was shaved. On Wednesday, Cookie and I went to the V-E-T and had our ladygardenectomies.

We are three months old now, and ready to find furrever homes. So MamaGina and PapaRomie brought us here to Casa Furry Bambino. MamaSue and PapaDave are very nice people, too. Apparently, they are part of a rescue group called PAWS.

MamaSue and PapaDave gave us our very own apartment! We have food and water, comfy beds, and did I mention toys? I just can’t get enough of this red and white sock toy. The green mousie is way cool, too. And MamaGina made sure to remember to bring us our favorite ball chew toy.

Apparently, there are three other kitties who live with MamaSue and PapaDave. We are borrowing their blog to tell the world about us! Bye for now!

So, let’s start getting caught up, kitties!

Now that Kilroy and the Love Beasties have received their super-duper prize package, I can write about my shopping trip!

In honor of our Gotchaversary, we held a big prize drawing.  One of the prizes was a big load of goodies from my favorite shopping place, Coventry Cats.

So, Mommy picked me up and off we went!  Daddy went along too to document the whole adventure!  Here we are leaving the house.  I’m such a good kitty, I don’t need a traveling box PTU!  I like Mommy’s shoulder!

I’ve got the whole back seat to myself and I’m all excited to go!  Vamos Amigos!

Daddy felt I should have a better view, so I tried sitting in his lap for a short while.  I need my own steering wheel!

Ooh!  Oooh!  I saw a squirrel!  Let me out!  Let me out!

Hey, the view is better from the back seat!  I saw two vishus deer!  Mommy stopped and let the vishus deer cross the road before we started moving again.

I like the back ledge.  I can see in all directions from here.  “Hey, Mom, stop making so many stops!  You keep rocking me off the ledge.”

Yay!  Our final destination.  Mommy parked up high.  Now we gets to cross the street!

All ready to go inside!  I can’t wait to go shopping for my friends!

I like the nice owner lady.  She gave me good scritches and pointed me in the direction of the fun toys!

Before doing any official shopping, I made sure to indulge myself in a little exploring.  I am a good hider, but Mommy and Daddy still found me!  That dang blue leash gave me away.

Okay, time to get shopping.  There’s so much to pick from!  Oooh, this mousie is good.  I think I’ll get this for Kilroy and the crew.  Maybe they’ll throw it around into their food dish or something.

I have no idea who these ladees are, but they affectionated me and called me “gorgeous”.  I gave them my best flirty eye, and they went wild.  I love my public.

I needed to do some further investigation.  There’s great things to sniff!  The whole store smells like catnip.

This guy works with the owner lady.  He caught me sniffing behind the counter and investigating the ‘behind-the-scenes’ operations when I took a break from shopping.

These are some of the wonderful prizes I choosified for Kilroy and crew.  I gots chew toys for Leah and Sadie and stuff for Kilroy and Macy including a bag of catnip, and a catnip bananer.

Oops, Mom.  They don’t accept my “Mastercat” card.  Would you pay for me?  Please, pretty please?

That was a fun adventure at Coventry Cats!  But we still had to buy a few more things!  Mommy and I posed on the street.  Aren’t I cute?

Daddy had been taking my pictures the whole time, so I asked Mommy to take my picture with him to prove that he was there too!  Dis was taken in the room that moves.

Soon we was back on the road.  I told Mommy to take us to the place we was adopted from because they has the bestest selection of Temptatshuns!  Here I am on my perch watching the scenery go by!

After a while, I was getting a little dizzy, so I decided to lay low in the bottomest portion of the room that moves.  Mommy says hoomans puts their footies here.

Mommy was driving too slow for my liking so I yelled at her to drive faster!

Finally!  We arrived at my second shopping place.  This one is Petsmart, and itz the place Mommy and Daddy adopted us from through PAWS. Oooh, looky at all the perchy places they have.  Mommy let me climb all around!  Can we gets one of these, Mommy, please???

I liked this one the bestest of them all.  Nice and high!  Right at Mommy’s face level!  I could see me, and Meerkat and Padre really enjoying this one!

Here are some fellow kitties.  These is young ones.  I hope they find a forever home soon just like we did!

Look at all the wonderful treats!

Ah-ha!  Finally the Temptashuns!  Mommy let me sniff around for the bestest ones to buy for Kilroy and the crew!

Daddy said the freshest ones were in the back, so that’s where I went looking.  I investigated the expire dates on all the packages and found the freshest ones for  my friends!

Mommy thought I was spending waaaayyy too much time back there, so she decided to spoil my fun and catch me.  I wuz starting to get tired anyways.

This was a long shopping trip!  I was really starting to feel tired after all this excitement, so I asked Mommy and Daddy to take me home.

Finally, we arrived home.  I wuz so tired, Mommy had to carry me in.

And that was my big shopping trip!  It was a tiring day, but I kept my promise to do my shopping trip to celebrate our Gotchaversary.  I really like all the good things Kilroy wrote about our prize package.  It looks like they all had fun and I am happy they liked everything!
 

Today is the Anniversary of our Adoption Day!!!  You are never going to believe what we got as a present…

…

Mom and Dad gave us a CAR!!!

We Furry Bambinos have been here in our furrever home for exactly one year!!!  We are so happy to be here, that we decided a great way to celebrate would be to have a CONTEST and a PAR-TAY!

The CONTEST will be two drawings for prizes.  One prize will be an all-expenses paid shopping spree to Coventry Cats.  Panda Bear will do the shopping, based on your personal preferences.  Shopping spree amount to be determined, based approximately on the number of entrants, like $1 per entrant.

The other prize will be a donation to a U.S. shelter or rescue group of your choosing.  Amount of donation to be determined, based approximately on the number of entrants, like $1 per entrant.  The drawings will be on Wednesday, October 22 at 9:30 pm EDT.  Leave a note in the comments if you want to enter. Deadline to enter is 6:00 pm EDT tonight, Wednesday, October 22.

PAR-TAY starts at 9:00 am EDT, and lasts until the last kitty goes home.  All are welcome!  There will be toys and games!

There will be lots of food, and naps, and nip!

Stop by for our party!  Enter our contest!  Take our car for a spin!

To help celebrate, we decided to hold a contest. During our party, Mom and Dad will select a winner by drawing names from a hat (or food bowl, you get the idea).

There will be two prizes!

One prize is a “shopping spree” at our favorite cat specialty store, Coventry Cats. You may remember when I went to Coventry Cats myself for their 20th birthday party. If possible (Mom and Dad have to agree to this) I will personally select your items by going to Coventry Cats! There is also a “Canine Corner” section for woofies. But the store mostly focuses on cat stuff.

The other prize will be a donation to a pet rescue shelter of your choice. Umm, the shelter must be a legitimate U.S. shelter or rescue group, not something called “Padre’s Catnip Rescue” or “Meerkat’s Toy Shelter”.

Rules: If you would like to participate, leave your name in the comments. You don’t have to have a blog to enter. Cats, woofies, buns, hamsters, other furries are eligible. One entry per household per contest. So, this means that you can sign up for either or both contests. Exact amount of shopping spree and donation to be determined. Maybe based on the number of contestants, like $1 spree per entrant. It’s our contest and we can change the rules if we want to.

Drawing will be made on Wednesday, October 22, 2008, at about 9:30 pm EDT, which is approximately when we got to our furrever home last year.

In other news, tomorrow is Mom and Dad’s anniversary. I hope that they don’t get all mushy and kissy, and expect us to give them kissies. Yuk!

at first mommy was worried that something had happened to panda bear and me.  but then even with the lights off mommy could see that panda bear and i were on a mission.  (cue the mission impossible music)

mouse patrol, part deux!!

so daddy turned on the lights in the fambly room.  i had the mousie in my mouth.  next, i bunnykicked the mousie, threw the mousie across the room, and grabbed it again for more bunnykicking and throwing.  panda bear watched my technique closely.

i guess i was a little too rough with all the games i was playing with the mousie.  by the time mommy and daddy got home, the mousie was a little bit dead.  sorry mousie!

mommy spoke to gramma and grampa today on the talkie thingy.  she told them that millie’s mom is done making gramma’s quilt and will be mailing it soon.  mommy also told gramma and grampa the story about the mousie.  grampa said it was a case of “the mousie being at the wrong place at the wrong time”.

mommy and daddy feel very sorry for the mousie.  normally mommy and daddy catch the mousies and release them outdoors.  mommy refers to the mousies as “the lenten mice” because the mousies tend to come inside the house during lent.  probably because there is usually snow on the ground and they are looking for food.

now mommy and daddy are calling me “killer”.

who, me?  (wide-eyed innocent look) 

This was our first Christmas in our furrever home at Casa Cabán. First, Mommy and Daddy felt the need to take our pictures.  Mommy and Daddy made us dress up for the occasion. They made Panda Bear wear a jester’s collar with jingle bells.  (snicker)

Meerkat had to wear a red muffler with big fuzzy white balls.  Meerkat and Panda Bear do look cute sitting together on their Gizzy Quilts on the rolling foot stool thingy.  They look so different from each other, but they are siblings.

Oh, the indignity of it all …  they made me wear a Santa Hat. (Note how pretty my blue Gizzy Quilt is. If you want to learn more about Gizzy Quilts, check out the Bizzy for Gizzy web site.)

The photo shoot completely exhausted us, so we caught up on our napping.  We had to be well rested for the rest of the day’s festivities.  Meerkat slept on the rolling foot stool thingy next to our stockings.  (Mommy was afraid to hang our stockings from the mantel.  Something about a certain male kitten in the house who has a fetish with dangly things.)

Panda Bear chose to sleep under the tree among the presents.

I slept in a basket that Mommy and Daddy said used to belong to “Clyde”.  Mommy and Daddy were all weepy because they said I looked just like Clyde in the basket.

After we got all rested, then we started opening presents!  I got this really cool catnip sock that Panda Bear kept trying to steal from me.

Panda Bear gave a good sniff to his toys.

Meerkat had fun playing with the neato pink boa toy:

Panda Bear and me sniffing the neato pink boa toy:

Meerkat gave the DVD of Season One of “Meerkat Manor” to Mommy.  Note how Meerkat is posing just like the picture of the meerkat on the box.  Doesn’t Mommy look happy?

We had a wonderful Christmas, and it was the very first Christmas for the kittens.  We are all very grateful for having such a great furrever home!

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Kwanzaa Efurryone!

Check this out:

Mom and Dad left us alone Saturday night, and at first I thought it was because I had woken them up so early. Apparently they went to visit Mom’s family in Pennsylvanicat for Saturday and came back home on Sunday.

Well, Monday was Christmas Eve, and I was seriously doubting if we would get to have a Christmas tree. I had seen such beautiful looking Christmas trees on other cats’ blogs, but it looked like it wasn’t going to happen for us here.

But then! Daddy went to the basement and dragged up these huge plastic tubs and began putting pieces together. Naturally, Padre and I offered to help:

Meerkat chose to catch up on her napping, so she didn’t get to see it until Daddy and Mommy finished putting it together:

It is so cool!! Look how high I can climb in it!!

Daddy got a closeup picture of me, too!

Mommy and Daddy said something about being “glad they didn’t put ornaments on the tree this year”.  I think it was a slight against me because I think they mean the dangling things that I like to play with.  Daddy’s mommy gave us some ringy-dingy dangling things for the tree.  Daddy put them way up high in the tree so the tree goes “ringy-dingy, ringy-dingy” when Meerkat and I go climbing.  We like to try to bat the ringy-dingy objects.

We LOVE this new cat toy!  Best of all, it take up lots of space in the room and it’s all ours!