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!!!

So The Cat Blogosphere came together to change NO CATS DAY to MO CATS DAY and decided to celebrate every 09/09.

At present, there are 14 felines in the house.  You read that right kittehs, one-four, quatorze, catorce, XIV.  As you may know, there are 7 of us Furry Bambinos:

Padre (that’s me)

Panda Bear

Meerkat

Cookie

Caramel

Sunny

Sky

And we presently have 7 foster kittens staying here at Furry Bambino Foster Academy.

Jett (with sister Joan watching)

Panda

Domino

Louisa

Kurt

Brigitta

Marta

Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, and Marta’s Mom Liesl is being fostered at our sister academy:

And, we have two outdoor feral kittehs who show up for dinner just about daily:

Mama

Daddy.  (We STRONGLY suspect that Daddy is Sunny and Sky’s biological father. Mom and Dad trapped him this summer and he got his hoohaectomy.)

And then there are all the fosters who have graduated from The Furry Bambino Foster Academy in the past year, since Mo Cats Day 2010!  I don’t know if I can count that high … it’s about elebenty squillion.

Dakota

This is Marigold, now called Mia by her adoptive family.

Rusty

Woody (adopted with Rusty)

Hunter (just look at those toes!)

Silver

Rico

Lilia (renamed Karen), adopted with Vitaly

Vitaly (renamed Jack), adopted with Lilia

Nadia, adopted with Bart

Bart, adopted with Nadia

Joan (renamed Lursa), adopted with Braveheart

Braveheart (renamed B’Etor), adopted with Joan

Friedrich (renamed Furball)

Gretl (renamed Teeka)

And last but not least, Ones Who Came Before: Clyde

… and Mohawk, AKA “Mo”, the Mo-iest Mo Cat of all!

Happy Mo Cats Day, everykitteh! Purrs!

This is what we looked like as newborns:

As Meerkat mentioned in her most recent post, Mom and Dad dragged the rug-sucking monsters around the house, and REMOVED ALL OUR FURS. Especially from the Cat Trees in the Fambly Room. As you can see in the photo below, I am very distraught about this turn of events.

Please join us for a Birthday ReFurring Party! Even though it is still winter here, we are sure that if efurryone sheds just a little, we will have the cat trees back to normal in no time!

Even if you don’t have furs, or don’t shed much, please come and enjoy the party!

We have food,

fountain drinks for the kittens and adult cat beverages for the big kittehs,

treats,

toys,

more toys,

nip

and napping spots!

Lots of napping spots!

Plus ample facilities for when you need to answer the call of nature. No long lines like at the ladies room at rock concerts!

There are two sets of stairs for games of Thundering Herds of Elephants! Each set of stairs has a landing and a turn for added interest and difficulty.

Please join us, and be prepared to SHED!!!  (Furless Cats Welcome, too!)

Purrs,

Ms. Floofs (Caramel)

and Cookie

Clyde was a Big ManCat.

BIG.

He was sweet with a gentle soul.

Forever Loved.

Forever Missed.

Until we meet again …

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?!

Today is the anniversary of the day that Clyde came into our lives, back in 1992.  We adopted Clyde as a tiny kitten, and compared to our other cat Mohawk, Clyde was “little one”.  Clyde soon outgrew Mohawk, weighing nearly twice as much!

We adopted Clyde on a sunny spring Saturday.  David drove while Clyde frantically tried to get out of the cardboard carrier box.  When I let Clyde out “just for a minute”, Clyde immediately scrambled over to David and climbed into his lap.  Clyde loved David completely from Day One.  He loved me, too, but he had an especially strong bond with “Daddy”.  He always had such a sweet expression on his face.

Clyde taught us how to play fetch with him.  We got a yellow plastic spinny toy that looked like a wheel out of a cereal box.  When we rolled it across the floor, Clyde would go running after it, retrieve it in his mouth, carry it back to us while yodeling (“mrrooww, mrrooww-ooo”). Then Clyde would drop his toy into an empty Kleenex box.  That was our cue to congratulate him and then send it spinning again across the room.

Clyde reallly liked to help me with my classwork. Although I worked full time, I occasionally took some classes at the university where I worked.  Clyde would assist me while I studied.  This photo is Clyde posing with a college dictionary.  Note the serious expression on his face.

We originally adopted Clyde as a companion to our cat Mohawk, but Clyde soon asserted himself as Top Cat.  Despite this pecking order between Mohawk and Clyde, it was Clyde who was the timid one when guests arrived.  Clyde would make himself scarce as soon as the apartment buzzer rang.

Clyde really liked to spend time with us, and would follow us from room to room.  Luckily, Clyde usually would sit nearby, rather than ON our lap.  He was just too big for my lap!

Clyde also liked to assist with laundry.  We have lots of photos of Clyde in laundry baskets, among clean laundy.  This photo is one of our favorites.

In the picture above, you can clearly see Clyde’s white “foofles”.  Foofles are the area on a cat’s face just below the nose and above the upper lip.  Clyde’s foofles are white.  Clyde’s other really cool facial marking are his extra set of “eyes” above his real eyes.  When Clyde’s real eyes were closed, it looked like his “extra eyes” were open.  Clyde’s “extra eyes” are the white and black markings just above his real eyes.  See what I mean?  Do any of you tabbies out there have “extra eyes”?

Clyde was an unusually talkative cat.  He especially enjoyed conversing with us while we prepared his meals. In fact, his whole mealtime routine made Snoopy’s suppertime dance seem pathetic. Clyde would begin by rubbing up against us, sashaying back and forth, and rubbing the can of stinky goodness with his chin.  He would sing to us, and when we responded with a comment or question, Clyde would continue the conversation.  We had to feed Mohawk and Clyde separately because Clyde would just about inhale whatever we fed him, then go after Mohawk’s food.  Dr. Keith, one of the V-E-T’s the kitties have seen, refers to this as being a “food bully”.  But he was just a really big boy with a huge appetite.

The Furry Bambinos have Clyde to thank for their own adoptions.  After Clyde went to the Rainbow Bridge in February 2007, it took us awhile before we were ready to consider adopting again.  We made a visit to our local PetSmart to flirt with the kitties in the adoption area.  That’s when we saw Padre.  Because of his resemblance to Clyde, we were all mushy about him.  Diana, one of the PAWS rescue group’s volunteers, and Padre’s foster mom, asked those famous last words: “Would you like to pet him?”

We fell in love with Padre, but remembered our desire to adopt two siblings.  Enter Panda Bear and Meerkat.  Panda Bear, always the outgoing one, pawed at us through his cage.  When we opened the cage door, Meerkat hung back, but Panda Bear literally leapt into my arms.  We were not sure we wanted to go from having zero cats to having three cats.  The main concern I had was would the three cats get along with each other.  The main concern David had was would my allergies and asthma handle such an abrupt furry transition.  We debated and discussed, went for a drive, came back later, and filled out the application to adopt all three kitties.

So it’s because of Padre’s resemblance to Clyde that The Furry Bambinos are now part of our fambly.  Thanks for indulging me while I honor Clyde’s memory today.

Although we adopted him as a tiny kitten, Clyde grew to be a very large cat. You could tell even when he was a kitten that he would get big. Just look at the size of those paws!

The nickname “Little One” we gave him as a kitten seemed odd once Clyde got to be full-grown, but we still called him that.

Clyde, along with Mohawk, were the original “Furry Bambinos”.

One year ago today, Clyde went to the Rainbow Bridge. He was struggling with lung cancer, and he decided that it was his time to go.

David and I adopted Clyde as a tiny kitten in May 1992.

At the time, I spent long days away from home at work. So I thought that our 1 1/2 year old cat Mohawk wanted a companion.

Clyde was about 8 weeks old when he came into our lives, through an acquaintance named Barbara. Barbara ran a popular card store in downtown Cleveland. I frequently shopped there on my way home from work. One day I mentioned to Barbara that I was thinking of adopting a kitten as a companion to my cat Mohawk. Barbara said that her neighbor’s cat had recently had kittens, and they were ready to be adopted.

David and I picked up Clyde on Saturday, May 2, 1992 at Barbara’s house. Barbara told us that one of her own cats was a sibling of Clyde’s from a former litter. Barbara said that this mother cat’s kittens often grew up to be very large cats. It was hard to imagine at that point, since Clyde was small enough to fit inside your hand.

I had spoken to Mohawk’s veterinarian the evening before about adopting Clyde. Because I did not know Clyde’s feline leukemia status, Dr. D. recommended keeping Clyde and Mohawk separated until Clyde could be tested.

At the time, I lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland Heights. The only places I could close off were the bedroom and bathroom, and neither of those would work. The bedroom was out because of my allergies to cat litter. The bathroom was out because that’s where Mohawk’s litter box was.

Desperate, I finally settled on keeping Clyde in (this is going to sound terrible, but let me explain), ahem, the living room closet.

My apartment had a huge living room closet that contained both an overhead light and a window. The closet was about 5 feet long by 3 feet deep, and the ceiling was about 10 feet high. Much bigger than a cage in a shelter, for sure.

I set up a feeding area, play area, sleeping area, and a litter box in the closet. And Clyde was so tiny at that point. He could fit inside your hand (or a Kleenex box)!

Luckily, after a few days of living in the closet, Clyde’s feline leukemia test results came back negative. Clyde was able “to come out of the closet”!

 Although Clyde sometimes got on Mohawk’s nerves, he mostly just wanted to have a friend to play with. Eventually Mohawk and Clyde came to an understanding, and often napped, played, and hunted bugs together.

Clyde loved Mohawk, and tried to imitate him. Mohawk was very adept at balancing on the sink to drink from the faucet. Clyde grew to be much bigger than Mohawk, and therefore needed to adjust the technique used for getting a drinkie from the sinkie. Often, Clyde ended up with a wet head, but he was not deterred.

One of Clyde’s many nicknames was “Little One” since he was so tiny when we first adopted him.

Clyde and David shared a special bond.  As a kitten, Clyde liked to stand on David’s shoulders.

When Clyde grew too big to stand just on a shoulder, Clyde would stand on David’s back.

Well, “Little One” eventually grew into a full-size cat weighing 19 pounds! And he was not obese, just a really long, big mancat. Clyde could stand on the floor on his hind legs and see over the dining room table.  Here is a photo of me holding Clyde:

See how long he was? However, even though he was a physically big cat, he was a scared little kitten when it came to things like new people and new homes. Clyde HATED HATED HATED to ride in the car. He meowed frantically the whole drive anywhere in the car, barely stopping to breathe in-between meows.

Clyde was very sweet. After David and I were married and moved in together, we noticed that if one of us left to go to work, run an errand, etc., Clyde would roam around the apartment looking for the missing person. Clyde YODELED the whole time, while carrying his favorite blue and pink furry ball in his mouth. Clyde would leave the ball at the spot where he last saw us, near one of the doors.

Clyde really enjoyed helping us make dinner, especially if tuna was involved. He loved tuna juice, tuna, salmon, chicken, and turkey. Clyde could also tell time. At precisely 11:00 am on the weekends, Clyde would sing and carry on for one of his favorite treats: chicken or turkey baby food.

Clyde also helped me when I baked. He loved to lick the lid from the sweetened condensed milk can. He liked to beg for people food. We used to call him “The Great Grey Shark” becuase Clyde used to do laps around the dining room table as a hint that he should be fed what we were eating.

To read Clyde’s obituary that we sent to family and friends, please see “the humans’ blog“.

There are also other stories about Clyde on the humans’ blog.

While we miss Clyde very much, we are grateful for the almost 15 wonderful years we spent with him. He lives on in our memories.