Samoa came into our life in April of 2015.  She was rescued by a dear friend from Slavic Village, along with her four kittens, whom we named Ginger Snap, Peanut Butter, S’mores, and Thin Mint.  S’mores is the only girl and her tortie markings look just like her Mom Samoa!  Ginger Snap is an orange tabby, Peanut Butter is white with orange tabby markings, and Thin Mint is solid black. This first photo is from our first meeting with Samoa and her 2-day old kittens. The second photo is just a week later, and her kittens have grown so much that they look like they are smothering her tiny 7-pound body.

In addition to her own litter of four kittens, Samoa cared for four “Cowboy Kittens” (Cassidy, Clementine, Harlee, and Sadie) for a few days until their Mama Mae West was rescued, and could resume her motherly duties. Mae West was particularly elusive, and now resides with a dear friend.

No sooner than Mae West began nursing her four Cowgirls, than a 2-day-old kitten abandoned by his mother was found in the Waterloo neighborhood. We named this kitten, Snickerdoodle, and he was readily welcomed by Samoa into her little family. Snickerdoodle is mostly white with orange tabby markings, and closely resembles Peanut Butter, so he really looked like part of the family!

Finally came the “Charlie Angels” kittens.  Although Jaclyn Fluff, Farrah Fluff Major, and Kate Fluffson did not resemble Samoa or her own babies, they were also lovingly accepted by Samoa and treated as her own. The three black and white tuxedo kittens were rescued from the home of dear friends who have their own little feral family in their garden. By rescuing the tuxie girls, the hope was to give them safe and loving indoor homes, so they were rescued as young kittens close to weaning so they would be easier to socialize.

Samoa was a good Mom (and surrogate Mom) to a total of 12 kittens … patient with her kittens’ antics, and training her babies how to be Good Cats.

While confined to the “back kitten room” (back bedroom), Samoa gradually became comfortable with Sue and would allow Sue to pet her on rare occasions. Samoa would rub against Sue’s legs and was pleased to accept treats. However, Samoa was still easily startled and would hiss loudly when Sue or David moved too quickly or without advance notice.

The orange marking over her left eye made Samoa appear as if she was always raising her left eyebrow at us, as if to ask “What now?”

Over time, after Samoa raised her babies and they started to get adopted, we let her into Gen Pop (gave her full run of the house) with The Furry Bambinos.  Samoa was still a foster with us, and would hide when we needed to take her to adoption events.  Finally, David stated the obvious as we rode to the third consecutive adoption event without Samoa because we could not catch her.  “We may have just adopted our eighth Bambino.”  Shortly thereafter, we discussed it over dinner and concluded that she was happy here with us.  “Let’s just adopt her.”  And that’s how Samoa officially became a Furry Bambino, in early 2016.

Samoa (aka “Shmo”) fit in with The Furry Bambinos very easily.  She seemed content to be the low girl on the totem pole of the cat hierarchy.  She stood in the background and didn’t seem to care if she was the last one to be fed treats.  She never started fights, and always used the litter boxes.   She regularly helped the other Bambinos on “Bird Patrol” and “Squirrel Patrol” from her favorite position in one of the “tubes” of the cat furniture.

She also liked to explore.  A few times a week we could guarantee hearing a loud “thump” coming from the basement.  It was usually Samoa landing on the washing machine after jumping down from exploring the crawl space under the family room. She would emerge with her whiskers covered in cobwebs, then dash off upstairs.

For a long time, she would only eat breakfast by poking her head out from the chair covers in the dining room.

But over time, Samoa became more comfortable and would eat out in the open.  During our morning feeding routines, she began to occasionally brush up against David’s legs, and he got so he could stroke Samoa across her head and back after giving her a food dish.

The rest of the time, Samoa usually kept her distance from us.  If we came within more than 24 inches of her, she would abruptly dash off to another part of the house.  She would sniff a hand extended to her, but we had to move slowly, or else risk a loud snake-like hiss of fear before she dashed off. There were a few rare occasions that Samoa would snuggle with Sue on the sofa.

Samoa made friends with Panda Bear, our friendly tuxedo cat.  All the cats in the house, and especially our fosters and former fosters, love Panda Bear.  Samoa would walk beside him, brush up against him repeatedly, sleep beside him in the front window or on Sue’s legs on the sofa, and eat next to him.

In Samoa’s last nights with us, we had her sequestered to a large cage in our family room so we could closely monitor her and care for her.  Panda Bear walked into her cage, and even in her weakened state Samoa reached her head over to brush against him.

Samoa also had become a play friend for little Farrah Fluff (another new Furry Bambino, c. 2016).  Samoa and Fluff would chase each other the length of the house, back and forth, chomp on each other and bunny kick each other’s heads, and then dash off with wild abandon.  They both seemed to enjoy the play time.

On Sunday evening, the night before Samoa passed, Farrah Fluff reached a paw into Samoa’s cage to tap (maybe pet?) Samoa on the head, and then came around from another angle to tap her friend on the side.  Fluff was obviously checking in with her friend to see how she was doing.

We are so happy we chose to adopt Samoa.  We were honored to have been Samoa’s guardians for the relatively short time she was with us. We did our best to keep her well fed, safe, and happy despite her efforts to avoid us.

We wish we had known earlier that she was ill.  Cats have a way of hiding their illnesses until it’s too late to save them.  It’s so frustrating to know we might have done more for her.  We had her at the veterinarian on Saturday, and by late Monday afternoon she was gone. Sue has the lyrics of the Hall and Oates song “She’s Gone” running on a loop in her head.

It’s amazing that such a little cat could leave such a big hole in our hearts.  We hope that Samoa will be waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge. When we get too close, she will probably dash off to hide.  So long as we see her there, that’s all that matters.

Until we meet again, Sweet Samoa.  We love you!

It’s Me, Padre, Elder StatesCat of The Furry Bambinos!

Five years ago today, Mom and Dad adopted me (Padre), and siblings Panda Bear and Meerkat from this great place!

All three of us are Rescues!  We were rescued by the Northeast Ohio animal rescue group PAWS (Public Animal Rescue Society).  We are very grateful to have a safe, loving, and forever home now! Special Thanks to Diana (my Foster Mom), and Eileen (Panda Bear and Meerkat’s Foster Mom)!

This is me on Adoption Day, sniffing the couch:

This is Meerkat on Adoption Day, sniffing the bed:

This is Panda Bear, sniffing a glass of water, on October 23, 2007:

This is all three of us together, at dinner time, on October 27, 2007:

Purrs!

Padre

Pee. Ess.  I would appreciate if you could spare a few purrs for me. On Saturday I got shoved into the PTU and hauled off to the Emergency V-E-T. (All because of a little tocks problem.) I am home now, and being kept separated from the other Furry Bambinos. I am lonely, and have been yodeling my displeasure. I may need to visit the regular V-E-T today.

That’s me in the tube, and Sky down below.

Today is a Big Birthday! Sky and I are two years old today! You may remember that there are six of us in this litter, so that means our sister (Marigold) and brothers (Hunter, Rusty, and Woody) are two years old today too! Hunter is in Dad’s lap, and that’s Woody, Rusty, Marigold, and Sky on the floor. They were enjoying a snack of Baby Food! The photo is from October 2010 when we were about 3 months old.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy! Mama Rose (feral) still visits us every day and hangs out on the porch. Human Mom and Dad feed her every single day.

You can all come over for a Game of Thundering Herds of Elephants, enjoy some Stinky Goodness, People Tuna, People Salmon, Niptinis and Meowgaritas (milk for the kittens), and enjoy some Nap Action when you want to rest.

Thanks for visiting us! Be sure to visit The Tabby Cat Club today to see photos of our Birthday Toesies!

I was trapped by The Lady and The Man on September 18, 2010.

At the time, I thought it was the worst day of my life.

Now, I realize it was the best day of my life.

Over time, I began to trust The Lady and The Man. They fed us baby food on their fingers.

They took good care of me and my sister and brothers. They even took good care of my biological Mama.

Sudden movements and loud sounds still make me nervous. But today I am writing about how much I secretly love The Lady. She gives me treats, like lunch meat, Temptations, and milk from her cereal dish.

She’s says it’s OK to call her Mommy.

I’m not quite ready to call her Mommy yet, so I will call her The Lady Mommy.

Happy The Lady Mommy’s Day to your The Lady Mommies too!

The brothers are still a bit skittish, Sky more so than Sunny. We knew it would be a challenge to find the right home for them.

Sunny and Sky must be adopted into a QUIET and CALM household.

With NO woofies.

AND with NO sticky little people. AND with NO sticky medium people, either.

AND Sunny and Sky must be adopted TOGETHER.

The right home must have PATIENT people who would understand that Sunny, and especially Sky, are still somewhat timid. The boys need to be given time and space to learn to trust the adopters.

Mom and Dad decided that the best thing for Sunny and Sky would be for them to stay here with us.

Sunny and Sky are now officially Furry Bambinos!

We have already posted this video, but we thought it would be appropriate to show it again.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIINXGZ3m5s

Welcome to the Fambly!!

Next time, we will tell you our OTHER REALLY BIG NEWS!

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 …

Today is the Third Anniversary of the Adoption of me, Padre,

and my adopted siblings Panda Bear

and Meerkat.

We are very grateful for a lot of things:

PAWS, Public Animal Welfare Society, in the Cleveland Ohio area, that rescued all of us from uncertain futures.  I, Padre, wound up in a kill shelter before being saved by PAWS. Panda Bear and Meerkat were born under a porch and got sick with eye infections (calici virus). That is why Panda Bear only has one eye, and Meerkat has scarring in her right eye that sometimes looks like a glowing eye when you look at her.

Loving parents.

Safe warm shelter.

Food and water.

Even V-E-T care when we need it.

And of course, great furriends like all of you!

So please, make yourselves at home! There is food, water, niptinis, milk for the kittens, toys, stairs for Thundering Herds of Elephants games, windows for bird and squirrel watching, cat beds for your napping pleasure, and companionship!  Let’s party all weekend!

We have new foster kittehs here at Casa Furry Bambino! Details are forthcoming.

Mom and Dad did a total musical furniture game with the kitten room furniture. They used the flashy box a lot, so we will show you before and after in a future post.

And most exciting of all, the Itteh Bittehs got adopted! Yay! Yay! Double Yay! Let me remind you of just how itteh bitteh they were. This is The Itteh Bitteh Kitteh, formerly known as Shadow, now called Niecy, at about 4 weeks old.  Look at that face!

“Put me down, or I will have no choice but to claw you to ribbons.”

And this is The Itteh Bitteh Kitteh formerly known as Boo, now called Trish, at about 3 weeks old:

“I scoff at your baby gate and feeble efforts to contain me.”

The Itteh Bittehs were Mom and Dad’s first really tiny foster kittehs who were in need of a lot of TLC.  While they were here, because they were so young and not fully weaned, they needed to be bottle fed, and then syringe fed.

Niecy developed an eye problem which required a trip to the V-E-T, and then ointment three times a day.

Trish’s spay surgery got cancelled The Day Of, due to what can only be described as a poop explosion.  All. Over. The. House.  So while Niecy was being spayed, Trish stayed home, and Mom and Dad cleaned up the house.  When Dad picked up Niecy from her surgery, let’s just say that Dad had a very malodorous loooooong ride home.  So now both girls had diarrhea and were sequestered to the kitten room, where at least the damage would be contained.

Diarrhea leads to dehydration, and nausea, and the feeling like you do not want to eat.  Mom started syringe feeding special food to the girls …

… and Mom and Dad teamed up to give the girls sub-cutaneous fluids.  Which the girls did not like.  At all. Unhappy kittehs are squirmy kittehs.  Which made it darn near impossible to get any fluids, let alone enough fluids, into the girls.  Mom’s advisor in the rescue group suggested another fecal sample, which Trish kindly provided.  Mom drove to the recommended clinic to drop off the sample.

Within an hour, the results were back: roundworms.  Mom gave the girls Strongid, which Trish promptly horked back up, as she could not keep anything down by this point.

So, on the evening of July 3, when all the v-e-t hospitals were closed, and most of the country was partying and drinking adult beverages and shooting off noise makers, Mom and Dad drove 30 miles across town with two very sick kittehs.  The emergency hospital gave the girls massive amounts of sub-cutaneous fluids, and Trish was given an injection of an anti-emetic.  Mom and Dad were given Panacur and Albon to give to the girls at home.  Within three days (three doses of the Panacur), the girls were doing much better, and eating on their own again.

As much as we kittehs dislike the V-E-T, we are also grateful for their help when we really really need it.

* * * * *

I am sure that you remember our post about the passing of our dear dear friend, Miss Tammy Faye.  Tammy Faye’s parents are our “Aunt” Deb and “Uncle” Paul, and Aunt Deb is our regular kitteh sitter.  A little while after Tammy Faye passed away, Aunt Deb asked Mom if The Itteh Bittehs had been spoken for.  Mom said that the girls did not have a Furrever Home lined up, and that due to their medical condition it would be about another month before the girls would be ready to go to their Furrever Home.  Which was fine with Aunt Deb and Uncle Paul, since they needed some time to grieve, and were not ready yet for new kittehs.

And fine with us, as we got to spend some more quality time with the girls.  We Furry Bambinos showed Niecy and Trish how to help with the unloading of the groceries.  Trish and I are starting to rassle.  Cookie and Panda Bear are also helping.

Niecy learned how to assist with plastic grocery bags.

Trish liked to hang out with me.  Here we are on Mommy’s chair.

Trish and Niecy invented a new way to play with The Alpine Scratcher.

This is what the girls looked like on August 6, their last morning here at Casa Furry Bambino.  They are hanging out with Panda Bear and borrowing his Gizzy Quilt, which he was kind enough to share.

That evening, Mom and Dad put The Itteh Bittehs into the PTU, and collected their medical records and adoption paperwork.  Panda Bear said good bye to The Itteh Bittehs …

and then Mom and Dad left to take The Itteh Bittehs to Aunt Deb and Uncle Paul’s house.

Once they got there, Dad opened the door to the PTU.  Trish, always the braver one, emerged first.

Niecy gave careful thought before exiting the PTU.  Once she did, she dashed into the kitchen and managed to squeeeeeeeze under a microwave cart on wheels.  Niecy stayed there until Mom and Tim (Aunt Deb and Uncle Paul’s son) extricated her.

Naturally, Niecy and Trish decided to find a better place to hang out while they got used to their new home.

Is that perfect or what?  They could see out, but could not be seen unless you crawled down on the floor.

It actually did not take all that long before Niecy and Trish decided to make an appearance.  Trish was lured out by a feather toy.

Niecy came out to explore some more.  She found a cool feather toy dangling above her head.

After Mom and Dad went home, Aunt Deb and Uncle Paul stayed up and played with Niecy and Trish for awhile.  It wasn’t long before Trish claimed the foot stool as her own.

Trish and Niecy, enjoying a meal of stinky goodness and crunchies:

Niecy enjoys her feather toy:

Mom and Dad are very happy that Niecy and Trish have been adopted by such kind and caring friends.  Mom and Dad look forward to visiting and watching the girls grow up.

Niecy and Trish are living the good life with Aunt Deb and Uncle Paul!

We decided to have a contest for a Gift Certificate to The Animal Rescue Site store! Since Caramel and I both celebrated our birthdays, we decided that each of us should choose a winner.

We typed all of your names onto a piece of paper, and then Panda Bear “assisted” with trimming the paper into individual pieces for each name.

Then, we put the little pieces of paper into a special bowl (Mom says it is handmade by a very special friend).  Padre inspected the names in the bowl to make sure they all were in there.

Padre said that the names passed his inspection, and it was time to draw the winners!

I really didn’t want all that responsibility, so I let Panda Bear choose my name for me.

Panda Bear carefully considered his options.

Finally, Panda Bear selected the first winner!

And the winner is … Noll from Noll’s Nip!

Caramel wanted to select her own winner. She studied the bowl of names.

But she actually drew two names, so to be fair, we are giving gift certificates to both A Few Good Cats at It’s All Good and Tiki and Kirby!

Hooray for all the winners!

And as promised, Mom is making a donation to the Humane Society of the United States in our honor!

On our four birthday blog posts, we received a total of:

30 + 9 + 11 + 14 =

Umm …  Ahhh …

A really big number of comments!  So Mom will be making a donation to the HSUS of $A Really Big Number. What’s that Mom?

Mom said that she decided to round up to $100.00!  Thanks Mom!! The Humane Society will put our gift to good use “to protect not only America’s most beloved companion animals—dogs and cats—but also other pets, wildlife, farm animals, and animals in research” (from our Thank You from HSUS).

We received an award from Monty Graycat, so we will post about that next time! Thanks Monty!

And thanks again to all of you who helped make our first birthday so special!

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!