Today is a melancholy anniversary. Mohawk, One Who Came Before, was adopted 22 years ago this evening. It is also the 11th anniversary of the date Mohawk left us to go to The Rainbow Bridge. Today, I wanted to remember and share with you about Mohawk and his cuddling.

Mohawk really liked to be close to me. He would snuggle on top of me while I was asleep.

He would snuggle next to me while I napped on the couch.

But his specialty in cuddling was jumping on my lap, then pawing at my shirt to indicate that it was time for him to climb inside my clothes with me. He would usually hang out on my lap for about 20 minutes, making me look like I was about 7 months pregnant. Then he would slither out and go about his business.

Several of The Furry Bambinos like to do their best Mohawk cuddle homages.

Ms. Floofs (Caramel) likes to sleep next to us on the bed. She also really likes to nap on top of me while I am on the sofa.

Panda Bear cuddles by telling me to lie down if I am still upright. Panda Bear’s bleat sounds very much like Mohawk’s bleat did. Then Panda Bear will purr loudly while kneading the blankets on top of my tummy, spinning slowing in a circle, then returning to face me. His rhythmic purring frequently lulls me to sleep.

This photo shows the maximum number of Bambinos photographed while cuddling. That’s Panda Bear and Cookie on Gizzy Quilts on the back of the sofa, and Sunny and Sky on my legs.

Recently, even Meerkat has become a cuddler. She has always been more reserved than her sibling Panda Bear, for which we love and respect her. However, this winter has really brought out Meerkat’s desire to snuggle. She will sometimes climb on top of me and sleep there for hours.

The best cuddle photo we have of Meerkat is this one. Padre and Meerkat are our resident Love Cats. That’s Padre with his protective arm around her.

Thanks for reading today. When one of our fur babies is at The Rainbow Bridge waiting for us, remembering their time with us is important.

Namaste.

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.

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!!!

He is One Who Came Before.

You might even call him The Original Furry Bambino.

Today is the Anniversary (#21) of his Gotcha Day, back in 1991. This photo was taken sometime in 1991, which would have been soon after he came to live with me.

Today is also the Anniversary (#10) of the Day Mohawk left us for The Rainbow Bridge.

One date, that is both a happy and a sad reminder of Mohawk’s Magical 11 Years with us.

When we adopted Mohawk from my friend Lynn, she mentioned that “Mohawk likes bread”. She said it almost as an afterthought. What she really meant was:

No bread or pastry will be safe in your home from Mohawk.

When I first understood this translation, I was bringing groceries inside, soon after adopting Mohawk. Before we finished unloading the car, Mohawk had already sniffed out the grocery bag with the bread in it, chewed a hole through the plastic bread bag, and was busy nomming on the bread.

Another time, I learned that Mohawk also had a taste for fancy Greek pastries. There is an annual Greek Festival held at a local Greek Orthodox church, and we make a point of visiting their bakery for baklava, spanakopita, and other delicious pastries. We brought the pastries home to our apartment in the white cardboard bakery box, and left it closed up on the kitchen counter overnight. Big mistake! The next morning, the box was on the kitchen floor, and the pastries were strewn about and nommed upon.

For dinner tonight, we had Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, one of Mohawk’s all-time favorite people foods.

Well, not the noodles so much, but the yummy cheese sauce! It was tradition to give Mohawk our bowls for clean-up. The hard part was convincing Mohawk to wait until we were done eating before starting to clean up. In this photo, you can even see Mohawk’s stripe! It grew out by the time he was one year old. (Please ignore the hideous 80’s style glasses. Admit it, you wore them that big too.)

Sunny, Sky, and Padre share Mohawk’s love of cheddar cheese.

Mohawk enjoyed Cheetos, too. (Great, now I’m craving Cheetos.)

We miss you, Mo. Love you always.

We are so grateful to have loving parents, safe and warm and dry shelter, food, water, treats, and Furriends like you!

Also, in honor of Derby’s birthday this past Thursday, here are some Tocks shots for your viewing pleasure.

Cooke and Sky weren’t open to showing their Tocks yet, so they just turned their heads.  Do you see Panda Bear?

Cookie finally showed off her tocks by doing a full 180.

Sunny has been alerted here, and the rest of us are getting into the viewing.  If you couldn’t find Panda Bear before, now you can see him.

Sky wanted to get closer to the action so he gave Panda Bear full control of the top of the perch.

Meerkat rearranged herself to get a better view.

Finally, a nice shot of all our tocks, although now Sky is trying to shield Caramel’s from the camera!

Can you guess what had our attention?

Time to get our party started! Teleport on over!

Happy Tocktober Birthday, Derby!

Twenty years ago tonight, David and I visited a friend to meet Mohawk. We ended up leaving with Mohawk that night, and took him home to my apartment. It is a great story, and you can read it here.

In addition, today is a sad anniversary, as it is the day in 2002 that Mohawk left us for the Rainbow Bridge.

Although I had had kitties in my life before (Kiki and Puddy), Mohawk was the first cat for whom I was truly responsible. Kiki and Puddy were family pets, and while I loved them both very much, Mohawk was the first cat I lived with as an adult. Adopting Mohawk was the signal to my parents that I was all grown up, and that I wouldn’t be moving back into their home. Puddy, the family cat, was big, orange, and intolerant of other felines.

Each of The Furry Bambinos reminds me of Mohawk in his or her own way. Meerkat is thin and svelte, the daintiest of the Bambinos. Mohawk was also slight of build, weighing just 10 pounds at his heaviest. In contrast, Clyde, Mohawk’s adoptive brother, weighed 19 pounds at one point.

Cookie is our “Cat Ambassador”. She is not afraid of visitors, and especially enjoys assisting furnace repair personnel. Mohawk enjoyed helping plumbers who visited our apartment.

Caramel is sweet and cuddly. Mohawk’s specialty was cuddling. He liked to climb inside my clothes, while I was wearing them.

Padre, in his finicky dining habits reminds us of how Mohawk used to have to be “invited” to join us for meals. Sometimes we would pick up the basket in which Mohawk was reclining, and carry Mohawk, basket and all, to the kitchen for meals. Similarly, we often have to hunt Padre down at breakfast time, and bring his food dish to him.

If you live with cats, you know all about regurgitation. Padre often gets sick and vomits his dry food. We are trying to switch dry foods in hopes that this alleviates this problem.

You know how they say that there are about 60 different words for snow in the Inuit language? Well, we had about 60 different words to describe “Mohawk’s special skill”. In fact, he earned the title “King of Horking” for his creative works of art. Mohawk specialized in using gravity to add to his performance art. So far, none of The Furry Bambinos comes anywhere close to matching Mohawk’s skills. Thank Bast!

Panda Bear’s “meow” reminds us of Mohawk’s voice. Mohawk’s voice sounded more like a bleat than a true meow. It often sounded like he was complaining, but it was really just the way he spoke. Panda Bear makes a very similar sound, and we are always reminded of Mohawk whenever Panda Bear talks to us. Panda Bear also likes to nap on top of us, like Mohawk used to do.

Mohawk also knew his name and would do a happy dance when we said “Mohawk!” in a happy tone. Mohawk would jump onto a bookcase and wait for his “snuggle bath”. Panda Bear knows his name as well as his nickname, PB. Panda Bear will come to us when we say his name in a happy tone of voice, and we reward him with snuggles.

Mohawk, we miss you, and love you always.

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!

All three of us spent some time living out of doors, so there are many things for which we are very grateful: safe shelter from the elements, fresh food and clean water whever we want, cozy napping spots, love, and most of all, our friends in the Blogosphere!  As elder statescat, and resident padre, I will be leading the group in purrs and purrayers as we give thanks for all the blessings in our lives.

So please join us for a day of celebration.  There will be food, and nip, and toys, and games, naps, and fellowship.  Plus, if you want, you can  visit The Apostles (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Joann), through the baby gate.  They haven’t been to the V-E-T yet, so sniffing only please!  Mom says that it’s OK to SQUEEE, though!

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.