Panda Bear – 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!

Bambinoversary #5

Padre — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:39:26 +0000

Greetings Furriends!

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.

Brofurs and Sisfurs: Sunny’s and Sky’s Opinion of Panda Bear: A Rebuttal

Sunny — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:42:58 +0000

Greetings furriends! We are Sunny and Sky, two of The Furry Bambinos. We are biological siblings, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE our brofur Panda Bear!

Today, we made our first post to Tabby Cat Club in honor of Brofurs and Sisfurs: Love Them or Leave Them. This is that same post for your viewing convenience. Be sure to go over to Tabby Cat Club today to see what effurryone else thinks of their brofurs and sisfurs.

We take great umbrage at Meerkat’s previous post regarding Panda Bear, her biological brofur. We LOVE Panda Bear, as he was the first of The Furry Bambinos to welcome us when we were foster kittens and students at Furry Bambino Foster Academy.

This short film sums up how both of us feel about Panda Bear.

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

If it does not play, Click Here to watch it on our YouTube channel.

We believe that we speak on behalf of The Furry Bambinos when we say that Meerkat can be a real PITT (pain in the tocks) sometimes.

The Ladies of Autumn Halloween Party

Meerkat — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:04:08 +0000

hello furriends! recently Cookie, Caramel (Ms. Floofs), and i (Meerkat) were inducted into The Ladies of Autumn (TLOA). TLOA is a new elite feline society “celebrating the beauty and elegance of tortoiseshell, calico & torbie cats”. you simply must check out their web site.

as you may know, female tabby (striped) cats with splotches of autumnal coloring (as seen in tortoiseshell cats) are known as “torbies”. both Cookie and i are torbies, and Caramel (Ms. Floofs) is a tortoiseshell. in order to have calico, tortoiseshell, or torbie markings, a cat must have two X chromosomes. so that means that virtually all cats with these colorings are female. there will be a very rare few XXY males that can also have these colors. last year, there was a male calico cat in PAWS! his foster mother was told that only about 1 in 4000 calico cats are male.

enough science, go see my induction page! Cookie has an induction page, and so does Caramel (Ms. Floofs).

TLOA will be having a Halloween party! so we are planning to attend in costume. the male contingent of The Furry Bambinos will also be attending the party in costume. efurryone is welcome, so please join us!

here i am in my witch costume. exactly the look i was aiming for.

Cookie was unhappy about the whole costume thing, and ran around the house moaning and complaining about it. they eventually dressed her as an angel and got a good photo.

Caramel looks absolutely ridiculous in her pumpkin hat.

my boyfriend cat Padre looks absolutely dreamy as Count Dracucat.

my dorky brother Panda Bear really enjoys these photo shoots. here he is dressed as a clown. heh.

and here is Panda Bear dressed as a skeleton.

Sunny is batty, oops, i meant that he is dressed as a bat.

and Sky is an angel.

Happy Halloween, Efurrybuddy!!!

pee ess: Mom got some of our costumes for free at BlogPaws 2011. the witch dress that i am wearing, the Count Dracucat costume that Padre is wearing, and the skeleton costume that Panda Bear is wearing were all received free at BlogPaws when Mom attended a lunch sponsored by PetSmart. these costumes are part of the Martha Stewart line of pet costumes. we were not paid for our review, and all our opinions are ours. the remaining costumes Mom purchased herself, at PetSmart.

Flat Panda Bear Goes to the V-E-T

Panda Bear — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:45:02 +0000

Hello Kittehs! As you may know, Mom and Dad abandoned us a few weeks ago to meet some nasty lady named Irene. They met her at BlogPaws, which was held in Tysons Corner in Furginia.

They brought home lots of cool swag, which we are enjoying. Sunny and I also personally saw to it that we got to sample the Royal Canin crunchies. Kittehs, sometimes you have to take matters into your own teeths. We treated those bags to toothy deaths, which forced Mom to feed us the yummy crunchies inside!

BEST of all, Mom got to attend the Flat Tyler workshop.

She came home with this: (dah dah dahhh)

A Flat Panda Bear!!!

Immediately, I began plotting how to use Flat Panda Bear to my advantage. So, when the foster kittens got the sneezies, and then Sunny and I got the sneezies, and then Mom made an appointment for Sunny and me at the V-E-T, I knew just what to do.

Unfortunately, Mom was not fooled. I wound up in the PTU anyway.

It was Sunny’s First Visit to the V-E-T. Well, except for when he had his Hoohaectomy and got his ear tipped.

When Dr. Amy walked into the exam room, she saw Flat Panda Bear on the exam table. She thought it was me!

At least at first. Dr. Amy examined Flat Panda Bear’s eye with her magic eye scope thingy. I think she caught on when Flat Panda Bear didn’t have a pulse.

But she was a Good Sport about it.

I still got examined, though.

So did Sunny.

Sunny checked out the exam room thoroughly.

He really wanted to jump to the top of the cabinets.

Mom wouldn’t let him. So he checked out the sink instead.

Unfortunately, we both got shot. With Convenia. It did help get rid of our sneezies, though.

The staff loved Flat Panda Bear. He helped Mom pay the bill at the reception desk.

There was a nice woofie behind the reception desk who wanted to check out Flat Panda Bear.

Sunny did really great considering it was his first visit to the V-E-T. So did Flat Panda Bear.

Thank you Dr. Amy for making us all better!!!

P.S. Belated Trapaversary to Sunny and Sky! They got trapped last year on September 18.

Mo Cats Day 2011

Padre — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:46:14 +0000

Back in 2009, someone (!) said there were “too many cats on the internet”! Egads! There is no such thing as too many cats!

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

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!

happy halloween!

Meerkat — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:24:42 +0000

well, they made us to dress up in dumb costumes again this year.

and then they took photos!

lot of photos.

like this one of Padre dressed as a cowboy.

caramel really got screwed and had to wear three pieces to her costume. heh. serves that little floofy princess right.

cookie really protested about getting her photo taken, so she fled to the basement, still wearing her costume.

i am not sure what she was dressed as, other than an unhappy cat.

panda bear had to wear a pirate’s hat. the dork really seemed to enjoy it, playing up on his one eye and all.

:: smugly :: i got to wear a she-devil costume.

then, they turned the photos into a halloween card, and sent it to all their friends.

when mommy’s friend Dorothy got the card, she told Mommy:

I am surprised that by the look on Meerkat’s face, you and David were not turned into pillars of salt!

heh. just the look i was going for.

if you would like your very own copy of the card, send us your snail mail address. our email address is TheFurryBambinos AT gmail DOT com. you can use our contact page if you want.

we can even send the card overseas too!

Happy Halloween, Efurrybody!

Three Years in Our Furrever Home

Padre — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:05:33 +0000

So that means it is time to party!

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!

Mo Cats Day 2010

Panda Bear — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:45:00 +0000

Yo kittehs! We feel that as a multi-kitteh and multi-foster kitteh household, we are well qualified to write about Mo Cats Day! We have Derby and Ducky to thank for creating Mo Cats Day in response to the stoopid idea to have a day without cats proposed by some stoopid people last year. If you are interested in reading about the origins of Mo Cats Day, here is a great summary on Nikita Cat’s Blog.

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?!