Panda Bear’s Posts – 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!

International Box Day 2012

Panda Bear — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 06:20:21 +0000

Happy International Box Day, Furriends!!!

Panda Bear here, to tell you about a Wonderful Box.

Mom and Dad brought The Wonderful Box home one Friday night back in Feburrrrrary. They put it on the floor in the dining room, but did not open it! We wanted to know what The Box was like.

So we just had to sniff the outside of The Box. And sit on The Box. That’s Cookie sitting on The Box.

Finally, Mom and Dad opend The Box on Saturday, and took all the stuff out. Which gave us the chance to thoroughly examine The Box.

Before I was done checking out The Box, Padre joined me inside. The Box was big enough for both of us!

Padre is giving The Box a Thorough Sniffing.

I am Trapped in a Box of Tremendous Size!

Just hanging out in My Box.

Happy International Box Day Efurryone!

Pee. Ess. Can you guess what was in The Wonderful Box? We’ll tell you about it next time!

Celebrate Meerkat and Panda Bear’s 5th Birthday with Us!

Panda Bear — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:03:57 +0000

Greetings Furriends! Happy Birthday to Me! Oh, and to my sister Meerkat too! Today we are five years old!

Check out this way cool tent Mom gave us for our birthday! Meerkat gave it a Good Sniff. That’s Ms. Floofs (Caramel) inside the tent.

Mom also picked up some way cool toys for us! Here I am checking out the Nip Shrimp. No, it was not a Real Live Fresh Dead Shrimp, but it was still fun.

Mom saw these tasty looking Canadian Geese at the place where she works. No, she did not bring us any Real Live Fresh Dead Geese for our birthday dinner.

Come join us to check out the new tent!

Purrs!

Happy Birthday Mommy … and Cookie is Nuts!

Panda Bear — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:27:59 +0000

Today is our Mommy’s Birthday! We are happy that it is on a Saturday, so we get extra snuggle time with her today. She was surprised to see her birthday announced on the Cat Blogosphere! She says thank you for all the kind birthday wishes. She just got off the phone with Gramma. Mom always calls Gramma at the time Mom was born to wish her mother a Happy Mother’s Day.

We haven’t been able to blog much lately. That’s because the computer has been overheating and shutting down randomly. So Daddy performed surgery on it. This is what he pulled out.

A furball! The computer hacked up a furball! An impressive one, if I do say so myself.

In other news, I have always thought that Cookie is a bit daft when it comes to The Rug Sucking Monster. She is not afraid of it! When it comes out, most of us go running the other direction. Clyde, One Who Came Before, would hiss at it even before it got turned on. Then he would run to the farthest corner of the house to get away from it. But not Cookie.

Watch the movie and see what I mean.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAh297anJGg

Crazy, I tell you! That Cookie is bat sh*t crazy! What do you do when The Rug Sucking Monster comes out?

Nigel Tufnel Day

Panda Bear — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:11:37 +0000

In addition to being Veterans Day, today is also a lesser known holiday: Nigel Tufnel Day. Why? Because of the date: 11-11-11.

In honor of this occasion, we thought that we would re-post my previous homage to the Great Nigel Tufnel.

Mom says that I have a very loud purr motor.

I replied, “My purr motor is very special because it goes up to eleven. See, most cats have purr motors that go up to ten, but mine goes up to eleven.”

Mom asked me, “Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?”

“Well,” I replied, “it’s one louder. It’s not ten.”

“See, most cats would be purring at ten. You’re on ten, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten, purring on someone’s lap, and where can you go from there? Where?”

“I dunno.” Mom said.

“Nowhere! Exactly! See, if I need to get my purr motor to make that extra push over the cliff, I can put my purr motor up to eleven.”

Mom asked me, “Why don’t you just make ten on your purr motor louder, and make ten be the top number on the purr motor, and make that a little louder?”

She clearly doesn’t get it.

“My purr motor goes to eleven.”

(with apologies to Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, and Harry Shearer)

Purrs!!!
Panda Bear, and Angel Mohawk (who also had an extremely LOUD purr motor)

pee. ess. Mom says that if you don’t get this reference, you never saw one of the Funniest Movies Ever. Immediately go watch This Is Spinal Tap, or at least this scene. Then come back and read the post again.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuzpsO4ErOQ

How LOUD is your purr motor?

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.

Lilia and Vitaly Have Graduated!

Panda Bear — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:59:28 +0000

Hi furriends! Thanks for helping us celebrate our birthdays! We would like to say a Special Thank You to Jan’s Funny Farmers for sending some of you our way! That was very thoughtful of you!

Meerkat and I appreciate your kind birthday wishes, and the Cleveland APL appreciates your comments for a donation. Mommy’s day hunting place matches donations, so your comments are worth double! Thanks efurrybuddy!

We have some great news! Recent Furry Bambino Foster Academy Students Lilia …

… and Vitaly …

… GRADUATED on Saturday May 14! They were adopted TOGETHER!!! (The kittens do have more than one water dish!)

:: Happy Adoption-Graduation Dance::

That’s their Forever Mom with Vitaly. Those kittens LOVE shoelaces! Vitaly even wore a Graduation Cup! He told me he wrote “Hi Mom” on the top. Heh.

Lilia and Vitaly are Lynx point Siamese kittens – which means that they have tiger stripes! Mom thought that Vitaly’s stripes on his head made him look like he was furrowing his eyebrows, deep in thought.

Lilia and Vitaly both climbed up Mom recently – they weren’t named for famous gymnasts for nothing. Can you guess which is Lilia and which is Vitaly? Mom’s not entirely sure, herself! Vitaly is darker brown on his back, and bigger than Lilia. Lilia is more of a white cream color, and daintier. Answers to the last names of the famous gymnasts below.

Vitaly licked his Forever Mom’s face to say hello.

Lilia posed with Dad to say Farewell.

Next time, how Mom and Dad spent our birthday – no, it wasn’t with us!

Famous Namesake Gymnasts:

Nadia Comaneci
Bart Conner
Lilia Podkopayeva
Vitaly Scherbo

P.S. Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner are married in real life.

Sunny and Sky Have Been Adopted!

Panda Bear — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 05:23:48 +0000

Great News, Kittehs!! We have finally found a suitable fambly to adopt Sunny and Sky!!

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!

Panda Bear and His Groupies

Panda Bear — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 05:03:25 +0000

Hello kittehs! In honor of Valentine’s Day, allow me to share some LOVE with all of you out there in bloggie land.

As regular readers know, all of us Furry Bambinos are former foster kittehs. Padre, my biological sister Meerkat, and I were adopted in October 2007. Cookie and Caramel were Mom and Dad’s first attempt at fostering in 2009. They joined the fambly, but since then we have had lots of fosters come and go.

I, Panda Bear, am the President of the Furry Bambino Welcoming Committeh. I am the first Bambino to befriend the fosters. Caramel and Cookie are next to accept the newbies. Meerkat is always LAST to accept the fosters. Usually, she bops them on the head and gives them a hiss. Padre, big ManCat that he is, is usually AFRAID of these pipsqueak fosters, so he avoids them.

The fosters LOVE me. Srsly, they do. Why wouldn’t they? The second I walk into the foster room, I get swarmed by itteh bitteh kittehs. Here, I am teaching the tots how to get your nip on. That’s Sunny, Sky, and Hunter observing closely.

They watch my every move. That’s Silver, Sunny, Hunter, and Sky.

Here I am trying to enjoy a good look out the front window, while standing on the bar stool. That’s Hunter paying homage to me.

Dad even made a short film, depicting my groupies in action.

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

Honestly, ya’d think I was Justin Bieber or something.

Check Out Mom’s Birthday Present!

Panda Bear — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:14:11 +0000

Today is Mom’s Birthday. So we are taking a quick break from telling the story of Mama Rose and Her Bebbehs to show you what we got Mom for her Birthday. We will continue their story this weekend.

We Furry Bambinos got together and decided to give Mom a wicked cool present for her birthday this year. This is when we got it home from the store and are inspecting it for defects. Cookie is on the top shelf, Caramel is checking out the enclosed part, and I am snoopervising:

Next, Padre and Caramel gave it a good sniff:

Then, Padre gave what was left of the dangly toy a thorough workout from the front:

And then from the back, sneak attack style:

After his thorough inspection, Padre declared the birthday present acceptable.

I really don’t think that there is room for the both of us. I think Padre needs to get down.

Since it’s Mom’s birthday, I decided to be nice and got down instead. (Note that Mom reattached the dangly toy.)

After passing inspection, we put it where it is going to live. This is Caramel showing Mommy how to use it properly. I am snoopervising.

In this photo, I am demonstrating to Mommy another way to use her gift:

Happy Birthday Mom! We hope you like your present!

Mom Here: I would like to thank the Bambinos for their thoughtful birthday gift. It will allow me to have my computer chair back!

On my birthday, I like to phone my parents at the time of day I was born, and wish them a Happy Mother’s Day and a Happy Father’s Day. Luckily I was born at a reasonable hour to call! Happy Mother’s Day! Happy Father’s Day!