










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.






























Panda Bear even made friends with the very shy, skittish, and semi-feral Samoa, who we lost back in 2015.




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.
Filed by The Human Parents on under Baby Pictures, Cat Naps, Cat Pride, Coventry Cats, Daddy Has a Very Comfortable Lap, Excuses for not working on our bloggy, Family, Fancy Nails, Flat Panda Bear, Furry Bambino Foster Academy, Gizzy Quilts, Ham-micks, Meerkat, Mom is Happy, Mr. Tuxedo's Posts, Panda Bear, Panda Bear's Posts, Purrs and Purrayers, V-E-T. Leave a Purr or Hiss.
With great sadness, we report that our beautiful little tortie girl Samoa went to the Rainbow Bridge on Monday, October 24, after a brief but severe bout of pneumonia. We are still in shock as it seems just yesterday she was bounding up and down the stairs. We greatly appreciate the purrs and purrayers from family and friends.
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!
Filed by The Human Parents on under Adoptions, Dad's Posts, Daddy is a Feral Kitteh Whisperer, Family, Feral Cats, Feral Kittens, Formerly Fosters, Fosters, Furry Bambino Foster Academy, Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Committeh, Love, Mom's Posts, Nervous, Purrs and Purrayers, Sad, Samoa, The Rainbow Bridge, Unsolved Mysteries. 7 Purrs or Hisses.
We want to send purrs and purrayers to all the inhabitants of Japan in this very sad and scary time. We just feel so helpless seeing the photos and videos of the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami. It is sobering to realize that the aftershocks from the main quake are as large as severe earthquakes themselves. The Cat Blogosphere site has suggestions of ways to help, and we are planning to make a donation.
My sister Floofs (Caramel) and I (Cookie) would like to say a big THANK YOU to all of you fur coming to our birthday party last week! We really appreciate all your birthday wishes, getting to visit with you, and especially for sharing some of your loose furs with us! We are also making the rounds to visit each of your blogs purrsonally.
As you may recall, Mommy and Daddy had recently dragged the rug sucking monsters around, and removed all our furs from our cat trees. So we decided that the theme for our party would be shedding. Thanks to all of you, we now have furry cat trees again!
Thanks for helping us put the Furry back in The Furry Bambinos!
We hope you all enjoyed yourselves! We got some more Temptations treats to share.
We also received some new nip mousies.
Floofs (Caramel) is giving the new mousies a good sniff.
Panda Bear and Floofs are playing with a nip mousie that looks like a bumble bee. Floofs is doing her signature tag maneuver.
Nip mousies are great!
In other news, we had another big snow storm on Thursday night and Friday – the most snow we have had this season. Before this snow storm, all of our previous snow had meltified due to heavy rains. So all the snow you see in the photo below is just from Thursday night and Friday. We got about 15 inches here. Mommy stayed home and worked from home on Friday.
My sister Floofs and Panda Bear are taking a deep sniff of the cold fresh air. We are looking forward to warmer weather when we can have the windows open.
Next time, we will pick up where we left off telling you about Mama Rose’s bebbehs – and some adoption stories!
Filed by Cookie on under Birthdays, Caramel, Cookie, Cookie's Posts, Purrs and Purrayers, Thank You. 7 Purrs or Hisses.
Oh, our hearts are aching, and our eyes are leaking as we write this.
We just got the sad, sad news that Tammy Faye passed away on Friday, from heart failure.
Tammy Faye’s family is devastated.
As you may know, Mom and Dad are good friends with Tammy Faye’s fambly. Aunt Deb is our regular kitteh sitter. Mom and Dad visited Miss Tammy Faye when her fambly was away.
Miss Tammy Faye liked our Mom …
… but she had a major crush on our Dad.
This is one of our favorite photos of Tammy Faye. She and our Dad were making eyes at each other.
Tammy Faye’s family really needs your purrs right now.
Please leave your condolences for Tammy Faye’s fambly here.
Tammy Faye, you will be missed!
Please save a sunspot for us at The Bridge.
Purrrrsss …
Filed by Padre on under Aunt Deb, Padre's Posts, Purrs and Purrayers, Sad, Tammy Faye. 46 Purrs or Hisses.
Padre: Male silver tabby, medium-length fur, white patch on neck, born 2002 or 2003. Elder statescat. Pacifist.
Panda Bear: Male black and white short-hair tuxedo, born May 2007. Biological sibling of Meerkat. Mouser extraordinaire.
Meerkat: Female brown and gold short-hair tabby (torbie), born May 2007. Biological sibling of Panda Bear. Diva. Mouser extraordinaire.
Cookie: Female brown and gold short-hair tabby (torbie), born March 3, 2009. Gold flame mark on forehead. Biological sibling of Caramel. Growls when mousing. Emits war cry when running.
Caramel: Female black, brown, and gold long-hair tortoiseshell, born March 3, 2009. Biological sibling of Cookie. Floofy! Diva in training. Would rather not put her pretty lips on a dirty icky mouse.
Sunny: Male Short-hair Orange Tabby with White Bib, Toes, and Tummy. Gold Eyes Match his Furs. Born July 2010, biological brother of Sky. The Former Mr. Wild Child, Sunny is now a Cuddle Bug.
Sky: Male Short-hair Silver Tabby. Beautiful Eye Markings, with Beautiful Light Green Eyes. Born July 2010, biological brother of Sunny. The Former Mr. Hissy, Sky is still timid and somewhat skittish.
We are The Furry Bambinos!
Mom (AKA Can Opener Lady): Female human, born a very long time ago. Married to Daddy for 15 years. Not much of a mouser. Skilled at opening cans of cat food.
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From JB of JB's Big World
From Darling Millie
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From Poppy Q
Cat-O-Lympics 2010: Bird and Squirrel Watching Event
Cat-O-Lympics 2010: Competitive Napping Event
Sponsored by Huffle Mawson
Cat-O-Lympics 2010: Mile Long Kleen Machine Event
Sponsored by Tygana at One Cats Nip
Cat-O-Lympics 2010: Mile Long Kleen Machine Event
Sponsored by Tygana at One Cats Nip
From Monty Graycat