As you may remember, I like to create PurrFurMance Art. My two previous works (Spring Water and Turning Spring Water into Niptini) were described previously.

Behold my most recent PurrFurMance Art Piece:

I call it “A Hole in One”.

It is a mixed media piece, created while playing with a Mint Green Nerf Ball, and carefully placed into a glass bowl of water. Over time, the Nerf Ball absorbed all the water in the bowl.

This piece represents the struggles our planet is facing with respect to climate change, overpopulation, and dwindling natural resources.

(As usual, Dad and Mom do not understand my Art. Mom took the Nerf Ball out of the bowl to let it dry out. She washed out the water bowl and refilled it with fresh water.)

Do you create PurrFurMance Art, too?

Padre here. Or as Mom and Dad call me, “The Fuss A$$”.

Today’s Unsolved Mystery at Casa de Furry Bambinos is “How Hard is it to Choose The Right Flavor?”. Despite having lots of Stinky Goodness to choose from:

Somehow The Person Who is Using their Opposable Thumbs to Open the Cans (i.e., Mom or Dad) rarely selects The Right Flavor. Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

When they choose The Wrong Flavor, I give them the Back of Disrespect. I refuse to eat the rubbish they serve.

But! But! Once, a few months ago, When The Heavens Were Aligned, Mom managed to select The Right Flavor.

I ate all the Stinky Goodness in my dish.

Sunny, who is accustomed to getting my leftovers, was distressed at the lack of Leftover Stinky Goodness in the dish.

Then, I moved onto Cookie’s dish for seconds.

Since then, I have refused to eat this flavor on more than one occasion. It just wasn’t The Right Day to eat that flavor.

Gotta keep ‘em guessing, kittehs.

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.

Panda Bear dived inside once Dad got the package opened.

Panda Bear opened the card and read it to us.

Look at all the wonderful presents!

Sunny sniffed the presents in the pretty blue wrapping paper.

Panda Bear is REALLY into nip!

He’s even licking nip flakes off the lid!

When Panda Bear gets really excited, he claws the carpet with gusto! That’s the effect nip has on him.

My sister Cookie sniffed the cute little mousies! We have been carrying those around and practicing our Mouse Patrol techniques with them!

We loves Temptations! Thanks for sending us Fishy Flavors! Meerkat is asking for more. Nom nom nom …

Thank you so much for sending us The Red Dot Maker! It is the one toy that gets all of us moving! Meerkat is stretching out to smack The Red Dot.

Mom put all the presents on the table and took a photo of them all together! We can’t wait for Mom to start that cat grass growing! We ate the Purina One Turkey yesterday! Mom loves the dove pin, jingle bells, and the yummy chocolates! What a generous gift!

Meerkat claimed the box! (The rest of us are a little too “well-endowed” to fit inside the box.)

Even Senior Catizen Padre got off his Gizzy Quilt to join in and play The Red Dot! Padre says Thank You!

My sister Cookie is really into wrapping paper. She likes to lie on it, play with it, and nap on it. Cookie says Thank You!

Sky says Thank You! (Especially for the Temptations.)

Sunny says Thank You!

Panda Bear says Thank You! (Especially for the Nip!!!)

On behalf of The Furry Bambinos, I say Thank You!!!

What a terrific present!!!

A huge Thank You to Mom Paula, Truffle, and Brulee for coordinating Secret Paws!!!

Clearly, we are happy. Why?

Well, for the past four weeks, we have not seem Mama. She is Sky’s and my biological mother. Mama is feral (afraid of people), so she lives outside. Mom and Dad have been feeding her for over a year now. In the summer, Mama slept on our front porch in sunbeams. Now that the weather has turned cold, Mom and Dad prepared a winter shelter for Mama. Mama had been coming to eat on the front porch just about every day, except when it was raining really hard.

Mama had even started to talk to Mom and Dad!!! This is HUGE for a feral kitty. Normally, feral kitties are silent. Kitties that trust people talk to them.

The last time we had seen Mama was November 23, the day before American Thanksgiving. We had begun to assume the worst had happened. Mom even called the Animal Warden in our town to ask if she had been found.

As it turned out, no news was good news.

Last night, as Mom and Dad were leaving to take current fosters Panda and Domino to PetSmart, Dad spotted Mama!!! On our porch!!!

Happy Dance!!!

So Dad told Mom, then went back inside to get food for Mama! Mom got out of the car, and went to the porch, where she talked soothingly to Mama. Mama had jumped off the porch and was under a bush. All Mom could see in the dark was Mama’s white bib. (I have a white bib and white footies just like my Mama. And both of us have our left ear tipped.)

Mama came out from under the bush and got close to the porch where Mom could verify that it definitely was Mama! Dad gave her a big bowl of stinky goodness, and a big bowl of crunchies.

Merry Christmas, Efurryone!

P.S. We still see Daddy about once a week, so he must have other restaurants he visits. Mom and Dad see him crossing the big busy street when he leaves our yard.

Recently, another kitty – white on belly and legs, grey stripes on head and back – has been coming to eat from the porch. He/she is big, but timid, so Mom and Dad don’t think this kitty has a home. When Spring comes, they will trap this kitty and get him/her “snipped” too.

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.

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?

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuzpsO4ErOQ

How LOUD is your purr motor?

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!!!

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!

Last year, my brothers and sister and I were born to Mama Rose. We don’t know exactly when, but it was probably in July 2010. When we got big enough, Mama started bringing us to visit the back yard at Casa de Furry Bambinos. Mama was young, probably less than a year old herself. Our Human Mom and Dad began feeding us in a special cafeteria.

One day, the cafeteria door closed behind us while we were eating! We were trapped! That’s my brother Rusty and sister Marigold (now Mia).

Our Humans kept us in cages in the garage at first. Every day they fed us, scooped our boxes, and tried to cuddle and hold us. They gave us Baby Food as a reward for cuddling with them. That’s Sunny and me (Sky) huddling and trying to hide in our cage. Back then, Sunny was known as Mr. Wild Child, and I was Mr. Hissy.

Then one day we were all put into PTU’s, and taken to the Cleveland APL for our hoohaectomies and ladygardenectomies.

This is Woody, Hunter, and Sunny in the PTU. (Note the airplane ears and scared little faces.)

Soon after that, my sister and brothers and I moved into the Dormitory at Furry Bambino Foster Academy (Kitten Foster Room). That’s me on the right, hissing at Woody and Hunter. I was kind of crabiliated back then.

Mama was released to the Outside.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBODY8priiE

Our Human Mom and Dad feed her every day.

Recently, Mama has started TALKING to our Human Dad!!!  For those of you who know something about feral cats, you know that this is HUGE!!! And yesterday, for the First Time Ever, Mama said Hello to our Human Mom!!!

Per usual, our Biological Daddy was never part of our little family. He planted his seeds and left the scene. Our Humans saw him from time to time in the neighborhood.

My brother Woody and I look  A LOT like our Kitteh Daddy, which is why our Human Mom was convinced that Daddy was: a) A Male Cat, and b) Our Biological Daddy.

Then this summer, Daddy started showing up every day …

… to nom on Mama’s foods on the porch. Do you see Mama in the photo, too? She’s waiting for Daddy to finish eating. She always lets him eat first.

Our Humans got a Cafeteria (trap) and after some resistance on his part, trapped Daddy in July. He got his hoohaectomy at the Cleveland APL, and was released that night.

Now Mama shows up just about every day, and Daddy shows up often. Mama spent most sunny summer afternoons napping on the porch here at Casa de Furry Bambinos.

To celebrate National Feral Cat Day, our Human Mom is shopping online for some better ideas for winter shelter for Mama and/or Daddy. Our Human Parents are discussing the best way to keep Our Biological Parents safe this winter.

This Just In: Please if you could spare some purrs and purrayers, our Dear Friend Perfectly Parker and her family could use some.

And, while you are purring, please send some purrs for Carol, a Very Kind Human who is the volunteer coordinator for PAWS, the animal rescue group for which Mom and Dad volunteer. Carol is in the hospital right now after a terrible fall, and she and her family could really use all the purrs and purrayers you can muster.