Happy First Gotcha Day Anniversary to the Twins!!!

 Heimdall writes:

Mommy says it's been a whole year today since she and Daddy came to get us at Salem Friends of Felines.  Wow!  I remember being scared to leave my friends in the kitten room, and glad my sister was with me wherever we were going.  I'm so glad that we came to live with our family!  Mommy says that she asked Uncle Skylar to send them a new tuxedo kitten or kittens, and then she saw my picture on Save A Cat on Facebook, which uses Petfinder ads.  She told Daddy, and Daddy saw my sister's picture.  The next day, they came to get us both!

My favorite activities are kitten-watching (in the picture above) and snuggling with Mommy.  At night, I love snuggling right against her hand or her arm.  If I'm sleeping and wake up and don't feel her arm there, I move so that I'm touching her.  I also like hopping up on the recliner and snuggling with Daddy when he takes his after-work nap.  But mostly I like kitten-watching and trying to play with the kittens through the window!

Freya writes:

Wow, it's been a year already!  When Mommy and Daddy came to see us at Salem Friends of Felines, I didn't want to pay any attention to them, and squirmed to be put back on the snoozing shelf when they picked me up.  They were insistent on seeing me, though, and I'm so glad they did!  I remember talking the whole way home, putting my paws through the carrier door to grab Mommy's hand while my brother stayed in the back of the carrier.  I knew we were going somewhere good, and I wanted to be out to find out where it was!

Now, my favorite activities are playing with sockies, my blue hedgehog with the squeaker and bell in it, and annoying Rori.  I always want to play or snuggle with her, and she sometimes lets me, but not always.  I also love being brushed by Mommy, and will hop up every evening to snuggle and get my brushies!  I love my brushies!

Thinking of Skylar on his first Bridge Day anniversary

There really are no words that fully express what this last year has been like for our family.  Skylar was the first cat who ever adopted me fully, even before I adopted him.  He was my "heart cat", as one of my friends puts it.  He was everyone's favorite, the one who played with all our foster babies and taught them how to have fun.  His sister was the head of the household, but he was next.  When she passed, the new head of household (Rori) still deferred to him a lot of the time.  That alone tells you how revered he was in this family.

As I think about him today, and grieve once again, I will cry into the fur of one who looks and acts so similar to him that sometimes we have to stop ourselves before we call Heimdall by Skylar's name accidentally.  Heimdall was the name given to the keeper of the Rainbow Bridge in Norse mythology, so it's appropriate that we gave that name to the kitten Skylar sent us, three days after he journeyed.  Heimdall and his sister Freya are signs that Skylar is still watching over us every day, and will continue to watch over us on our earthly journey, waiting for us at Bridge's end.

Thank you to all our friends who have supported us through this past year.  We love you all!

Therapy Cat Tales from 7/13/11

Tabby writes:


Sorry this note is so late!  Mommy's birthday, everything with kitten watching because Mama Leopard (our feral cat) brought her kittens by on Mommy's birthday and they all are practically living on our deck now, it all means writing my note took back stage.  That's fine, though, because I love watching the kitten show!

Last Wednesday, when we got on our second bus, the man we sat next to wanted to know all about me and kept waving to me.  He has a cat that he absolutely adores, and his wife has a cat, too.  The bus driver, however, wasn't impressed with me and told Mommy I smelled up the whole bus!  I meowed at him once, right after he made that comment, and everyone on the bus smiled.  Mommy replied that I'd had a bath the day before, and that at least cats didn't smell as bad as wet dogs!

We were early, so we ended up walking from the Rose Quarter/Rose Garden Arena to the Walgreens to do some shopping.  At Walgreens, a lady saw my stroller and picked up a Snoopy doggie toy they had on sale, bringing it over to us and pointing it out to Mommy.  Mommy smiled and said that would be a great toy, if I were a dog!  The lady smiled and looked more carefully, giggling, then took the toy to buy it for her own doggies at home.  It was a cute toy, but not one I would like to have.  We also heard about a new baby chihuahua that just got adopted.

After the store, we walked to H.  My friends had bought my book!  :)  >^..^<  Mommy signed it and I pawtographed it by pressing my paw onto a stamp pad and then onto the book.  :)  I don't like to have anything goopy on my paws, but Mommy cleaned it right off so it wasn't too bad.  I didn't want anyone touching my paw pads for the rest of the day, though!  We love my book, and the residents love it, too.  They had it read to them a few days before, when it came, so we got to hear how much they enjoyed it!

I went upstairs to visit, and got mobbed in the tv room!  T., G., H., S., M., and a few others were there, waiting for me.  I made a new friend, B.  She fell and broke her arm, so she's there for a little while until she recovers.  She cried as she petted me and talked to me, because she missed her little doggie that went to the Bridge a few months ago.  She apologized for crying, but Mommy told her that she totally understood and that it was good for her to cry.  I snuggled in, then sat on her walker seat for a bit as well.  She had a Fig Newton wrapper, but didn't have any left to give me.  I looked over at G., but she didn't have any either.  That treat was GOOD last week!

I sat with G. for a few minutes, then went over to see T. and S.  I rolled around on T.'s walker seat again and rolled off again!  Surprised, I shook my head while everyone laughed.  Why, oh why can't I remember that it's not a solid back?!  I sat on S.'s lap, then went over to see M. and let her pet me.  I haven't seen her in a while, so I was really happy to see her again.  Then, I decided it was time to leave the tv room, so I walked out, Mommy following with my stroller.

A lot of my friends were either off doing other things or sleeping, but I got to visit with a lot of people anyway.  I saw B. again, because she'd gone back to her room.  She was happy that Mommy was writing down my adventures, and wondered if she'd be included.  Of course you are, B.!  I don't know if you'll read this, or have it read to you, but I loved visiting with you!  *headbonks*

D. was walking in the hallway, so we stopped to visit with her.  Mommy asked if she was trying to go to her room, or where she was going, and she told us she just wanted to walk for a while.  Good for her!  :)  I sniffed P.'s feet, making her smile.

We visited with a few people another floor, too.  They'd requested that we visit them.  One lady wasn't ready for our visit, because she was taking a nap, but she got up and let us in anyway.  She liked seeing me, but we'll come back another time when she's more ready for a visit.  A man whose family had requested a visit smiled when he was told who was visiting, and fixed his hair for us.  He was happy to have me come in and see him!  Another lady, whom we'd visited with before, was so very glad for my visit.  She'd missed me!  I lay down on the arm of her recliner and let her pet me and snuggle me, then lay down on her lap.  Mommy took her hand and moved it over my stripes while she described me to the lady, who is almost totally blind.  Then the lady petted me and told us stories about the kitties she used to have.

After we got off our last bus going home, Mommy would NOT let me walk!  I usually walk at least a third of the way home from the cross street to our driveway, but she wouldn't unzip the stroller!  She said we didn't have time.  Then, it started to rain, so I was just as glad I wasn't walking in that rain.  I did get to walk up the stairs by myself, though.  I absolutely LOVE stairs!

Wordless Wednesday: Mama Leopard, "Daddy" Tuxie, and baby kittens

Digital scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Happy Gotcha Day anniversary to Tabby & Carbon, and an honor for Heimdall!

The PDX pride mommy here:

Wow, we've been so caught up in the kitten drama with Mama Leopard's kits that *blushes* I forgot that it is Tabby & Carbon's Gotcha Day Anniversary today!  So sorry!  It's 6 years ago today that they came home.  I saw a sign on the feed store in Clatskanie, Oregon, where my husband grew up.  The sign said, "Free Kittens".  All the way down to Long Beach and all the way back, Scott kept on saying, "I want a puddy!  Remind me to stop so we can look at them!"  I knew what we would find when we got back to the store, because I'd had a dream a few years earlier about it.

Sure enough, when we got back to the store, there was a bunny in a cage just outside the front door of the store, and further down the porch was another wire cage with two little kittens!  Just like in my dream!  We felt so bad for them, because it had been 90 degrees out and one of the kittens was black with long fur and didn't look very happy.  The other one was laying down in the litter box.  There was some food in the cage, but it didn't look like it had been eaten, and they had some water as well.

The clerk came out and told us the kittens were from different litters and the rest of the litters had already been adopted.  Just these two were left.  Scott picked up the black one, and immediately the kitten climbed up his shirt and perched on his shoulder and around his neck like a parrot, snuggling in and digging in his claws.  I picked up the little tabby one, and she snuggled into my elbow.  After a few minutes I handed the little one to Scott and picked his off his shoulder to snuggle.  The lady got a cardboard box for us and punched a few holes in it with a scissors, then we put the kittens in it.

When we got in the truck, we opened the box and four big eyes looked up at us.  I asked, "What are you going to name them?"  Scott replied, "Tabitha and Carbon.  A friend had two kittens with the same coloring and personalities, and that's what she named hers.  I helped her find them at the shelter, so that's what these two are going to be named."  We told them their names, and they settled down in the box.

After a while, Tabby decided she wanted to get out and see what the rest of the truck was like.  She liked watching out the windows, but then she wanted to crawl all over Scott when he was driving!  I kept having to pick her off him and try to hold her, while trying to keep her from going into the extended cab!  Carbon was not having a good ride.  He was way too warm, so he threw up a few times.  I cleaned it up each time, and he purred a little and licked my fingers while I petted him.

We put Tabby back in the box and closed them both in it while we went into the pet store to get supplies, because Scott wasn't prepared for adopting any cats.  I had agreed to adopt Skylar and Lydia a few days earlier, but we weren't living together yet, so the house was without anything for kitties.  Scratching post, litter box, two kinds of food, CHECK.  Toys, CHECK.

Once in the house, we put everything out for them and then opened the box.  Immediately, Carbon found Scott's work boot and hopped in it.  Mind you, he was only 5 weeks and Tabby was only 4 weeks at the time, so he fit perfectly in that boot!  He took a mini nap while Tabs explored, then he hopped out and explored, too.  I was eating some cake, and Tabby wanted to know what I was doing, so I lifted her onto the couch and she took a nosedive into the cake!  From that point on, she's loved cake, whipped cream, and any people food.  Carbon helped her clean up, of course.

Later on, we noticed the house was too quiet for a house with kittens.  We'd been watching a movie and letting them explore the house after showing them the food and litter box.  We just about turned the whole house upside down looking for them, and found them curled up in the top two drawers of Scott's dresser!  They were asleep, and looked at us like, "Well, we found comfy nap spots!  Why did you wake us up?"  They'd crawled up the back of the dresser behind the drawers, using the drawers as steps!

Heimdall has an honor today, as well.  He's Captain of the Week over at Cathugger!

Mama Leopard & kittens update

Mama Leopard writes:

Yesterday was a busy day for my kittens, Tuxie, and myself.  We spent nearly all of it lounging on the deck or in the freshly-mown and mulched grass in the yard.  I really like this yard.  It supplies many needed things for raising my kittens properly:  food, water, hunting training ground, shelter!  Tux likes it here, too, and that's a plus.  We all slept under the deck or on the deck.

Yesterday afternoon, Tuxie and I took the babies into the grass to teach them how to camouflage themselves.  My little ones were more interested in playing and roughhousing than the lesson, but they did well with reminders to stay down and watch for movement.  The humans didn't even see us until one of my babies popped its head up to look at the house, and then they saw us!

Last night, I was very brave and let the human lady look at my babies from just the other side of the window-door.  She was on one side, touching the glass, and my striped baby was eating on the other side.  I watched, stared at her long enough so that she knew she wasn't supposed to come out of that door, and then proceeded to take a bath!  Tux felt comfortable enough to turn his back on her with the baby there, too!

This morning, we stayed on the deck while she reached out her hand to put food on the deck for us.  She says that's an improvement, and we think so, too.  I was snuggled on the deck with two of my babies, and I got up but didn't disappear underneath.

I am polydactyl, and one of my tabby kids is, too.  I now have shown the lady that I have another kitten!  Previously, she knew about (and filmed) two tabbies and a white & tabby.  The white & tabby that she filmed is a little boy.  Well, when I was sleeping on the deck, I was snuggled with TWO white & tabby kittens!  So, I have four kittens total!

Mama Leopard's kitten presentation day!

Mama Leopard writes:

I'd been considering bringing my kittens to the food place for a few days, but there was a loud machine in their yard.  The machine cut the grass and stirred up the mice, so yesterday (when it was all quiet) I decided to bring my kittens.  I looked around to make sure it was safe, then hopped up on the deck.  My kittens followed, then scurried around on the new surface, testing it out and smelling all the smells.  As I went over to eat from the food pile the lady and man leave for us, my kittens saw the inside cats for the first time.  Were they ever surprised, on both sides of the funny window-door!

I saw one of the inside cats run off, then come back with the human lady.  She was very happy to see my little family and told me what a good mama I am!  Then she got a funny-looking thing and set it up on the floor where the inside kitties have their food bowls.  I knew she wouldn't come outside without letting me know first, so I kept eating and one of my little ones joined me, discovering what kibble was for the first time.  The lady put something on the food container inside, then lay down on the floor!  She said she was going to take a video of us.




Later on last night, Tuxie and I came back with my kittens.  Tuxie's a good dad to my kittens, washing them and playing with them a bit, even though he looks at them like they just landed out of the blue sometimes.

My kittens are now about 8 1/2 weeks old.  I have one who looks like me, one with a classic marbled tabby pattern, and one who is white with tabby patches and reminds me of the inside kitty named Starla.  The little ones are very interested in the inside kitties, and go up to the window-door to look in and play by tapping their little paws on the glass.  Heimdall plays back, and tries to bat at their little tails as they run past the window!

Happy Birthday to our Mommy!!!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!!!

Today's Mommy's birthday!  Freya's helping her celebrate by bringing her string, blue hedgehog, and blue sockie.  Rori's helping her celebrate by letting her pet.  Everyone's celebrating by giving her snuggles!  Daddy got her two Harry Potter movies, so we'll all be watching those later on today.

Mommy also got a big blue ball for her birthday.  We don't quite know why she replaced the office chair with this new ball, but she says it's good for her balance to sit on it?  We can still hop up and sit on her lap, and that's the main thing.  And...we get the old office chair as a scratching post!  Yay!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day from all of us at the PDX pride!  Stay safe, celebrate freedom and those who gave their lives for it!  Keep your pets indoors, please, with lots of water and in cool conditions.  We will be watching the fireworks from the windows!  :)  >^..^<

Therapy Cat Tales from 6/30/11

Tabby writes:


Wow, such a busy day!  I was half-snoozing under the folding chair when it was time to leave, so Mommy had to pull me out of my nice, snug cave to put me in the stroller.  Missy just looked at me, interested in what was happening, but Heimdall wanted to come with me!  Mommy told him he'd have a turn in the stroller when we came back.  He loves to ride around the house in it.  :)  At the marsh right by our house, I saw a mama duck with two little baby ducklings!  Nice!  The mama was teaching them how to give themselves baths.

On the MAX train, a boy in a wheelchair got on with his nurse.  It took a few minutes for the nurse to realize that I was a cat instead of a human baby, mol, but then she wanted to pet me.  Mommy told her it was ok, and asked if the boy wanted to pet me as well.  When the boy nodded, I got to sit on his lap.  He was wearing this huge raincoat that covered his chair as well, kind of like a big, zippered bag, so the nurse unzipped it for him and then he could pet me.  I wanted to snuggle in his coat!  :)  Nice and warm!  He loved me doing that!

At H., Mommy showed my friends in the office a flyer of my book, and they looked at the website for it.  They love that I have a book now!  They may even order it for the library there!  If they do, I'll paw-sign the copy and Mommy will sign it, too.  Then we went up to see my other friends.

D. rode up in the elevator with us, and was really glad to see me.  Then, S. was waiting patiently in the lobby when we got off the elevator.  She comes from another floor specifically to see me on my visiting days!  She used to feed a feral cat when she had her own room, but can't anymore.  I purred for her and Mommy talked with her about her previous cats.  We went into the tv room to see T., and I sat on T.'s walker again.  I wanted tummy rubs, so I rolled over, and fell off!  I had thought that the walker bag was solid, but I rolled right through it!  I landed on my paws, shook, and looked up at Mommy and T., wondering what happened!  Mommy told me and made sure I was ok, then I jumped in my stroller and onto T.'s lap again.  MOL!  G. was very happy to see me, too, and she had a yummy treat for me.  It's called a fig newton, and I ate a quarter of it!  *licks lips happily*  I ate it right out of her hand while she smiled at me!  Totally made her day, as well as mine!  In R.'s room, there were two loud monsters, one near R. and one near the other lady.  I kept looking back and forth between them, then I started telling the closer one off for being so loud!  I don't like those monsters.  Mommy called them oxygen machines.

After visiting, we went to the pet store and they put the flyer for my book on their bulletin board.  The owner was quite impressed that we wrote a children's book!  :)  >^..^<  When we got on the MAX to go home, there was a lady who is moving to Portland with her two cats and looking for housing that will allow pets.  She loves the stroller idea, and loved petting me and talking with Mommy.  Another lady on the bus talked with Mommy about therapy pets vs. service animals, and regulations for each, because her autistic son is going to college next fall and loves cats.  She didn't know that cats could be service animals for autistic people, so Mommy told her to check out the Service Animal Registry of America page to find trainers and more information.  They certify many different kinds of service animals, and also certify therapy pets even though we are not service animals.