Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Missy writes:

Today's Daddy's birthday!  We're not saying how old he is, but it has a 4 in it somewhere.  We're going to make sure he has LOTS of snuggles and purrs today, especially because he's got a cold so he needs our snuggles to warm him up.  That little Autumn has been hogging Daddy lately, but today she's allowed to if she wants, I guess.  Normally, his lap is my territory.  At least she let me use the box first this morning, hmph.

Foster Friday: Introducing Autumn

Autumn writes:

Oh, hi!  I didn't realize there were other humans and big cats here, reading what we write!  I'm Autumn, and I've been at this place for a week now.  I'm a foster kitten.  I'm about 4 1/2 months old, and I'm a double-fanged monster!  Rawr!  No, actually I'm a sweet baby who is teething right now, because I just got my adult teeth but still have my baby teeth.  That means I like to chomp on arms and legs, but I'm always careful not to break the skin.  I have very good manners!  I even use soft paws on my foster purrents, instead of clawing (at least most of the time).

I'm also very smart!  In a week, I've learned to ask for petting and for up, just like Tabby and Heimdall do!  I also know how to hop into the stroller for a nap, and I know the best sleep spots in the house.  I also do funny kitten stuff, like try to climb onto the desk by standing in the garbage can, spilling it over in the process.  After I did that, I walked around the house with a used tissue on my back for a few minutes before I shook it off!  Foster Mommy didn't have the camera handy at the moment, though!

My other people had to give me up.  My other mommy loves me very much, but she split up with my other daddy and couldn't take me to college with her.  I couldn't stay with my other daddy, either.  My other mommy is a student of Foster Mommy's, so she called Foster Mommy and arranged to bring me to this home.  At the time, my name was Doug and my other people thought I was a little boykit.  I guess they never checked to see once I got old enough!  My foster purrents quickly changed my name once they saw I was a little girlkit.

This is why I'm now named Autumn.  My orange spot looks just like a leaf landed on my little head!  Everyone loves my colors.  There is another kitty here who looks like me and her name is Missy.  She doesn't really like me much, because she thinks I'm taking Foster Daddy away from her.  No, I'm not!  I just like sitting with him and snuggling because I spent most of my first day here in his lap being petted.

At first, I was overwhelmed by all the big kitties here.  At my other home, I was an only kitten, so this was a complete change!  I hissed at everyone, but then I realized that they were only curious.  I was curious, too!  I saw something waving around, so I crouched low in the chair and tracked it.  Suddenly, I made up my mind to grab it, so I pounced!  One of the big cats turned to look at me and jerked the waving thing away.  It was Heimdall's tail!  Now, every time I see that tail, I go play with it.  It's the best toy in the world, and the big cat attached to it, Heimdall, doesn't even mind unless I try to bite!

I also like playing with Dare, who is my size even though she's older than I am.  I like playing chase up and down the hallway with her, even though I can't leap as high as she does.  She hops to the top of the roll-top desk, and I can't get that far even with an in-between jump.  I try to get Rori to play sometimes, and she played a little with me yesterday around a box, but then she swatted at me and I got scared.  She was confused because I ran off, so she apologized to me by touching noses with me later on to tell me she was sorry.  All these big cats are two to five times my size, except for Dare and Missy.  That's big!

I like my foster home, but I would really love a home of my own.  I'm very social, smart, and friendly to humans and other cats.  I'm up-to-date on all my shots, but still need to be spayed.  My foster purrents are going to make an appointment for that next week, probably.

I'm off to explore and play!  Meow at you later!

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to Rori!

Rori writes:

Mommy says she may give me some nummies like I'm eating in this picture today, because it's my Gotcha Day Anniversary!  Cool!  The last time I got some wet-food nummies was when Grandma gave us some of her TOONA.  Mommy and Daddy don't eat that stuff, but they promised to give me some of a can of wet cat food.  That's just fine with me!  Yummy!

In case you missed it, the big family news was on our bloggie yesterday, about Grandma.  I'm still not used to not having her around, but things are getting better around here.  Grandpa came by last night and I actually let him see me!  Not only let him, but wanted him to follow me down the hall and into the room where my cave is!  I didn't want him to pet me, but I did want him to see where my cave is.  My purrents were so happy!  That's a big step for me, because I'm actually the shyest one of the clowder, even though I'm the Big Kitty of the House (read:  alpha cat).

It's now 7 years since I first met my forever family!  Did you know that that's how old Mama Lydia was when I first met her?  Mama Lydia was Uncle Skylar's sister, and she was Big Kitty before me.  She taught me everything about being Big Kitty in the year that I knew her.  She even let me snuggle with her!  I can't believe I'm as old as she was then!  Of course, she was sick at that point and I'm relatively healthy, so that makes a lot of difference.  The only major health problems I have are my weight and the cataract taking over my left eyeball.  Those don't stop me when I really want to do something, though, even climbing up the ladder to the bunk bed to snuggle with Mommy while she naps like I did last week, playing with my little sister Little Bit, or keeping tabs on the household.  I just keep on keeping on!

My brother was gotcha'd to be a foster kitten here at the same time I was gotcha'd, but then he was adopted out.  I got to stay!  My first human mommy was Mommy Erin, who lived with us at that time.

This is the first picture of me, right after Mommy picked me out of the middle of a spare tire in the neighbor's yard and handed me to Mommy Erin.  Mommy Erin had seen my brother and me crossing the street and ran in to tell Mommy and Daddy.  Of course, there was no question what was going to happen!

Saying Goodbye to Grandma

This is one of our favorite pictures of Grandma.  That's who the little girl was in our Wordless Wednesday post this week!  Grandma was Mommy's mommy, and she was living with us for the last 7 months.  She died of cancer on August 8th, so we're very sad about that.  There have been a lot of changes around here lately, things moving around, people coming in and out, meeting new people who are relatives whom we've never seen before, and different schedules.

Our purrents say we're a houseful of therapy cats, which is a good thing!  Having Tabby in our family has taught us all to be mindful of our purrents' emotions and behaviors, so when they first heard the news, we all offered ourselves to be petted and to purr for them.  Grandpa (Mommy's dad, who was divorced from Grandma ages ago) came over and immediately got three lap-sitters!  We've all been extremely snuggly and attentive to Mommy and Daddy and social with other people who have come by to offer help and condolences.

Heimdall was the closest to Grandma, and became her "furry doctor".  He would sneak into her room to do his rounds, walking under the desk, then around to check out underneath the hospital bed, then walk to the far wall and look up at her when she was lying in bed.  Then, most of the time, he'd go under the rocking chair and have to be caught to be taken out of the room.  If Grandma was in the rocking chair, he'd go over to her for pets.  None of us could be on Grandma's lap, because she had cancer and so her immune system was compromised by the chemo and radiation.  After she died, Heimdall went in to do his rounds and was very concerned when he didn't see her on the bed.  He hopped up onto the bed and immediately shrunk because he could tell she hadn't been there for a week.  She had been in the hospital for a few days before she died, so by the time Heimdall went into her room it had been almost two weeks since she'd last slept in her bed.  Heimdall immediately let Mommy pick him up and snuggle him, then Freya came over to lick him on the head when he was set in the hallway.  He still pulls on Grandma's door at least twice a day, hoping that she'll reappear.

Tabby is the only one of us who knew that humans could die.  She'd encountered death smells and "not there" smells, as well as ministered to dying friends on her visits, so she's been trying to help the rest of us through this.  However, without direct experience, it's hard for us to visualize one of our people being "not there".  It's a different "not there" than when fosters have been adopted.  This "not there" leaves an empty place that's sad, instead of a happy-sad one, and we don't like it.

Mommy let us smell the death smells on Grandma's things when they were retrieved from the hospital, but that only helped a little.  Human death smells, while similar, are still different enough from kitty death smells that we don't know if what we smelled really was a death smell.  Our purrents say it was, but we can't be sure.  All we know is that our third purrson is missing from our lives.

We love you, Grandma!  We miss you very much, and wish you were here to give us leg pets and hand pets, knit blankets for us, and tell us how much you love us, too.  If you were here, Heimdall would purr his best motorboat purr for you!  We know you are at the Bridge, so we will see you again.  We hope your spirit will come visit us like the spirits of our furry family members Skylar and Spooky.

Stephanie Thompson

July 20, 1948 to

August 8, 2014

Wordless Wednesday: Remembering