Happy 14th Gotcha Day to Tabby!!!

Tabby says:

It's my 14th Gotcha Day today! I made it! I'm fading every day, but still hanging in there. I spend my days screaming, hanging out with my purrents, and watching Shadow. He's the new kitten, a new family member, and only 2 1/2 months old so he zooms around a lot. I think he looks a lot like my brother, Carbon, but he definitely smells different, so he's a bit confusing. And, yes, that's me on the top of the scratching post in this pic, and that's Carbon looking up at me. This was just after we got home to Daddy's from the cage on the front porch of the feed store in Clatskanie, OR. I was 4 weeks old and Carbon was 5 weeks old.

Yes, I did say THE NEW KITTEN!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  Mommy and Daddy were going to wait until after I passed to get another family member, but then they thought it might do me some good to have a job to do again, in whatever time I have left.  I love him!  They went down to Salem Friends of Felines, the same shelter that Freya and Heimdall came from, also the same one that JJ's Scamper came from, originally to look at another kitten but that one had already been adopted.  They thought that Shadow looked so much like Carbon!  He loves ball toys, and he keeps on pawing the jingle ball over to me to bat back to him.  He also likes following me around the house.  We all are learning to love him, and he's so much fun to watch exploring and figuring things out.  We're all a bit happier because he's here, although everyone still is spending a lot of time trying to help me feel better by snuggling with me.

He was born on April 26, 2019, and we adopted him on July 6, 2019.  His shelter name was "Shrek," but he's not green or an ogre, so his new name is "Shadow," which suits him better!  Yes, we've had a Shadow before, the main semi-socialized feral girl at the green house in Portland.  I think she'd like that we have another Shadow who will live as an inside-only cat.  I've taught him to ask for pets like I do, and like I've taught everyone else to do!  He's so smart.  Here's a few pictures, including one of me watching him play with the Crazy Circle, and a video.  More pics to come, as both Mommy and Daddy are shutterbugs!

Happy 5th Gotcha Day Annifursary to Freya & Heimdall!

Happy 5th Gotcha Day Annifursary to us!  Five years ago today, we were kittens at Salem Friends of Felines in Salem, OR.  We didn't know it then, but our lives were about to change drastically, and for the better!  SFOF is a wonderful no-kill shelter, and they have kitties in rooms where the public can come in and socialize with them, plus foster homes for those who need more direct socialization.

We loved being part of the kitten room clowder, but we were 3 1/2 months old and the oldest in the kitten room.  We really dreamed of a home of our own, like our other two siblings had.  They were adopted before our new purrents met us.  Instead of our current names, Freya was Furkins and Heimdall was Fonz.  Do we look like those names to you?  Our siblings also had names starting with F.

The day before we got adopted, Mommy had seen Heimdall's picture online on the Save A Cat game on Facebook.  It's a game that uses real shelter cats' profiles from Petfinder and donates ad-based revenue to the participating shelters.  She and Daddy had been thinking about getting one or two tuxedo kittens, but it was only two days after Skylar had passed and they weren't thinking about doing that right away.  Little did they know what Skylar and Lydia had planned for all of us!

Anyway, Mommy saw Heimdall's picture and noticed how much he looked like Skylar.  She went running out to Daddy and showed him the picture, then he searched for the rest of our biological family on Petfinder.  He found Freya's picture, and noticed right off how much she looked like Lydia!  The rest, as they say, is history!

Mommy and Daddy went down the next day and met us.  At first, we didn't want to interact with them, but then they found our favorite toys (a fleece wand and a feather wand) and played with us for a bit.  We were surprised, though, when Daddy came back in with a carrier and the lady who volunteered there.  The lady picked us up and put us in the carrier, with Daddy reassuring us and Mommy watching from outside the room.  We cried a bit, but once we got into the car Freya put her paws through the carrier mesh the whole way home.  Heimdall curled up against her in the back of the carrier.

We got our new names on the way home.  Mommy named Freya and Daddy named Heimdall, which is kind of cool because Daddy is Freya's person and Mommy is Heimdall's person.  That's the way everyone knew it was going to be, too, because Mommy was Skylar's person and Daddy was Lydia's.  So why wouldn't it be expected that the same would be true for us?  Freya is the Norse goddess of war and beauty, and Heimdall is the Norse god who is the guardian of the Rainbow Bridge.

Once we got home, we came out of our carrier with our tails and heads held high, exploring our new home with all the excitement and wonder that comes with kittenhood!  Our new family greeted us like long-lost friends, and we've been here ever since!

Happy Gotcha Day Annifursary to the Twins!

Hey, Sis!  Did you hear that?  It's our 4th Gotcha Day Annifursary!  Remember when we were just kittens and Mommy and Daddy came to Salem Friends of Felines to get us?  They said we looked just like Uncle Skylar and Auntie Lydia and they wanted us to be their very own kittens!  I remember being excited and scared at the same time and hiding in the back of the carrier.

What was that, Brother?  Oh, yeah.  I remember being at Salem Friends of Felines in the kitten room.  We were the oldest kittens in there, and I took over as the foster "mom" to the littlest ones who needed someone to mentor them.  You were the only one I let pretend nurse on me, though, and that was only because you're my brother.  I remember that ride to our new home.  I didn't want to leave the kitten room at all, but once we got in the car I wanted out of the carrier and kept reaching my paws through to hold onto Mommy and Daddy.

When we got home, I remember that we explored everything, with our new family trailing along behind watching what we were doing and trying to get to know us.  That was an adventure, and a fun one at that!  I'm so glad that Mommy saw your picture and Daddy saw mine, so that we found a home together, since we're littermates.  I'm glad we found this home to call our own!

Happy 3rd Gotcha Day Anniversary to Freya & Heimdall, and a Panther Update!

Freya writes:

It was three years ago today that we came home for the first time!  Mommy had seen my brother's picture online in a Facebook game called "Save a Cat", which helps shelter kitties.  She showed the picture to Daddy, and he looked for any littermates that were still at the shelter.  I was the only other one from our litter of four.  Just the two of us left, because our brothers had already found homes and our mama cat was an owned pet.

I look and act like Lydia, who owned Daddy, and my brother Heimdall looks and acts like Skylar, who owned Mommy.  We both fell into the appropriate roles so easily, it was like we'd always lived here!  Of course, we also have our own personalities, but the similarities are striking.  It's obvious to anyone who knew Skylar and Lydia that they sent us to our family!

Heimdall writes:

It's been three years since I adopted Mommy!  Well, and my sister adopted Daddy, and they adopted us!  When they went to Salem Friends of Felines, the place we were, they found us in a room full of kittens.  We were 3 1/2 months at the time, and the oldest two in the kitten room.  My sister had the role of substitute mama cat to the younger ones, and I was the main play friend.  My sister didn't want to interact with our purrents when they tried to play with her, but I did.  However, once we were in the carrier on the way to our home, I curled up in the back of the carrier while my sister cried and put her paws through the door of it, wanting reassurance.

When we were finally home and the carrier was put down on the floor in the living room, out we came with heads held high, tails held high, ears forward, and eyes bright.  We were on an adventure, and we knew it!  From that moment on, this has been home.  We're looking forward to many more years with our family!

Now, an update on Panther.  We still don't know where his home is, because no one responded to his collar tag or the ad Mommy put on Craigslist asking if anyone knew where he belonged.  Our purrents took him to the vet to have him tested, and he's negative for any diseases.  That's a great thing!  He also got all his shots, since we don't know if he had any before.  When they all came back from the vet, we got to meet him nose-to-nose!  I, of course, went right into the carrier to investigate it and him, because it was our carrier that we came home in.  He touched noses with me, then pushed by me to get out of the carrier.  I let him, then went in the carrier the rest of the way.  I don't really fit in it anymore, so my tail was out.  Mommy said that's exactly what Uncle Carbon did when Freya and I came home!  Panther wanted out soon after he met everyone, so Daddy let him back outside.  But now we can let him in when he wants in, and we can start trying to find him a home!