Happy Anniversary to Mommy & Daddy!

Happy 4th anniversary to our mommy and daddy!

We have been having a very exciting time here!  Last weekend, JJ spent a day and night with us.  It's very interesting having a 4 1/2-year-old here!  Tabby, Carbon, and Little Bit remembered right away who he was, even though they hadn't seen him for about a year.  Freya took a while to warm up to him, and Heimdall ran to hide in the bedroom (behind a closed door).  Missy, who's only seen him once, walked right up to him and rubbed against him for pets!

When Miss Marble came inside, she was ok until she realized that something she didn't know about was walking around and talking.  Then she made a beeline for the back door and wanted out!  Tigress wasn't sure about him, but she ended up coming a few steps in while he was watching quietly from behind Daddy in the hallway.  Later on, she got pets from Mommy through the door while JJ was watching beside Mommy.  Very brave!

Heimdall's saying he wants everyone to know he wasn't as chicken as it sounds.  He really ran to assess the situation, then came back out later after he'd had a good, long nap to think about things!  Poor Rori didn't know what to do, so she ran in circles around Daddy's chair, because JJ slept in the big bed in her room.  After he left, though, she was back up on the bed, then lay on the train tracks in the spare room (JJ's playroom, at the moment).  Rori just didn't know what JJ was, then figured out he's a human kitten.  She used to know what he was, but he's grown so much in the last year!

Remember Tabby writing about Tigress' birdie in the last post?  Well, yesterday Tigress had a baby bunny!  We've got wild bunnies around here, but none in our yard because of the ferals.  Obviously, the girls are such good huntresses that they scared them all away!  Tigress found one somewhere and brought it to show us.  We were watching through the glass, amazed, while she carried it around, let it go, ran a short distance away, then stalked it and caught it again.  Daddy got up to see what we were watching.  He went out to try to get the baby bunny away from Tigress, because he didn't want it to suffer.  She let it go and ran off, then he helped it decide where to go when it hopped away.  Daddy said the little bunny wasn't hurt at all, not even a bite mark!

Of Vishus Deer, Birdies, and Visiting

Tabby writes:

We've had a crazy week here at the PDX pride!  On Monday, Auntie Diane had back surgery at the same hospital where Daddy had his back surgery.  That meant that I could go visit her!  Mommy and Daddy took me there on Tuesday.  I snuggled right by Auntie Diane on her bed, purred, and got lots of petting.  Auntie Diane was so impressed with my visiting skills, and so were the nursing staff who came to take her for x-rays.  This was a special visit because it was for a family member and I could ride in an air-conditioned vehicle (not the bus).  My regular visiting schedule starts up again next month, when it won't be so hot out.

Miss Marble climbed a tree to go blue jay hunting on Thursday!  Yep, all the way to the top of our dead apple tree out back!  Of course, by the time she got to the top, the jay was long-gone.  Bummers.  I was watching out the kitchen window, and chattered at the jay as it flew off.  Miss Marble yelled for Mommy to come get her out of the tree, but Mommy said she could do it all by herself.  And, guess what?  She did!  She turned herself around and went back down the branch to the trunk.  By that time, Tigress had woken up.  Tigress bounded over to the tree, then put on the brakes when she realized that her sis was up there.  They talked for a few minutes, then Tigress shook her head at her crazy sister and went off to hunt her own food.  Miss Marble came the rest of the way down the tree.  Can you see her in the pics below?  I'll give you the two big pictures, then close-ups of the pictures.

Friday, Daddy looked out the back window and saw Tigress with a baby birdie in her mouth.  It was still alive, and Tig was playing with it.  She let it go, then batted it, then caught it again.  She brought it up to the deck to show Daddy, but he didn't want her playing with it up there.  He opened the door to make her drop the birdie, and in it came!  We had a baby birdie in the house!  We all were so excited, but Heimdall and Little Bit were the most excited.  They started to hunt it, stalking it as it ran around the house looking for a way out.  Daddy got down on hands and knees, trying to capture it, and finally succeeded.  He took it out to the back fence and let it go, telling it that it had better run away quickly.  It ran for a little while, then took off flying.

Yesterday, Daddy, Mommy, and I went to Goble to see how Auntie Diane was doing.  I met her mom and their new doggie, Timber.  Timber barks very loudly!  He's just a puppy, and was doing his best to guard his people from us.  Auntie Diane told him we were ok, but he didn't agree, so he got crated.  I, however, was very calm and curled up on the couch between Auntie Diane and Mommy.  Everyone was so proud of me!  After the visit with them, we went to Gramma and Grampa's.  They live in the town where I was born:  Clatskanie.  I wasn't born in their yard, but that's the same town.  I got pets from Gramma while she and Mommy talked.  Grampa and Daddy did stuff on the computer.  I saw two of their kitties:  Elizabeth and Eeyore.  Pinky was around then, too, but he didn't come out to be seen.  They are all three 12 years old!  That's really old for kitties!

When we left, it was dark.  Daddy knows to drive slower in the dark around there, because there are deer that can run onto the road.  Well, guess what happened?  Yep, a deer ran in front of the car.  He ran to the middle of the road, then just stood there.  We thought we were going to be safe and drive past him, since he was facing away from us and the other side of the road was clear.  Nope, he turned around and came toward us again.  He ran right into Daddy's side of the car!  He hit the door and the front of the car, leaving a big dent.  He also pooped on the car!  It was really scary, and I saw the whole thing because I was standing on Mommy's purse!  Can you believe that deer got back up after it hit us and ran into the woods?  We went back to Gramma and Grampa's so Grampa could check on the car.  We ended up switching the car for the truck (since Grampa owns both vehicles) and drove back home in the truck.  We were all so glad to be back home again safely!

Happy 5th birthday to Rori!

Happy birthday to the Big Kitty of the house, our alpha cat Rori!  Hard to believe that she's 5 years old already!  Happy birthday to her adopted-out brother Knut as well.  We get updates on him occasionally, and he's doing fine at his home with a co-worker of Mommy's.  Rori's celebrating her birthday by snuggling with Starla, watching birdies out the window, and watching out for everyone in the household.

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day Anniversary to the Twins!!

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to the twins:  Freya and Heimdall!  Two years ago today is when Mommy and Daddy went down to Salem Friends of Felines and adopted them.  The twins cried in the carrier on the way home, but when they got out all they wanted to do was go adventuring inside the house!  Everything about a house was new to them, because they hadn't been in one since they were tiny kittens.  Of course, now, two years later, they're showing Miss Marble and even Tigress the ropes concerning house life.  Yep, Freya's taken over the mothering duties of Miss Marble completely, just as she did with her own brother and the other kittens in the kitten room at SFOF.  Both of them have been trying to encourage Tigress to come inside more and more, and Tigress has succeeded in coming in to eat from the inside food bowl twice now.  Freya still harasses Aunties Rori and Missy, but even that has calmed down considerably.  Rori even snuggles with Freya; seldom, but she does!  Heimdall enjoys being anywhere Mommy is, preferably on her lap.

Remembering Skylar

Can't believe it's already been two years since our beloved Skylar made his journey to the Bridge.  We know he's watching over us and smiling at us all, especially at the twins he sent us so soon after he left.  He would be very proud of all his family, those who knew him and those who have come to be part of our family after he left.

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to Tabby and Carbon!

Tabby writes:

Has it really been 7 years since Mommy and Daddy saw the "Free Kittens" sign in Clatskanie, OR, and took Carbon and me home?  We were so little, and it was such a hot day that day!  I was only 4 weeks old, and Carbon was only 5 weeks old.  We snuggled into our new purrents' arms, then Carbon climbed up to hide on Daddy's shoulder while I tried to play with Mommy's hair.  They carried us into the truck in a box, but I wanted to explore the truck.  I already was a car cat!  Carbon threw up on the way home, because he wasn't feeling well from being outside.  He's long-haired, and all black, so the heat was worse for him.  When we got to our new home and were let out to explore, we had so much fun investigating everything!  Carbon fell asleep in Daddy's stinky work boot, and I dove head-first into Mommy's birthday cake plate!  Later on, we both climbed up the inside back of Daddy's dresser, using the drawers as steps, and fell asleep in the top two drawers!

I'm doing sooooo much better now than I had been, mostly because Mommy and Daddy are giving me fluids every day.  They want to give me a whole unit of fluids, but only 1/2 unit can fit in me at a time.  So I get the 1/2 unit.  No visiting for me until I feel better, my purrents say.  Thank you all for your purrs and prayers!  They really do help so much!  I love you all!

R.K. brought a birthday present to show Mommy yesterday!

R.K. writes:

It was about this time last year when my mama raccoon brought us by to see the human home and food source for the first time.  In fact, the feline kits came by one year ago yesterday for the first time!  Well, I thought I'd continue the tradition.  Yep, that's right:  this half-blind raccoon who thinks she's a kitty had kits!  I've got two healthy furballs, and they're a month or two old.  I'm not telling exactly how old they are, though.  They're about 1/4 to 1/3 my size, and I'm still nursing them, although one of them tried the cat food tonight.  I was so proud!  They played on the deck while I ate, except when the sensor light scared them.  There's space under the deck, so they ran down there when the light was too much for them.  They had a lot of fun playing on the deck, though!  They both investigated (and exclaimed about) the ladder that's lying on there, and had fun jumping in and out of the squares.  One played with the rope that's attached to the ladder, tossing the end up and catching it.  The other found a dead mouse that Tigress had presented to the humans.  My silly kit picked the mouse up and couldn't decide what it was!  It held the mouse between its front paws while standing up, turned the mouse over and over between its paws, then walked off with it to the edge of the deck.  Five minutes later, it was still carrying the dead mouse around, trying to decide if it was food or a toy!

Happy birthday to our mommy!

Happy birthday, Mommy!

She's taking care of us and Daddy now, so we wanted to say an extra-special happy birthday to our mommy.  We're going to give her lots of snuggles today!

P.S.  We want to say thanks for the purrayers for Tabby.  She wrote a post previous to this one on this bloggie, and is doing a lot better.

Tabby's doing better yesterday and today.

Tabby writes:

How come I can't remember a whole evening and night?  Carbon says I was acting weird, and Mommy calls it hallucinating.  I just simply can't remember anything from then.  I'm doing better now, and have been doing well for almost 24 hours.  Daddy was able to drive to the vet's to get me fluids tonight!  He's much less hurty than he was, and we're all grateful for that.  Both my purrents gave me sub-q fluids tonight, but only half a unit because I was so wiggly.  I really don't like how it feels going in!  It helps, but it feels so funny, and then I get a lump for a while until it absorbs.  I'm resting behind Mommy while she's helping me type right now, though.  No drooling, even!

Please pray for Tabby!

The PDX pride Mommy here:  Please pray/think good thoughts for Tabby.  She got heat stroke yesterday (it got to 88 Farenheit in our house, even with the ac on!) and started hallucinating.  I'm calling the vet in the morning to see what they recommend, and putting cold cloths on her in the meantime.  She's doing better now.

Daddy's back home!

Daddy's back home!  We all got some snuggle time with him yesterday.  :)  He's got a scar on his back from the surgery, but he's starting to walk better and won't be in as much pain as he was before having surgery.  He loved that Tabby visited him at the hospital, and told her that she behaved so well when she was there visiting him.  It'll be a while until he feels well again, but he'll heal with all of us snuggling and purring!  Thanks for your purrrayers as well.

Tabby and Mommy visited Daddy in the hospital

Tabby writes:

I got to go with Mommy and Grandpa to visit Daddy in the hospital!  I didn't know where we were going, so I got scared that they were taking me back to the vet.  Nope, we went someplace called a hospital, which is a bigger version of a human vet.  I cheered up a lady in one of the waiting rooms, got petted by two little girls, and surprised one of the intake nurses.  The intake nurse asked Mommy all kinds of questions about me after learning about my important job of visiting Daddy.

Then, we finally got to see Daddy.  He was in a strange bed with a couple machines hooked up to him.  He was napping when we got there, but woke up for a bit.  He was still very groggy, and threw up a little since he got woken up.  I wanted to sit in his lap, but I couldn't find his lap!  I headed for his tummy instead, and got warned off.  Mommy put me on Daddy's legs, so I snuggled there.  I wanted to be closer, but they wouldn't let me.  I knew I was helping Daddy by being there and purrrrrrrring on him, though!  We stayed about 20 minutes with Daddy, then went back home.  Daddy gets to come back home tomorrow.

I had another drooling episode tonight, but not for very long.  I may need another anti-nausea injection next week.  That helped me the last time!

Daddy's just had back surgery.

Mommy just got a phone call from Daddy's surgeon.  Daddy's out of surgery now!  He just had back surgery to remove some bone spurs from his lower back that were making it very painful for him.  They were also putting pressure on a nerve that made his feet tingly.  He'll stay in the hospital today and tonight, then come back home tomorrow.  We're so glad the surgery went well!  Mommy's going to go to see him later today.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Fourth of July if you celebrated it, and that all furries steered clear of the fireworks!

Tabby most likely has pancreatitis.

Tabby writes:

It wasn't a seizure!  The vet said it was most likely pancreatitis.  I got fluids and some anti-nausea medicine, and am back home.  Carbon's trying to clean the vet smell off me!  Thank you for your purrs.

Please purr for Tabby!

Tabby writes:

I'm not doing well again.  :(  Is this what a seizure feels like?  I drool and get scared when it happens, so I cry out for Mommy and Daddy.  They wipe the drool off and snuggle me.  They'll take me in to the vet in the morning and see what the vet thinks.  Please purr for me!

Surprising Sunday!

Tigress writes:

I'm scared of the big booms and the funny lights in the sky.  They come every night now, and last for a long time!  I run to the deck and stay very close to the door, because I feel safe where the humans and food are.  Last night, while the big booms and lights were in the sky, the mommy fed us and R.K. on the deck.  Since I was staying so close to the door, the mommy put her hand out.  I sniffed it and bumped it with my nose again, so she asked if she could pet my ears.  I've been letting her do that for a couple weeks now, and it feels good to be petted on my ears.  Last night, though, I needed a little more reassurance, so I let her pet my back from my shoulder down to the middle of my back!  I turned my head, and then I positioned myself so she could pet me at a better angle!  I surprised both her and myself by doing that, but it felt like when my mom-cat and dad-cat used to groom me.  This morning, I let her do it again!

Heimdall ate my spider friend!

Rori writes:

*cries and glares at Heimdall*  Heimdall ate my spider friend!  I found a very interesting, large spider on the lip of the garbage can last night!  I was watching it, up on my hind legs so I could see it better because I'm a small kitty.  Mommy thought I was trying to get into the garbage can, but then she saw what I was looking at.  Spiders are my friends!  I had one at the old house, watched it spin its web between the stove and the wall in the kitchen, for a few months before it disappeared.  I didn't let anyone else near it.  My nephew Heimdall saw what I was looking at last night, though, and started stalking it.  I warned him by cuffing him, but he wouldn't stop.  I followed it around the corner of the garbage can, then couldn't see it anymore, so I backed off to watch from a distance in case it came back out.  So did Heimdall, but he saw it first, pawed it, and ate it!  Ate my spider friend!

No more yellow in Tabby's ears!

Tabby writes:

No more yellow in my ears!  Mommy's been checking my ears to see if the jaundice is going away, and the color has been gradually coming back.  Tonight, the yellow was gone, replaced by all healthy, purply skin!  Heimdall was checking my ears, too, helping Mommy.

Happy Daddy's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day to all the daddies out there!  Missy's hanging out with Daddy today, snuggling on the couch to keep him company while he takes a nap.  Freya hopped up earlier to stand on Daddy's side and tell him that she was up there to snuggle with him, then lay down and rested.  He had to laugh that she woke him up to tell him she was there to snuggle!

Grandpa was over on Friday night, and we all ran up to greet him and get pets.  Missy tried to crawl in his jacket sleeve!  Freya likes flopping over on her side so that he can rub her side, and then Heimdall gets jealous of his sister and does the same thing.

Happy birthday to Tabby!

Tabby writes:

Today's my 7th birthday!  Wow!  Mommy says that I need to behave as a 7-year-old now.  I think she said that because I was screaming at her, though.  She was working on the computer and I wanted pets.  After asking her a few times, I screamed at her.  I'm usually pretty good about asking and waiting, but it's my birthday so I think I deserve a few pets and hugs this early!  I got them, but I had to behave properly for a little while first.  That was fine with me, because I knew I'd get my pets and birthday hugs then.

I've been teaching our raccoon kitty (R.K., the one who acts like she's a kitty) how to behave lately.  I've taught her to lie down on the other side of the glass from me.  I've also taught her how to touch noses, even though the glass is in the way so we can't really touch.  Grandma came by a few days ago and saw us doing both those things.  She loved it!  She hadn't really believed our purrents when they said that R.K. behaves like a kitty, but now she believes it!