Happy 9th Purrthday to Rori!

Rori writes:

Wow!  I'm 9 years old?  I don't feel like I'm a senior cat!  It's hard to believe that 9 years ago today in a yard in SE Portland, OR, USA, my mom-cat gave birth to my brother Knut and me.  I think we had other littermates, too, but I'm not sure because it was so long ago and I was so young (4 weeks old) when I got adopted.  My mom-cat, Rachel, was a feral, and my dad-cat, Spongebob, was an unfixed pet.  My brother's dad remains unknown.  I only know who my dad-cat was because Little Bit and I have the same dad-cat (and so do two of Little Bit's kittens).  Little Bit and I aren't littermates, though.  I'm the older sister!

Here's a picture of my brother, Knut, hugging me in our sleep.  We had just had a bath, and are approximately 4 1/2 weeks old in that picture.

Here's Knut a few years ago, playing at being a Jedi!  His mommy, my mommy's coworker Tritia, took this picture while she was folding laundry.  Our mommies like to compare notes on how we're doing, because we still have some of the same quirks and personality traits, despite having been in separate homes since we were about two months old.

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!

Remembering Skylar....

Skylar, there isn't a day that goes by that we don't think of you and how you lit up our lives.  I dreamt about you, and woke up feeling a presence behind me on the pillow.  No one was there, at least no one living, but I believe you came to visit us so I smiled and said hi to you.

In some ways, it doesn't seem like it could be five years since you left us.  In others, it seems like more than that because our lives have changed so much since then.  Your other mommy, Erin, and your little boy, JJ, are doing fine.  We know you loved them just as much as you loved your daddy and me.  We all tell JJ how you knew he was there before Erin did, and how you used to sit on Erin and purr at him.  I'm so glad that Erin could be with us when we said goodbye to you, hard as that was for all involved, including Dr. C.

You were one special boy, Skylar, and we cherish your memory and the memories of our time with you.  You were so full of life, even at the end when you were so sick.  You kept your word, sending us new twins in the form of Freya & Heimdall, who inherited the same respect from the others as you and Lydia had.  We see your influence in their lives every day, even though you never actually met them.  There's a reason we gave Heimdall your name as his middle name, because his personality matches yours in so many inexplicable ways.  He's sleeping on the computer desk as I'm typing this, dreaming away.

Carbon took over your role in the household when you left, and has become just as much the "bouncer" of the family as you were, keeping peace between the others, although always deferential to Rori, who is still our Big Kitty (alpha).

I'm sure you greeted my mom last year and are taking good care of her, along with the other furries she knew in life.  That gives me some comfort.  I know you're with your beloved sister Lydia, and the others who went to the Bridge.

We miss you so much, dear Skylar, but we're glad to have had the gift of knowing both you and your sister while you lived.  Thank you.

Love,

your mommy Karen.

Happy 10th Gotcha Day, Tabby & Carbon!

Happy 10th Gotcha Day to Tabby and Carbon!  This is a picture of them when they were just a few weeks old, after they came to live with Daddy.  They were in a free kittens cage in Clatskanie, OR, where Daddy grew up.  He and Mommy were driving through on their way to Long Beach, WA, for their first beach trip together, and Mommy saw a sign on the feed store billboard:  Free Kittens.  All the way down and all the way back, Daddy kept asking Mommy to help him remember to stop.  Sure enough, there were two little kittens in the cage on the porch!  Carbon was 5 weeks old and Tabby was 4 weeks old.

Needless to say, the rest was history!  Daddy picked up Carbon while Mommy picked up Tabby, then they switched after a few minutes.  Carbon threw up on the way home, but Tabby loved the trip, even looking out the side window and trying to climb on Daddy (who was driving).

Once at their new home, the little house in SE Portland, Tabby dove headfirst into Mommy's cake while Carbon curled up in Daddy's work boot for a nap!  Later on, after playing, eating, and using the litter box, it got really quiet in the house.  Daddy and Mommy noticed and started looking for the kittens.  They looked everywhere, to no avail, until Daddy had a brainstorm.  He opened the top two drawers of his dresser, and four blinking, sleepy eyes, along with two big yawns, greeted him!  The kittens had climbed up the back of the dresser using the drawers as stairsteps!

Daddy's a lifesaver!

Autumn writes:

We're so proud of our daddy!  We've been hearing little birdies cheeping in the fireplace for a few weeks now.  Our purrents said the birdies built a nest way up high in the chimney and the sounds were echoing down to us in the house.  Daddy put a big piece of cardboard across the opening so that we couldn't get to them and they couldn't get in the house itself, in case they came down that far.

A few days ago, I woke Daddy up trying to climb the fireplace screen to see if I could move that cardboard piece.  I could hear the birdies even clearer, and they made quite a racket!  Their nest fell down into the fireplace!  Our purrents put the junk mail in the fireplace instead of shredding it, but we haven't been able to light a fire for a while because of the nest.  That turned out to be very lucky for the little birdies!  There were four alive, and one that had been dead for a while.  The four live ones let Daddy pick them up (with gloves, of course) and put them in the cardboard base of a water bottle package.  They were flopping around and trying to fly, but couldn't yet.  Mommy says they'd just gotten their adult feathers but hadn't learned how to fly yet.  She said they looked like robins, and the nest was made of sticks.  I thought they looked like fun to play with, but Daddy said ikke (meaning no).

Daddy took them out and put them up on the top of the roof so the mama birdie could find them.  We heard them cheeping the next morning, so they survived until then and were calling for their mama.  We hope they're ok now and have learned to fly!  Please don't make anymore nests in our chimney, birdies!  Daddy's going to put a chimney cap on it so they can't get in.

Happy 10th purrthday, Tabby!

Tabby writes:

No, this isn't how I'm dressing for my purrthday today, but it is how I'm going to dress for my next visit to H.!  It's my 10th purrthday today!  Carbon had his last week, so it's my turn now!  Yay!  I'm asking Mommy right away if I can have the same yummy treats we got last week, and I'm sure she'll say we can!  Although we've been getting into the treats without being given them, lately, oopsie!  Daddy put the swag bag from the Doggie Dash on the floor, and a certain just-over-a-year-old found out that there were Temptations in small packages in there.  Oops!  I might've told her to check, but I'm not telling.  I had fun yesterday opening a bite-sized package and chasing it around the floor for about 15 minutes, then eating all the treats that dropped out of it.  Yummy!  There actually aren't that many per package, since they're the sample-sized ones.  I wanted to chase another package, but our purrents are limiting it to one package per kitty, with the fun exercise to go along with it.

Happy 10th Purrthday, Carbon!

Carbon writes:

Thanks for all the purrthday wishes!  Wowee, I can't believe I'm 10 years old today!  Seems like just yesterday I was a kitten in Clatskanie, OR, with my momcat and siblings.  I'm the old man of the household, but I still feel like a kitten sometimes!  Auntie Shawnee got to see me play the other day when she was here helping Mommy sort through some things.  She also helped Daddy get a new futon mattress for us, and it came with strings!  She was flipping the strings for Autumn, and I stalked them, too.  POUNCE!!!!  I had one in my mouth and was bunny-kicking it before she knew what had happened, and Mommy was just giggling!  See, Auntie Shawnee, I DO still play!  I also wanted to use Auntie Shawnee's purse as a chair, but she wouldn't let me after she saw me snuggled on it.  I don't even know why, but it wasn't there when I came back from having a bite to eat.  I lay down on the arm of the couch instead.

We'll put some pictures of all the excitement and new things that appeared over the last week, but that post will be up later on this week.

Yummy Treats!

Little Bit:  Freya, what do you have there?
Freya:  They're some new treats that we got in the mail!  The nice folks at Chewy.com sent us these new Greenies to try!
Autumn:  Fun paper, Auntie Freya, can I play?
Freya:  Yes, Autumn, but don't spill the Greenies.
Little Bit:  She can't; they're resealable.  See the top of the bag?  That keeps them from falling out and keeps them safe from kitten paws.
Autumn:  But not kitten teeth!  Can we open them yet?
Freya:  Better let Mommy give you some, rather than trying to bite the packet.  You know she doesn't like when we help ourselves, because then we tend to eat too many at once!

Rori:  They sure smell good!  What flavor are they?
Mommy:  They're tuna-flavored and salmon-flavored.  The tuna flavor is the SmartBites Hairball Control formula and the salmon flavor is the Healthy Skin and Fur formula.
Rori:  Does this mean that they'll help with my matting?
Mommy:  Yes, but you still have to let me brush the shed fur before the mats start.
Rori:  Do I get these treats afterward?  Please?
Mommy:  I can do that!

Sherbet:  Are these even food?  They taste too good to be real food?
Mommy:  They're called treats, Sherbet.  They're special, not part of your regular food.
Sherbet:  I think I like treats!

Disclaimer:  We were given the Greenies by the people at Chewy.com in exchange for a review.
  All opinions are our own and not influenced by the sponsors.

Sherbet's Miracle!

Everyone else has been playing with Mommy's hand, and I decided I wanted a try!  This just happened, and Mommy's in awe.  Actually, so am I!  I was very gentle and used soft paws (i.e. no claws).  This video was taken after I had touched her a few times in a row.  After the first time it happened, she turned around to find seven of the others had gathered in the room and were witnesses!

Bad Mommy forgot Tigress' Birthday!

Tigress writes:

I'm so embarrassed!  Mommy was bad and forgot my purrthday!  Mommy, I turned four years old on May 12th, and you're only letting everyone know now?  I've been 4 for two whole weeks now!

I've been trying to teach Little Nissy that it's ok to come inside the house.  He's still not sure about the door, but he's getting braver every day.  When we come up to eat together, I go first to make sure it's ok.  He follows, and then we both meow for food.  He's learning that the door will open but that no one will come out.  I'm very proud of him for that!  He even will eat when Autumn and Tabby stick their heads out the door, and when Mommy and Daddy have fingers to sniff.  He hasn't wanted to sniff the fingers, but he doesn't immediately back away now.  It's tough raising a kitten, even one who was half-grown by the time I adopted him!

My own mom-cat, Leopard, disappeared when I was a few months old, so I was raised by my dad-cat, Tuxie.  He and Leopard had been bringing me to our purrents' deck for a while by the time Leopard disappeared, so Tuxie asked the people for help in raising me and my siblings, Miss Marble and Hemming.  We all turned out just fine, even with all of that!  My other sibling disappeared when Leopard disappeared.  When Leopard came back, months later, my other sibling didn't come with her, so we don't know what happened there.

Hemming probably celebrated our purrthday with his adoptive mommy, and I celebrated here (because I knew it was our purrthday).  Mommy did give us special treats, so some part of her brain connected that it was a special day, even if she didn't remember what it was.  More about the treats on Friday, because I'll let one of the others tell about that.  I took my treats outside with Little Nissy when we got the treats.  It was his first time eating treats, but he loves them just as much as the rest of us!

I know my sister, Miss Marble, is smiling at us from the Rainbow Bridge.  She would love that I have someone else outside to social-eat with and to team-hunt with.

Mom-cat Leopard, Hemming, Miss Marble, and the other sibling in summer 2011.

Hemming, the other sibling, Leopard, Miss Marble, and Tigress in summer 2011.

Feral Friday: What's Up?

Sherbet writes:

I haz a sockie!  I saw one of Daddy's sockies fall over by the dresser, and this time I didn't hiss at it.  This time, I got an idea!  I scrambled out of my carrier box, grabbed the sockie, and high-tailed it back in the box before Mommy got back in from hanging up the towel she'd taken from the top of the dresser.  She came back in to retrieve the sockie, and it wasn't there!  I had it and was already furring it up!  It makes a comfy little pillow, and I like putting my fur pillows (piles of shedded fur) on it, too.  You might be able to see it under my front paws if you biggify my piccie.

Little Nissy writes:

Thanks so much for the nice welcome on my post last week!  It's great to meet all of you.  Here are some better pictures of me.  The mommy took them while she had the door cracked a little.  A few of the inside kitties were trying to sniff at me, and I didn't like that, but then Mama Tigress came back outside to reassure me.  I didn't want to have my picture taken after that, but I came back to eat again once the door was shut.

Mouses, Mommy, can't you just let me eat?  Wait, am I too young yet to say "Mouses"?  The kitty I'm named after said it, but he was older than I am.  I'm just over a year old.

Mama Tigress making sure I know it's ok to get my picture taken.  She tried to get back out the door while the mommy was taking pictures, but her head wouldn't fit through.  She had to wait for the mommy to open it wider, and then she came back out to me.  The mommy closed the door a little again so that aunties Autumn and Dare wouldn't sneak out.

Mama Tigress says we are probably truly related, because I may have extra toes like she does.  The humans can't tell for sure, but it looks like I do from the pictures that the mommy took yesterday.  I also, umm, need to have a surgery, they said?  Something that little boykits have?  Mama Tigress says it's not a big deal, and her brother had that surgery, so it must be ok.  The humans want me to get a little more used to the door before that happens, though.

I Have a Name!

Hi, everyone!  I'm Tigress' little friend.  She told me about this yard a few months ago, and I've been a regular ever since.  I'm a young boy kit, probably just over a year old.  I'm feral, but I'm OK with sniffing the human hands from about five inches away when they put food out for us.  Tigress treats me like her own kitten, even though I'm not really.

The humans told me about a blogging friend who just went to the Bridge.  His name was Nerissa, and he started out as a feral boy like me.  I look kind of like him, so the humans asked him mommy if I could be named after him.  So, I'm Little Nerissa, and will have the nicknames of Nissy or Rissa.

 Thanks, Nissy's family, for my new name!

May the Fourth Be With You!

Happy Star Wars Day from Heimdall! He decided to dress up as Yoda for the occasion!

Catching Some Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Well, it's the end of the A to Z Challenge!  We're glad that we had this opportunity, and what a fun challenge and month this has been!  We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have!  Now it's time for some well-deserved rest.

Rori and her brother Knut as kittens

Carbon

Rori as a kitten and Auntie Lydia, with Tabby by the dresser

Spooky 1 and Carbon

Little Bit's kittens:  Cloud, with Squishy and Kai (and Tiger's paw)

Tiger

Kai on Mommy's neck

Heimdall

Rori

Panther

Little Bit

Yes!

Tigress writes:

Yes, this really is me on the computer desk!  I'm now comfortable being up here, unless Mommy is going to use the computer.  I even get up here when she's sitting in the chair here, now!  And, I gave her a nose-kiss a couple weeks ago, the first ever!

"X"-eption?

What's an "x"-eption?  Mommy says we have to make one for her, and we hope you will, too.  Today was an "x"-eptionally busy day for her, so she forgot to do our "x" post until now!  Sorry!  What, Mommy?  It's spelled "exception"?  Oh, ok!

None of us here have had an x-ray, which was what we were going to blog about today if Mommy had written it for us on time.  Auntie Lydia had one once on her intestines, and another one on her teeth.  She had something called stomatitis, where her body was literally dissolving her own teeth!  It's some kind of common autoimmune disease for cats, and can be prevented or at least lessened by regular brushing and seeing the vet for dentals.  She had to have all her teeth pulled!  She did just fine after that, though, and even ate crunchies after her mouth healed.  We're glad the x-rays helped the vets figure out the problem so they could help her.

When We Were Very Young....

Get ready for cute baby kitten pics, because this is what we looked like when we were very young!  (Yes, A.A. Milne is one of Mommy's favorite authors.)

Carbon and Tabby, Summer 2005

Tabby and Rori, Fall 2007

Tabby and Knut (Rori's brother), Fall 2007

Spooky 1, Fall 2007

Baby Chiba (Little Bit's sister), Spring 2008

Starla, Spring 2009

Smokey (Little Bit's sister), Winter 2008

Little Bit, Winter 2008

Little Bit with her boys (Squishy, Kai, Tiger, and Cloud), Spring 2009

Carbon with Little Bit's baby sisters (Boo and Michelle), Spring 2009

Baby-Tuxie, Summer 2009

Baby-Dot, Summer 2009

Spooky 2, Fall 2009

Freya and Heimdall, Summer 2010

Tigress, Summer 2011

Leopard (the feral kittens' mom), Hemming, Miss Marble, their brother, Summer 2011