This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

We are grateful for the award from Poppy Q, but feel unworthy because we have not been good kitteh blogging friends of late. Perhaps we should explainify why we haven't been visiting as often as we would like.

About a year ago, Mommy began taking on some new responsibilities where she works, including training a new bean. At about the same time, Mommy's sister (Aunt Patty) was getting married. Shortly after Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris got married, they moved to Missouri. You may remember that we blogged about their wedding, reception, and move. Mommy and Daddy helped Aunt Patty and Uncle Chris, and our cousins Rainbow, Muse, Cinnamon, Toast, and Bruiser move to Missouri.

When Mommy got back to work, she had to hire another two new beans, for a total of three newbeans in five months. So Mommy was busy all day training and then spent most evenings and weekends doing her own work. Which did not leave enough time for us, Daddy, or blogging! Now, the three new beans are just about through with training, so now Mommy can do more of her own work in the daytime, and spend more time with us on the weekends!

So we have been trying to get caught up reading blogs and finding out what all we missed in the Cat Blogosphere. We really appreciate those of you who have continued to follow our blog, and to leave us comments, without our doing much to reciprocate. You make us laugh and smile and cry and be grateful to be part of this wondrous network known as the Cat Blogosphere.

instead, if you give Cookie a mouse, she won't let it go.  when the other kittehs surround her asking for their turn, Cookie will hold onto the mouse and growl.

The moral to the story is don't give Cookie a mouse.

in other news, we are ashamed to admit that we missed giving our friend Miss Tammy Faye a proper birthday greeting.  sorry that it's late, but here's wishing her the best!

PapaDave came and took us home on Saturday evening.  When we got home, he gave each of us a bath. This is me during my bath:

PapaDave used sweet smelling baby shampoo!  This is Caramel getting her bath.  She does not look very happy, because all her floofy furs got wet and made her look much smaller.

Now we look and smell all pretty.

We asked PapaDave where MamaSue was.  He said that she was visiting her Mommy, Daddy, and brother.  They live far away. Last weekend on Sunday afternoon, MamaSue came home to Casa Furry Bambino.

When she got here, she opened the door to our apartment so that we could mingle with the Big Kitties again.  I like to mingle with the Big Kitties, but sometimes they can be grumpy.  Especially the Female Big Kitty named Meerkat.  Sometimes Caramel or I accidentally run into Meerkat.  Then she gets all growly and then she smacks us and hisses.  The handsome tuxedo kitty is a little nicer, but sometimes he hisses at us too.  He and I had a nice talk one night over drinks on the dining room table.

The Big Grey Kitty is the nicest of all of the Big Kitties, but he kind of keeps to himself.  I would like to get to know him better, but I get the idea that he is spoken for.

For Father's Day, the Big Kitties, and Caramel and me, got some nice gifts for PapaDave.  Well, Mama Sue helped.  She went to the store for us, but she brought back just what we knew PapaDave would like.  Caramel is sitting on PapaDave's lap as he opened his gifts.

That was a cool mousie that rolls on the floor.  Panda Bear studied the mousie and discovered that it was not a real mousie, but it was still fun.

We also gave PapaDave a feather on a stick toy.  See how much fun PapaDave had playing with Panda Bear and Meerkat with it?

All five of us kittehs are in this photo.  Left to right, Meerkat, PapaDave, me (Cookie), Caramel, Padre, and Panda Bear.  MamaSue is not in the picture because she is taking the picture.  But those are her shoes next to Panda Bear.

Lots of exciting things have been happening lately, so we will post more another time.  Bye for now!

sorry about that last post efurryone.  we have had two fosters boarders introoders living here at Casa Furry Bambino for the past week.  while they were here, they hijacked our blog.

mom explained to me (blah blah blah …) that these kittehs are called "fosters" and that we are "paying it forward" by letting them stay with us while they wait for their furrever home.  just like how someone fostered us furry bambinos before we came to live here.

what-evvvverrrrrrrrrrr.

the pipsqueaks are off at boarding school right now (Parma PetSmart).  yay!!!  we have the house to ourselves again!  while they were here, there was a gate at the top of the stairs, and that really put a crimp on our games of thundering herds of elephants.

panda bear and i were especially annoyed at the placement of gates that restricted our air space.  panda bear is a very clever escape artist, so the gates didn't last long before mom and dad gave up.

the only good thing about them being here is that we scored some cool new cat toys out of the deal.

in other news, the neighbors next door have multiple barky dogs that are disturbing my beauty sleep.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreehhh!

I am Caramel! My sister Cookie and I are staying here at Casa Furry Bambino while we await our furrever homes! We sure hope that we will be adopted together! Here's our story so far.

It was a cold and snowy winter day when our MamaKitty was taken inside by a very nice lady and man. Our MamaKitty, unbeknownst to the lady and man, was about to have kittens! US!! And our two sisters, four girl kitties in all. Our MamaKitty, along with MamaGina (the nice lady) and PapaRomie (the nice man) took furry good care of us while we were babies.

But now we are big girls! This is my glamour shot.

And this is a photo of Cookie. You can see where her tummy was shaved. On Wednesday, Cookie and I went to the V-E-T and had our ladygardenectomies.

We are three months old now, and ready to find furrever homes. So MamaGina and PapaRomie brought us here to Casa Furry Bambino. MamaSue and PapaDave are very nice people, too. Apparently, they are part of a rescue group called PAWS.

MamaSue and PapaDave gave us our very own apartment! We have food and water, comfy beds, and did I mention toys? I just can't get enough of this red and white sock toy. The green mousie is way cool, too. And MamaGina made sure to remember to bring us our favorite ball chew toy.

Apparently, there are three other kitties who live with MamaSue and PapaDave. We are borrowing their blog to tell the world about us! Bye for now!

In other news, yesterday morning Meerkat, Padre, and I were on Mouse Patrol!  I managed to wriggle my way into the fireplace (through a closed fireplace chain-link screen) to sniff the mousie out.  Upon my triumphant return following the mousie into the living room, I expected to receive praise and accolades for my bravery and mousing acumen.

Nope.  Instead, Mom grabbed me, and she and Dad gave me a BATH.  A human-style shower.  Complete with running water.  In the kitchen sink.

Apparently, they didn't think I could lick myself clean.  Mommy was upset that I was no longer a tuxedo kitty, but a black cat.  (Not that there's anything wrong with being a black cat.)

After getting me thoroughly saturated, Dad wrapped me in a soft towel and dried me off.

But I still needed to groom my furs back into place.  Especially my tail furs.

So I settled in the fambly room and began the process of realigning my furs into position. Padre was more freaked out about the whole bath thing than I was.  He came over to give me a good sniff.

Grooming grooming grooming …

Luckily, Meerkat and Padre continued the pursuit of the mousie after I was waylaid by the bath.  When Dad tried to resecure the fireplace, that's when he finally saw the mousie.  Padre and Meerkat told Dad to just grab the mousie in his teeths.  Instead, Dad left the scene to retrieve his human style mouse catching equipment (plastic tub and flattened Cheerios box).  Dad captured the mousie in the corner of the living room.

Meerkat inspected the mousie in the plastic container.  You can tell she is really craving a taste of mouse between her teeth and gums.

Then Dad went outside and released the mousie into the garden.

I am plotting my revenge for the bath, and for the release of the mousie …

Mom and Dad have been rotten parents lately. They claim that they have been too busy to help us blog.  And they even missed blogging on our Purrthday on May 16!!!  Well, you know what that means.

House.

Trashing.

Par-tay!

You are all invited over to Casa Furry Bambino for a house trashing party. (Although, we have to admit, the house looks pretty messy already.)

Mom is on "vaCATion" from her day hunting gig. Note, the center of the word vacation is CAT, which means that her time off should center around US. Well, that does not seem to be happening.

Dad pretty much works at home lately, but we think that they will be busy outside. Yesterday, a superbig room that moves showed up and horked a big pile of dirt in the driveway:

Ya'd think Mom and Dad would be upset, but noooo! They actually paid for the horking of the dirt. Go figure. Anyway, they apparently will be busy moving the dirt off the driveway. So they probably won't notice a few dozen extra cats hanging out inside!

They did remember to give us a present that all three of us have to share:

C'mon over to try it out:

See you at the party!

Today is the anniversary of the day that Clyde came into our lives, back in 1992.  We adopted Clyde as a tiny kitten, and compared to our other cat Mohawk, Clyde was "little one".  Clyde soon outgrew Mohawk, weighing nearly twice as much!

We adopted Clyde on a sunny spring Saturday.  David drove while Clyde frantically tried to get out of the cardboard carrier box.  When I let Clyde out "just for a minute", Clyde immediately scrambled over to David and climbed into his lap.  Clyde loved David completely from Day One.  He loved me, too, but he had an especially strong bond with "Daddy".  He always had such a sweet expression on his face.

Clyde taught us how to play fetch with him.  We got a yellow plastic spinny toy that looked like a wheel out of a cereal box.  When we rolled it across the floor, Clyde would go running after it, retrieve it in his mouth, carry it back to us while yodeling ("mrrooww, mrrooww-ooo"). Then Clyde would drop his toy into an empty Kleenex box.  That was our cue to congratulate him and then send it spinning again across the room.

Clyde reallly liked to help me with my classwork. Although I worked full time, I occasionally took some classes at the university where I worked.  Clyde would assist me while I studied.  This photo is Clyde posing with a college dictionary.  Note the serious expression on his face.

We originally adopted Clyde as a companion to our cat Mohawk, but Clyde soon asserted himself as Top Cat.  Despite this pecking order between Mohawk and Clyde, it was Clyde who was the timid one when guests arrived.  Clyde would make himself scarce as soon as the apartment buzzer rang.

Clyde really liked to spend time with us, and would follow us from room to room.  Luckily, Clyde usually would sit nearby, rather than ON our lap.  He was just too big for my lap!

Clyde also liked to assist with laundry.  We have lots of photos of Clyde in laundry baskets, among clean laundy.  This photo is one of our favorites.

In the picture above, you can clearly see Clyde's white "foofles".  Foofles are the area on a cat's face just below the nose and above the upper lip.  Clyde's foofles are white.  Clyde's other really cool facial marking are his extra set of "eyes" above his real eyes.  When Clyde's real eyes were closed, it looked like his "extra eyes" were open.  Clyde's "extra eyes" are the white and black markings just above his real eyes.  See what I mean?  Do any of you tabbies out there have "extra eyes"?

Clyde was an unusually talkative cat.  He especially enjoyed conversing with us while we prepared his meals. In fact, his whole mealtime routine made Snoopy's suppertime dance seem pathetic. Clyde would begin by rubbing up against us, sashaying back and forth, and rubbing the can of stinky goodness with his chin.  He would sing to us, and when we responded with a comment or question, Clyde would continue the conversation.  We had to feed Mohawk and Clyde separately because Clyde would just about inhale whatever we fed him, then go after Mohawk's food.  Dr. Keith, one of the V-E-T's the kitties have seen, refers to this as being a "food bully".  But he was just a really big boy with a huge appetite.

The Furry Bambinos have Clyde to thank for their own adoptions.  After Clyde went to the Rainbow Bridge in February 2007, it took us awhile before we were ready to consider adopting again.  We made a visit to our local PetSmart to flirt with the kitties in the adoption area.  That's when we saw Padre.  Because of his resemblance to Clyde, we were all mushy about him.  Diana, one of the PAWS rescue group's volunteers, and Padre's foster mom, asked those famous last words: "Would you like to pet him?"

We fell in love with Padre, but remembered our desire to adopt two siblings.  Enter Panda Bear and Meerkat.  Panda Bear, always the outgoing one, pawed at us through his cage.  When we opened the cage door, Meerkat hung back, but Panda Bear literally leapt into my arms.  We were not sure we wanted to go from having zero cats to having three cats.  The main concern I had was would the three cats get along with each other.  The main concern David had was would my allergies and asthma handle such an abrupt furry transition.  We debated and discussed, went for a drive, came back later, and filled out the application to adopt all three kitties.

So it's because of Padre's resemblance to Clyde that The Furry Bambinos are now part of our fambly.  Thanks for indulging me while I honor Clyde's memory today.

In honor of the occasion, we Furry Bambinos are hosting all kitties, woofies, buns, and all other creatures great and small at Casa Furry Bambino! Come on over anytime, and join us for some fun!

We will have food, drinks, nip, naps, nip, treats, games, Thundering Herds of Elephants … did I mention nip? Oh, and we have two different sets of stairs, so we can have multiple games of THOE going on.

And when you need a rest from all the excitement, we have lots of cozy napping places! For example … this is a recent photo of Meerkat and me spooning in the new cozy cat bed.

Hope to see you! Purrrrss!

mommy and daddy took a trip far far away a few weeks ago.  Aunt Deb came and visited us.  we like Aunt Deb.

when mommy and daddy got back from chicago, we gave their bags a good sniff.  they brought us a present!

looky!  padre gave it a good sniff.

panda bear gave it a good sniff.

i gave it a good sniff.  the new bed is furry comfortabubble.

the new bed fits me best!  it's pretty, it's pink, and the brown spots go great with my furs!

hoppy easter and passover everykitty!