Happy Cinco de Mayo!

 Spyro:  Mom got out the sombrero again this year, but was unsuccessful in getting a kitty to wear it long enough for a photo, so here are a couple of blasts from the past.  I am showing Mom just what I think of the sombrero.

Karen Jo:  To me it looks like you are taking if off to a ladycat.

Spyro: Hmmpf!  Mom didn't take a picture of me bunny kicking it, which came just a few seconds later.

Bambino:  Mom sneaked up on me while I was napping and plonked it on my head and took the photo before I was awake enough to get it off.

Both:  Happy Cinco de Mayo and don't drink too many meowgaritas.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 Spyro: Mom couldn't find the green derby, so we are just plain, but we are happy to be at the party.

 Oja:  Mom caught me nomming, but I'm ready for more.

 Rocio: I'm all rested up and ready to party.

 Bambino: I just woke up from my nap and I'm ready to party, too.

 Horus: I'm not quite finished with my nap, but I'll be there.

Julius: I'm always ready to party.  We left Brody and Cissy at home because they aren't quite ready for a big party.

Late Tosies Tuesday

Bambino:  Mom promised me faithfully that she would post my toes after the President's speech, but she fell asleep during the commentary and didn't wake up until 0-dark-thirty.  I say she should have posted them as soon as she took the photo.  Humpf.  Well, anyway, here's my toes.

How We Drive Mom Crazy

 Horus and Spyro:  We try to run outside almost every time Mom opens the screen door.

Spyro:  I like to get up on the door, so I can jump down and out when Mom opens it.

 Spyro, Oja and Rocio:  We like to get up on the computer desk between Mom and the computer monitor.  She has to pay attention to us then, until we feel like moving.

Oja:  You can't really tell, but that's me in the photo.  I like to walk on the keyboard.

 Rocio and Oja:  We like to knock the speakers off the computer desk and watch Mom crawling around under the desk trying to pick them up and get them back on the desk.

Rocio:  I dumped Mom's water over on her desk and it dripped into the keyboard.  Luckily the keyboard survived but some of the keys don't work as well as they used to.

Bambino:  I like to knock books and videos off their shelves.

All:  We all know which food bowls are ours, but we keep switching around which ones we want to eat out of, so Mom never knows if all of us got some Stinky Goodness and L-lysine.

Horus:  I like to annoy Rocio and make him hiss loudly.  We haven't gotten into a real fight yet, but it makes Mom come break it up.

The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

 Spyro:  We have crazy days when the blurpy is visiting.  We have hazy days when the rains come.  Mostly we have lazy days when we stretch out because it's hot.  It doesn't get really hot, hot, hot here, but we don't have air conditioning and it does get up in the eighties or even hit ninety sometimes and this is how we react to that.  I like to stretch out on the floor near the kitchen and let the breeze from the kitchen windows to the living room windows blow over me.

Oja:  I don't like to get down on the floor with the mancats, so I stretch out here on a chair.

 Rocio:  I like to stretch out on my back on the couch.

 Bambino:  I like the same chair as Oja, though not at the same time.

Horus:  I like to stretch out on the floor like Spyro, who photobombed my shot.

Bambino's Birthday Bash

Bambino: I'm all spruced up and ready for my birthday bash to begin.  Mom got lazy and didn't let me have a party on my birthday, which was July 6th, so we are having a luau over here.  We got Mom up before dawn and Spyro helped her dig a fire pit for the roast pig.

Spyro:  I love to dig and all this sand is making me very happy.

Bambino:  Then we sent her off to the fish market to get the biggest, tastiest fish they had.  She came back with some mahi mahi and some fishies I never heard of, but they look delicious.  She also found some shrimp and crab.  Everything is all ready for the party now.  Spyro and Horus are going to be bartenders, serving up nip mai tais, niptinis and meowgaritas.  We brought along our huge bucket of nip to use as needed for making the fish tastier and just for fun.  Don't worry, Tabbies o Trout Town, there are no burds on the menu.  We have regular milk and coconut milk for the youngsters.  We have a band all set up for dancing and we can limbo.  Mom brought all our wand toys.  She has learned how to work four wands at once.  Let's see if we can get her up to six.  She deserves a real workout for making me wait a month for my party.  We can party all night and sleep in the sand or up in the trees and teleport home in the morning.

Cats in Hats

Bambino:  Mom doesn't even have Photoshop, so she had to do it for real.  First she tried to put it on Horus (Mom changed his name from Jose) but he wouldn't wear it long enough for her to snap the photo, so she put it on me.  I had just woken up from a nap and wasn't fast enough to shake it off, so here I am.  I wanted her to put it on Rocio, as he was sound asleep and wouldn't have even known about it, but Mom thought that was a little mean, especially since that's what she did to him for St. Patrick's Day.

New Member -- Bambino

Bambino:  Hi, I'm Bambino.  I'm the youngest and smallest of the cats who live with Karen Jo.  I am eleven months old and I'm longer than Oja, but the same height and less weight.  I came to live here in April, just a few days after Austin ran off to the Rainbow Bridge.  I was supposed to be Rocio's new pal, but he hissed at me, so I became Spyro's new pal instead.  Rocio and I are buddies now.  I am friends with all the cats here, even Oja doesn't hiss at me, but I don't get too close to her, just in case, except at meal time.  I run everywhere I go; why walk when you can run?  I try to make every cat share their Stinky Goodness with me, even Oja and she doesn't hiss at me when I stick my nose into her food dish.  My nickname is Bambino el Fino because I am such a fine boy.  I am the only all tabby cat here.  Mom has been trying to get a picture of my tummy spots, but I don't show off my tummy much.  I love to play with my brothers: THoE, rasslin', pounce.  My other nickname is The Prince of Pounce because I love to pounce my brothers.  I pounced Oja once and only once.  She got really hissed off and that's no fun.  I love all kinds of toys and will play with anything that catches my attention, including tails.

What Makes Our Town Special

 Bambino:  What makes our town so special this time of year is window whiffies.  We live up in the mountains of Northern New Mexico and we get open windows all summer long because it never gets hot enough for long enough to need a cold air blowy thingy.

Spyro:  I get my whiffies hanging on the screen door. Don't worry, Mom has a hook-and-eye to keep the door closed so I can't get out.

Karen Jo:  I won't give the name of the town because what makes it so special to humans really turns a lot of people off.  I have had people actually walk away from me when I told them where I was from.  Our little town is situated up in the mountains on the side of a hopefully extinct volcano.  I say hopefully because there are still signs that it hasn't cooled off completely yet.  We have hot springs not far from town along with an area of sulfur mud that was once a spa for people to soak their pains away.  The nickname for our town is The Hill, so our high school teams are the Hilltoppers and their logo is a top hat.  I think that is probably unique.  Lately we have been special for forest fires.  We have one going on right now at the top of the volcano.  It smells like the world's biggest fireplace around here.  That general area has been burned over twice in the last 15 years, so that will help contain it.

Oja:  You forgot to mention the birds.  We have birds year round, so the Bird Channel never goes off the air.  We also have a great animal rescue group called Friends of the Shelter who have connections with not only the local animal shelter, but the one in the next town, too.  They rescued Herman, Spyro and me and sent out Mom's name to Felines & Friends in Santa Fe, so Austin, Rocio, Bambino and Jose could finds homes here, too.

Karen Jo:  Friends of the Shelter is a great group.  Herman's foster Mom takes in the almost impossible to get adopted cats and does what she can to make them more adoptable.  She has two fosters that have been with her for over year.

Our Gotcha Day Stories by Spyro and the Gang

 Spyro:  We aren't all members of the club yet, but we are all tabbies and Mom will join us all up eventually.  All of our Gotcha Day stories really begin with Herman because without him, none of us would be here, so I'll start with him.  Mom was sad and lonely and wanted a cat, but wasn't sure she was ready for one yet.  Then she saw a picture of Herman on a bulletin board with a notice saying that he was a sad and lonely kitty who nobody wanted to adopt because he was FIV+ and FeLV+.  Mom researched his diseases and decided that she could handle his care and adopted him. If Herman had let Mom know that he wanted to stay an only cat, Emma, Oja and I would never have been adopted.  However, Herman let Mom know that he wanted kitty company, so when the phone call came about Emma, she acted immediately and brought her home.  When the phone call came about me, Mom acted immediately again.  My family had decided that they didn't want me any more and took me to the County Shelter, who notified Friends of the Shelter, who notified Mom that I was at the shelter and needed a home as soon as possible or they were going to send me to the Rainbow Bridge for being FeLV+.  The nice man at the shelter offered to show Mom the papers my before family filled out to give me up, but Mom didn't want to know why they didn't want me any more.  She didn't care.  Whatever it was, she could handle it.

Mom put me in the safe room, but I didn't want to stay.  The very first picture Mom took of me was my asking to be let out of the safe room to meet Herman.  We were buddies at first sight.  I have been the greeter cat ever since.  I am always the first kitty to make friends with the newcomers.

 Oja:  This is the first picture Mom took of me.  I am in the safe room, getting ready to jump up in her lap.  Nobody knows where I came from.  The city shelter in Espanola has an drop box for people too embarrassed to admit that they are getting rid of their kitty.  I was dumped in the box one night and the shelter people tested me and spayed me and gave me my shots, then called Friends of the Shelter in Los Alamos, where Mom lives and told them about me.  The person they talked to was Herman's foster Mom and she called our Mom who came and got me that same day.  Wherever I had been it was BAD.  I was terrified and clung to Mom for dear life whenever she came into the safe room for days.  I stayed in the safe room for a month, though Herman came in to visit me daily.  I hissed at him every time and Mom put him out again.  When I finally came out to stay, I still hissed at Herman and Spyro whenever I saw them.  Very gradually I became good friends with both of them, especially Herman.  We would cuddle together and groom each other for hours.  I even started kitty wrestling with Spyro, though not with Herman.  He was just to  big for me to want to wrestle him.

 Rocio:  The first picture Mom took of me isn't very good and you can't see my face, so this is a later one.  In January Mom got a call from Felines & Friends New Mexico saying that Austin's and my foster parent was going to college and couldn't foster us any more.  We needed a foster home and fast.  Mom thought about it for a couple of days, then agreed.  The only reason she hesitated was because Oja doesn't like boycats and she thought twice about inflicting two more of us on her.  We moved into the safe room, but wanted out immediately.  We had seen that there was a lot more house and other kitties to meet, so Mom let us out.  We befriended Spyro immediately, but Oja hissed and hissed at us.  By February, Mom decided  to adopt up permanently because we were so bonded to each other and she couldn't bear the thought of us being adopted separately.  Spyro was also so fond of us that to let someone else adopt us would break his heart again, because he was already heart-broken over Herman's going to the Bridge.  Mom couldn't stand that idea either.  Our adoption was made official in March.  Unfortunately, Austin ran off to the Bridge in April and broke my heart anyway.  I was really glad that I had Spyro when that happened.

 Bambino:  This is a much better picture of me than the first one Mom took.  When Mom emailed Felines & Friends to tell them about Austin, they told her in their reply that I had been waiting for a home for months.  Actually I was the original choice to pair with Rocio, but Austin came along just then and they were only four days apart in age, while I am a month younger.  My Mom said that she would love to have me come and live with her.  I was found as a tiny kitten wandering down a busy street in Santa Fe by my foster Mom, who is a vet tech with other animals, including another cat.  She brought me home with her and cared for me until I was old enough to be fixed.  That's when she discovered that I was FeLV+ and I spent most of the next few months mostly in a play pen, so I wouldn't infect the other cat.  I was delighted to have a whole room to myself, but I wanted out the first day.  It was scarier out there than I expected.  There was a friendly cat, Spyro, but there were two other cats who hissed at me.  I stayed in the safe room for two whole days, then I wanted out to stay.  When Rocio saw how much fun Spyro and I were having together, he stopped hissing at me and joined in the fun.  Oja has mostly stopped hissing at me, but she isn't my friend, either.

Jose:  I am camera shy and don't like to look at the camera, so this is the best picture Mom has of me so far.  A few weeks after Mom told Felines & Friends that she wanted to adopt Bambino, they emailed her about me.  I was in the Santa Fe City Shelter and was doomed unless I found a foster home immediately.  The only other possible foster home was an elderly lady in Albuquerque who already had a houseful.  Mom said the more the merrier and here I am.  I was found wandering around the streets of Santa Fe and picked up by Animal Control.  No one claimed me, so here I am as a foster.  Mom thinks she might officially adopt me, too, if Oja warms up to me and makes friends.  I spent an hour in the safe room, then wanted out to meet the other kitties I had seen upon arrival in my carrier.  I slunk around the living room the first night, just watching and staying under the furniture, out of the way.  The next day, I started playing THoE with the others, except for Oja.  Now I wrestle with Spyro a little, but mostly play chase.  Oja tolerates me near her now and can get really personal smelling me.  I gave her a little whap for that once, because she has a cold wet nose and I am sensitive back there.