Tama-Chan Tuesday

Tama-Chan: It's amazing how quickly one gets used to something. #1 has been with us all the time since the middle of March. That is more than three months. You can guess what's coming, can't you? Yep... She's leaving us although I must hasten to add that it is only for just over 24 hours. She has an important errand to run in Paree on Wednesday, so she is off to one of her cousin's this evening, and she should be back here tomorrow evening. Mr. G will be looking after us, so I guess we won't really be suffering terribly.

I have been enjoying life, as usual:

Sleepy parallell quadruple dangle:

Can I help you with something, #1?

You just want me to look cute? I can do that!

Oh, and thank you for all the nice comments yesterday on our Blogoversary!

12 Years Today!

Ollie here. As the youngest member of the Poupounette Gang, #1 thought it would be good for me to learn the history of our blog. Twelve years ago today, on June 29th, 2008, Sen-Chan and Tommy published our first ever blog post! What we did not realise at the time was that we hit the start of what was to become the golden age of pet blogging. Our first commenters included Dragonheart and Merlin, Hannah and Lucy, Kaze, Latte and Chase, Daisy, Goldie, Shade and Banshee, Isis and Ramses, and Petey. Most of these blogs are gone now, and quite a few of their authors have gone to the Bridge. Some have moved on to Facebook and we enjoy continuing to follow their adventures. For example, Daisy, who was one of the most popular bloggers, has gone to the Bridge, but her successor, Gibson, is just as adorable and on Facebook.

Over the years, we have seen so many changes here. We started out with two, Sen-Chan and Tommy. At one point, there were seven of us, including super-sized Vidock and Violette. There have been so many happy hellos and sad goodbyes. All told, we have welcomed eleven "Gang" members since we started, and had to say goodbye to six. Initially, there was one cat and one dog. At one point, we had four cats (five, counting Trav), one dog and two horses. And now we have two cats, one dog and four horses.

Over the years, we have published 4,180 blog posts, and have had over 920,000 page views!  We can't find a statistic for the number of comments we have had (anyone knows where to find it?) We have never changed the basic look of the blog, and just change the header occasionally, In fact, we need to change the header now to show our new horsy members.

More than anything, we have made so many friends all over the world, and some we have even managed to meet in the flesh! These include Claire of The Swiss Cats, Jackie and Ivor of Eric and Flynn, Nancy of Mickey's Musings, and Phyll of Khyra's Korner. We have shared in smiles and tears, arrivals and goodbyes, and every experience has filled our hearts. We are a little sad that blogging seems to have declined considerably, as Facebook just doesn't have the same kind of immediacy. But we are stil making new friends and expanding our horizons.

I, Ollie, will be 20 months old tomorrow, and I hope to be blogging for many years to come. I want to thank you all for being our friends and sticking with us, and invite you to continue joining us on our journey and sharing yours with us. I also want to share my respect and admiration for our Queen Tama who, like #1, has known all the ones who have gone before. She is our treasure, which is what her name means! In the meantime, here are portraits of all of the Poupounette Gang members to date, in order of appearance:

(RIP) Sen-Chan, aka "Poupounet" (2007-2009) FOUNDER

(RIP) Tommy (2007-2019) FOUNDER

Tama-Chan (2008 —) A birthday coming up in August!

(RIP) Sei-Chan (2009-2018)

(RIP) Yuu-Chan (2009-2010)

(RIP) The Traveller, aka "Trav" (2007? - 2018)

(RIP) Bibi-Chan, aka "Da Beebs" (2009 - 2019)

Vidock (2009 —)

Violette (2009 —)

Genji (2011 —)

Oliver, aka Ollie (2018 —)

Hotesse (1995 —)

Heloise (2017 —)

This is one of our favourite photos, showing (front to back) Yuu-Chan, Sei-Chan and Da Beebs, who are all now reunited at The Bridge:

In addition, there was Ikkyu (1992-2007), #1's first cat and first Aby, who went to the Bridge before the blog but is featured in our Souvenir Saturday posts.

Thank you again to all of you for sharing our lives these past twelve years!

Snuggles on Sunday

Tama-Chan: It's been a crazy week weather-wise.It was cool, then we had a couple of really hot days, and now its cool and rainy again! We don't know whether we are coming or going! But we are of course still snuggling!

As you know, I like to sit next to #1 and snuggle with her in the evenings:

We had a visit from Mr. G and Ms. N earlier in the week and we always snuggle with them! Here is a smiling Ollie with Mr. G:

And here he is with Ms. N!

#1 enjoying Genji snuggles:

And this nice pic of #1 with both us kitties:

No snuggle pics of the Vs and Hs this week. We will try to do better next week.

Wishing you all a snuggly Sunday. And many thanks to Mr. G for his great photos!

And please join us tomorrow. We will have a special post!

Sei-Chan's Souvenir Saturday

Rainbow Sei: Hello, Dear Friends! How have you all been? Since last week, it seems that summer has arrived with a vengeance at Poupounette Central, so I thought we would do a summer post this week.

Ikkyu, #1's first kitty, used to travel with her to Prince Edward Island in the summers. Here is a pic of him from July 2006, sunning himself by the deck at the cottage:

Here is one of Sen-Chan in the garden in July 2008:

Me in the cat run in 2009:

And Yuu-Chan in the cat run in 2010:

A great one of Tommy at the beach in the summer of 2014:

Trav out in the fields in the summer of 2015:

And finally, Da Beebs at the kitchen window in the summer of 2016:

With a lot to say, as usual!

We wish you all a good weekend. Please stay careful, everyone!

Felines and Friends on Friday

Tama-Chan: Here I am again, this time with a shared post. It was very hot the last couple of days but fortunately, we had thunderstorms last night and it's a bit cooler.

As it's Friday today, let me start with a rather 'Batty pic of Da Genj:

And a nice one of Da Genj and Ollie hanging together:

And one of me relaxing on the sofa:

For the friends portion of the post, Ollie had a grand time playing with his friend Fernant the other morning:

We wish you all a fun Friday filled with friends!

Thursday Sheets

Genji: Mee-Yow everyone! In case you were wondering, my eating continues to be up and down. Some days I eat lots and other days a lot less. #1 says that it's my fault because I spend so much time hunting and probably have a taste of things that are not great for me. In the past week, she knows for sure about the slow worm and the lizard. I am not telling her about anything else...

Anyway, #1 changed the sheets on her bed yesterday and I was there every step of the way to help! She had the wonderful idea of selecting a blue bottom sheet this time, so I looked great on it!

Camo mode. I'm pretty sure she can't see me.

Nothing like a good roll on a clean sheet!

Followed by a little bath:

Who's a handsome boy then?

I highly recommend bed-making as a leisure activity to help bond with your human!

Woofie Wednesday

Ollie: As Queen Tama mentioned in her post yesterday, the weather has changed and it is now getting quite warm. Given how much curly fur I have, #1 is being careful about my not getting too hot. Still, we managed a nice half hour outing in the field behind the house yesterday so I could stretch my legs.

I like to start by standing and looking lal around me

And then I take off!

#1 smiled at this photo. She said I look like a woolly sheep with cute pawpads...

 I had a lot of fun!

Stay cool and stay safe, Friends!

Tama-Chan Tuesday

Tama-Chan: During the pst week, we have had quite a bit of rain and it's been cool. From today, the temps are supposed to go way up and it will be sunny. The first sign of tis turn of events was when #1 opened the window in the kitchen after it had been closed for weeks. Needless to say, I was not the only one there.

It is so delightful to bathe by an open window!

Here I am, practicing one of my dangles whilst hanging out with Ollie:

#1 took this close-up of me the other day:

And then she got even closer up!

By the way, we are now officially out of blogging jail, and there are two new front tires on our loaner car.