Throw Back Thursday: Mr. Fancypants.
We got Fancypants in the Fall of 1997. I don’t remember why we suddenly decided we needed another cat (we had Spanky, Spot, and Tubby already), but we did, and so we went to Huntsville Animal Services. We had decided on a longhair tabby girl, but when we went to fill out the paperwork, someone else had already decided to adopt her. So we looked again, and saw her brother, and adopted him instead!
We originally named him “Stimpy” (because back then Fred was insistent that all our cats have names that start with “S”).
Then one day he was strolling across the room, his long fur blowing in the breeze, and I said “Hello, Mr. Fancypants!” and he was Mr. Fancypants or Fancypants from then on.
Hanging out in the window with Spanky.
He was so gorgeous, and such a brat. If the litter box wasn’t scrupulously clean or we angered him in some way, he’d poop on the carpet right outside the laundry room.
He and Tubby were total BFFs.
In the evenings, when we watched TV, he’d get up in Fred’s lap and roll onto his back. While Fred petted him, he’d slowly slide down Fred’s legs to the floor, lay there in a puddle, and then hop back up. He’d do it over and over again.
Watching birds in the window, with Tubby.
He hated to be brushed, and was prone to tangles, so one day we took him and had his fur cut short.
It was like petting velour, he was SO soft.
In May 2003, he escaped the back yard, and just never came home. We spent weeks searching for him, with no luck. Four months later, deciding that the house was oddly “empty” with “only” four cats, we adopted Mister Boogers from Challenger’s House.
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Dennis in the pagoda cat tree, in the upstairs hallway.
Sweet Tricki. I went by Petsmart yesterday. She was sleeping in the litter box. ::sigh::
Scheming.
Wide-eyed innocent.
More scheming.
Sweet, fluffy Tricki girl.
When I went by Petsmart yesterday, Livia was laying in pretty much this position, just as comfy as she could be.
Sweet sweet sweet girl.
Such a sweet little schemer.
I was messing with the camera settings and Dennis found me deeply annoying (and yet he was purring the entire time.)
Tuesday night Fred let Dennis out into the downstairs for a while. Stefan came along, and Dennis chirped excitedly. They played for a few minutes, and then it was time for bed. We closed the foster room door and Fred left his bedroom door open (we kept the screen door at the bottom of the stairs closed), and after about half an hour, Fred reported that Dennis wouldn’t leave his feet alone. So Fred shut his bedroom door, and we opened the screen door. Dennis had access to the downstairs all night, and I heard him talking and playing for a good part of the night. At one point, he bounded across my bed and flew up onto the cat tree by the window. When Fred got up in the morning, Dennis was curled up in the pagoda cat tree (upstairs). Fred shut the screen door during the day, and Dennis mostly snoozed all day long. He actually didn’t seem at all concerned about not being able to get into the foster room, so that’s good.
I can live with him running around the house at night and hanging out upstairs during the day – well, I can live with him running around the house during the day, too, if he wants to. He’s not a problem, and I don’t mind having him here until we can find him a home. Which will hopefully be soon!
The foster room is scrubbed, stocked with fresh litter, food, and water. In a few hours I’ll be picking up the new guys (no, it’s not a pregnant cat; in fact, there’s no mama in the picture at all this time around), and tomorrow you’ll get to meet them!
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Sugarbutt on the window bed in the front room. This bed hardly gets any use at all; I think Sugarbutt’s the only one I ever see there, and that doesn’t happen very often.
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Previously
2013: “Mama! I am CLEAN ENOUGH!”
2012: “Cannot. Move. Halp…”
2011: No entry.
2010: No entry.
2009: It’s going to be awfully quiet around here without them!
2008: At 4 weeks old, they’re wild little things!
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Fancypants disappeared ELEVEN YEARS AGO??? I remember when that happened! Which means I’ve been reading your blog for… oh dear Lord. How is that even possible?????????? I am oooollllllldddddddd…………..
On the contrary, Jennifer, reading Robyn keeps you young! So glad that Dennis is out and about and seems to be fitting in. (Yup, he’ll just be there till he finds a home.) So sorry about Mr. Fancypants’s disappearance. He sounded a very happy fellow. Hoping that Tricki will leave her safety zone soon.
I think Fancypants left because Robyn shaved him. He was a bit embarrassed!
I agree GD. How embarrassing!
Squeeee! for new cats though…
Yep! It would be like someone taking off all your clothes and making you prance around with all your “sins” showing! I mean, you can see his fat pad!!! Gah! Poor little man!!! I bet the other kitties were laughing at him!!!!
Haha, that was the consensus back when he disappeared! I think he left because I wouldn’t stop petting him. He was so soffffffft!
Dennis is so totally not going to become a foster fail. Not at all. Nope nope. (Wonder if someone with more clue about gambling than me wants to open book on it?)
Squee new kitties ^^
I would love it if Dennis was a foster fail! The only thing better would be me being able to adopt him myself!
Oooooooh, are they wee babies or older kittens again? Can’t we get just a little hint, pretty please? 🙂
Tricki girl, you need to come out of the box and let people see your cute curly tail!
They’re not tiny babies, but they’re smaller than we’ve seen around here in quite some time! 🙂
NEW KITTENS! I am now giddy with anticipation. Now I have a good excuse to send you some free cat swag in the next few weeks! I just hope to see some video of the little munchkins running around and playing with/on/in whatever I end up sending!
I never knew that Mr. Fancypants simply disappeared. I feel like that would almost be worse than having to deal with a loss like with Mr. Boogers, because there was at least some closure there. Still, cats are very good hunters, so I’m sure Mr. Fancypants lived to a ripe old age hunting varmints and birds in the great outdoors. Maybe he even got picked up and became a “permanent resident” in a cushy house in some far-flung region of the world!
It was definitely worse to have him disappear – not knowing was so hard. We chose to believe that he wandered into another house where they pampered him, scooped his litter box every time he used it, and he didn’t have to share attention with other cats!
I totally squeed when I saw Tubby! I loved Fancypants, but I think Tubby remains my all-time favorite permanent resident. 🙂
And we had a cat disappear for almost four months, then show up at the front door one morning, strolled right in, and headed straight for the food dish. He was clean and well-fed, so we assumed that someone had been keeping him inside, but he finally managed to bust out and come home. I’ve never been so happy in my life!
i remember FancyPants 🙂 i always think of the time you and fred had to clean his furry butt and i think you were gagging or it may have been fred… any hoo i could not stop laughing at the mental pictured you created. that was when you were blogging elsewhere.
Fancypants was gorgeous!!! What a sweetie, he and Tubby were so cute together.
I hope Tricki and Livia and all get adopted soon. I don’t get how Orlando and Angelo haven’t been adopted yet.
Babies? We have babies?
oooo – newbies! Poor Fancypants – it is hard when there is no closure.
A beautiful past, present and future post! Mr. Fancypants was such a handsome guy! I love that Dennis is settling in the rest of the house…and hope that the kittehs at Petsmart all find their perfect forever homes soon!
And…beh-bies? Yee-hah! Can’t wait to meet them!
It seems like you don’t get many long haired cats coming through Challenger’s House. I wonder if there are just fewer long hairs in the south in general?