Bitterroot Manor:  All About Us!

Welcome to Bitterroot Manor from thuh Ballard Bunch.

I'm Talisker Pippin, and I live wif Sherry my Hoomin in Ballard (which is in thuh city uv Seattle). There have been lots of kitties in the BallardBunch Clowder ofur thuh yeers. When I moved in, Ceilidh Flurrydance and Skye Silversong were alreddy living here. They were part uv da BallardBunch for years, until they left for the Rainbow Bridge.  Ceilidh left in January 1999, an Skye left in June 2001.  They're in so many of our stories that I've kept their pikchurs here on our homepage. Here are some pikchurs uv them:

The beeyoutiful tuxedo kitty on the left is Skye Silversong; the beeyoutiful round brown Siameze on the right is Ceilidh (say "kay-lee') Flurrydance.  We were bestest frends, and sammon-medal synchronized sleepers at the 1996 Catlympics. (You can't tell from the pikchur, but Skye was actually a smoke and white tuxedo -- her furs were black but her undercoat was white -- it made beeyoutiful smokey shadows on heer fur when she moved.)

Ceilidh was winkwinks wif Rocko (l) and Skye was winkwinks with his brother Oliver (r). Rocko and Oliver and their sisfur Misty lived together in California wif their hoomin Pam. As you can see, Oliver's a orange tuxedo kitty, and he and Skye made a very handsome couple. They went to the Halloween Hop as Fred and Ginger, since they were both already dressed up for formal dancing in their tuxedos.) Rocko and Ceilidh were a furry handsome couple, too, both beeyoutiful Siamese. Here are pictures of Rocko (the Siamese kitty) and Oliver (the orange tuxedo kitty):
 

Rocko and Ceilidh became winkwinks on Valentine's Day. Ceilidh was a little worried about taking such a serious step, because Rocko was just a young thing and she was a Sophisticated Older Cat. But he won her over, and when she got the most beautiful bouquet of real flowers the day of the first r.p.c. kitty prom, she knew she'd made the right decision. Rocko and Ceilidh won a prize at the Halloween Hop--since they were both Siameze, they went as Anna and the King of Siam, and they did a waltz dance all around the room.

This lovely tabby and white kitty is me, Talisker Pippin. I am a toona-medal smurgler, a soomo ressler, and have recently taken up the drums (I play in the McClowder Kitty Pipe Band and also jam with my friend Island Ember from Vancouver Island). When I was a tiny kitty, two weeks old, something scary happened that I don't remember much about -- there was a dog and then my momcat and all my brothers and sisters were gone.  I went to live with a nice hoomin who worked for TED, and that hoomin (Sandy) named me "Pippi Longstocking" for my long white leg. Then, when I was about five months old, I was taken with a lot of other kitties to a big room where there were lots of cats trying to win ribbons and prizes and lots of hoomins looking at them. The kitties I was with were all looking for new homes with new hoomins, and Sherry our Hoomin was looking for a kitty who would like to cuddle (Ceilidh and Skye don't believe in cuddling -- they think it's undignified and gives hoomins the wrong idea about who's in charge). When Sherry took me out of her cage, I put my arms around Sherry's neck and nibbled her nose and we both knew we belonged together. So Sherry took me home, and named me Talisker (for a Scotch whiskey that's made on the Isle of Skye) Pippin (for my nestname of Pippi). Ceilidh and Skye never did understand why I had to live with them, but for the most part we coexisted. Here's another picture of me:

Eferryone thinks I looks particularly winsome as I stare out thuh front window uv our house (I won't tell, uv course, but Meowmie sez I'm probably thinking about my winkwink, Pandora, who lives at the Jesse Memorial Cat Complex). Here's a picture of Pandora (on the left) and me taken by Pandora's Momma Jo one time I teleported to the JMCC to visit Pandy (they're deep inna forest where they have their sekirt country cabin):

You can see that Pandora an me even look alike (except I have a short stubby tail and Pandora has a long wavy tail; and I'm built more like a soomo ressler than Pandora). First we were bestest frends, and had adventures together and were tuffgirlkitties together and went to parties together and slept in kitty piles together, and then, one night under the full moon, we realized that all the time we'd been winkwinks in their hearts. We had a cermony and celebrashun the night of the new moon at the Jesse Memorial Cat Complex, so the moon is very speshul for us. (Pandora sent me the most beeyoutiful bouquet of wedwink flowers, all in their speshul colors of pink like my nose and green like Pandora's eyes and pale moon colored like the moon. I sent Pandora her pikchur in a silver heart frame.  Dere'z no question dat I haf the most romantickal winkwink ever.) You can visit Pandora and some of her friends at the Jesse Memorial Cat Complex.

Here's a pikchur of Ceilidh singing.  Becuz she was a siameze, she had a beeeyoutiful voice for singing and she practiced all the time at home. Anyone who called Sherry our Hoomin on the telephone would get the chance to hear Ceilidh's beeyoutiful singing too. Ceilidh was founder and mewsickal director of the Siamese Cat Club Chorale, and performed at thuh Furball Prom, thuh Jellicle Ball, many wedwinkings, and other speshul events. She was also a pipe sergeant in the McClowder Kitty Pipe Band, and marched in the Inaguration Day Parade. Ceilidh came to live with Sherry our Hoomin in 1986.  Before that she lived with her catmom and catdad and another kitty in a house way far away out in the Suburbs. When she came to Ballard, there were other kitties already there, and one of them was Spreckles, a tortoiseshell kitty that became Ceilidh's second catmom. Spreckles is at the Rainbow Bridge now, and so are the other kitties who were there when Ceilidh moved in. Before she left herownself for the Rainbow Bridge, Ceilidh was the oldest kitty in the house, and First Cat. But when she was a kitten, she was full of energy, and that's how she got her name: "ceilidh" is a Gaelic word for "party/gathering where everyone sings and has a good time with friends" and she was like a little party-alla-time. And her first hoomins had called her "Flurry," and so she got the second half of her name, "Flurrydance" for dancing and dashing all over the house. She wouldn't be held in hoomin arms, but she liked to spend time curled up by Sherry our Hoomin, helping her read or watch TV or play on the pooter (as long as no one suggested she might be cuddling -- Ceilidh didn't cuddle)..

And here's Skye again, with her Cheshire Cat frend (you can see that Skye was very graceful--that's why she was a featured highland dancer with the McClowder Kitty Pipe Band):

Skye's catmom was a wild kitty, who had her babies in a garage on Queen Anne hill in Seattle.  Skye didn't really remember what happened, but one day her catmom was gone and some strange hoomins came and took her and her brothers and sisters away. A female hoomin named Mitzi took care of them, but Skye had already been taught that hoomins were scary and that the best thing to do was to hide and be very quiet when they were around. So when Sherry our Hoomin came to visit Mitzi, and all of a sudden Skye was put in a box and taken to a whole new house, she was very cautious.  She hid first thing, and it took Sherry our Hoomin a whole 24 hours before she found her (Skye found a great hiding place up inside a chair that Sherry our Hoomin didn't even know had an inside). Actually it was Ceilidh who found Skye, and they had a nice long visit in the middle of the night before Sherry our Hoomin got up and found them both. That's when they became bestest frends.

Skye was named after thuh island that's in Scotland and becuz our hoomin thought her fur was more gray than black at first, so it was like thuh culler of thuh sky here in Seattle. At first Skye never said a word--she remembered her catmom telling her a Quiet Kitten is a Safe Kitten--but after a few months, she decided that once in a while it wouldn't hurt to say something if there were something important to say (and of course anything a cat has to say has to be important!). So that's when she got the second half of her name--Silversong--because she had such a pretty little silvery meow.   She had very soft fur, a very nice purr, and a tail that swirled in a beeyoutiful curve when she's happy.  She tells a little of her own story in our Scrapbuk, wif some pikchurs and some songs our hoomin sings just for her.

And here's Sherry our Hoomin, on vacashun with her brother Gary (she's the short fluffy hoomin; he's the tall bald hoomin). They were visiting a winery in eastern Washington thuh State, and were having a very good time we think.

Thanks for visiting us at Bitterroot Manor. Our hoomin has finally managed to add some more things, so feel free to explore.  You can read about Meowchat (the way some of us kitties write (and spell) onna Net); learn about some of the kitties from Bitterroot Manor who are now at thuh Rainbow Bridge, see pikchurs and read more about our winkwinks, mentors and mentees; look at Tally and Pandy's bewinking album; leaf through our Scrapbook, where you can find out about visits from Aunties; learn about the Siamese Cat Club Chorale and some of their speshul songs; read all about our performances in the Catlanta Catlympics, or thuh costoom contest at thuh Halloween Hop; and see mememtos of our other advenchurs (which we'll add whenever we can get our hoomin to get her act together).  You can also visit some of our catfriends in rpcc (rec. pets.cats.community) and the Clowder.  --Talisker Pippin, finally Furst and Onliest Kitty