Winkwinks, Mentors, and Mentees

One of the fun things that happens in r.p.c.c. is that kitties can have speshul kitty friends and relashunships. Even if we don't live in the same house, or even in the same town or country, we can get together on thuh Net and teleport back and forth to have parties and gatherings and visit with each other any time we want. Often our hoomins don't even know we've been gone (they do wonder sometimes about all the leftover pizza and nip inna living room the morning after a kitty party).

Winkwink friends are kitties who have made a particular commitment to each other, and even though nearly all of us on r.p.c.c. have been fixed-though-not-broked, we can still have a speshul friend who just makes our hearts go purrrrRRRRRrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrr.

And sometimes a younger kitty needs the advice and guidance of an older kitty, and an older kitty has lots of wisdom to pass on to the younger ones. When that happens an older kitty can be the mentor of a younger kitty (who is, of course, the mentee), and some furry wonderful friendships have developed across thuh generashuns.

Here at Bitterroot Manor we're so proud of our winkwinks and our mentors and mentees that we made this page so efurrykitty (and hoomin) could see what wonderful cats they are.

This is Rocko. He and Ceilidh became winkwinks on Valentine's day. She wasn't sure she should accept his proposal, because he was just a young cat at the time, and she was almost a SOC (Sophisticated Older Cat -- a cat who has passed her 10th purrday). But they got to know each other, and sent each other flowers over thuh Net, and went to the first kitty prom together. The day after the prom started on r.p.c., a bouquet of real flowers was waiting onna front porch, and Ceilidh was thrilled (so was Sherry-our-Hoomin, who was also a little jealous -- her hoomin winkwinks had never done such a nice thing on a first date!).

Rocko lives in Catifornia. He used to live with his brother Oliver, his sisfur Misty, his hoomin Pam and her hoomin boykitten, but when Pat (thuh hoomin boykitten) moved to his own place, Rocko moved wif him to keep him company. Rocko has his own homepage, and before we knew HTML and how to make webpages, he put our pictures on his page so effurykitty could see us. If you go there, you can see other pictures of Rocko when he was a kitten. He was furry furry cute!

And here is Rocko's brother Oliver. He and Skye became winkwinks later. Skye is a wildshy kitty, and Oliver doesn't say much either, so it took them a while to decide that they wanted to be winkwinks. They had a specially good time at the First Jellicle Ball, and right afterwards they came to the Halloween Hop dressed as Fred and Ginger (because they were both already in their beeyoutiful tuxedo fur).  When she went home that night, Skye kept humming dancey tunes under her breath as she thought about dancing with Oliver, and not very much later they announced that they had agreed to be winkwinks. They didn't have anything formal, because Skye is a furrry old-fashuned girlkitty and doesn't feel comfortable being the center of attenshun -- she'd much rather hide or sit quietly inna corner. That seems to be ok wif Oliver too. (You can visit Oliver on his own homepage.)

Tally, on the other paw, is not a wildshy kitty. She met Pandora Pussycat when she first began going to r.p.c.c. gatherings. At that time Tally was mentee of Spike, and Pandy was the mentee of Yunyur, an elegant southern gentlecat. Tally and Pandy kept running into each other at r.p.c.c. parties. At the Souven Hunt, for example, they slept in a big kitty pile together onna deckporch, and at the Halloween Hop, Pandy helped Tally wif her Shampane Fountin costume. They were sad together when both of their mentors left for the Rainbow Bridge, and they had fun together running around wif thuh TuffGurlKitties. (Pandy's Momma Jo hoped that Tally, who is happy to live inna In, would be a good influence on Pandy, who liked to spend time out alone inna woods; instead Pandy taught Tally all sorts of good hisssspitty words to use when Ceilidh and Skye or TED weren't nice to her! We hear that Pandy is spending more time at thuh JMCC, though, so it seems like they've been learning frum each other.) Finally, on one cold winter night under the full moon, they realized that they were more than best friends -- they were really like winkwinks already.  So they decided to announce their happy discovery to the whole world, and they had a big ceremony and celebrashun under the noo moon. You can read all about it in their Bewinking Album. And here is one of Tally's favorite pikchurs of Pandy:

Pandora lives at the Jesse Memorial Cat Complex in Orrygon thuh State with lots of other kitties and d*ggies and bunnies and Momma Jo and Momma Beth. She had her own bachlorette pad in the woods outside of the JMCC, and when she and Tally were bewinked, they made it over into their own private Country Cabin. Pandy's Momma Jo says she doesn't know where it is, but somehow she got a pikchur of Pandy and Tally together when they were staying there one day (we put that pikchur on our furst page that tells All About Us). Momma Jo is furrry clefur, isn't she?

Spike and Tally were, we think, the first mentor/mentee on r.p.c. (before it became r.p.c.c.). Spike (DOC, VC, ETC) thought he was too old to have a winkwink relationship, but he liked Tally and thought he might be able to give her some good advice along the way.  Spike lived on Vancouver Island in Catnada wif his hoomins Melinda and John, so he wuzn't very far away at all -- once there was an earthquake, and he and Tally both felt it bounce their houses around. Tally had a little crush on Spike, but he was always a real gentlecat and a really good friend to her. After a while it was his time to go to thuh Rainbow Bridge, but we know he's still watching out for his friend and mentee. He even sent a special blessing for Pandy and Tally's bewinking. Here is a pikchur of Spike:

Ceilidh and Skye haven't been mentees, but they've both been mentors. Cepilidh's mentee is Rusty the Tiger.  Rusty lives in Catnada with his hoomin Winnie who gradjuated from thuh Unifursitee uv Washington thuh State (where Sherry our Hoomin was a gradjuit stoodent, a longlonglong time ago, and where she still works). Last November Winnie came back to the Unifurrsitee for Homecoming, and she and Sherry our Hoomin got to meet each other in purrson for thuh furst time. Ceilidh and Rusty don't get together as much as they would like, but that's what happens when your hoomins start hogging thuh pooter.  You can see Rusty (and his meowmie) at hiz winkwink's homepage, and here is our pikchur of Rusty -- you can see how he got his name.  He's a furry beeyoutiful kitty, isn't he?

Skye's mentee was Yarrow. Yarrow was a hurt kitty who was rescued by Pandy's Momma Jo and brought to live at the Jesse Memorial Cat Complex in Orrygon. She'd been injured by a metalmonster car, and she needed lots of love and care. Momma Jo could provide that, but Yarrow needed to talk with a kitty who knew what it was like to be a wildfree kitty learning to live wif hoomins. So while Yarrow lived wif Momma Jo and Momma Beth, Skye helped Yarrow learn about hoomins (and sometimes Yarrow helped Skye learn things about how to act tuff wif hoomins). After a while Momma Jo and Momma Beth decided Yarrow really needed to find her own onetroohome, and they knew that Spike's hoomins were missing him after he'd gone to the Rainbow Bridge. So they all got together, and Yarrow and her best friend Marble moved to Catnada to live with Aunti Melinda and Uncle John. Yarrow has learned all about living wif hoomins, and she's made Skye a very proud mentor indeed. You can read more of Yarrow's story if you visit the Comeback Kitties.

We're very happy to have such speshul frends. We hope you enjoyed meeting them, too. If you want to read more about the fun and adventures wep have with our kitty friends, you can find some of our stories in our Scrapbuk.