Today marks 18 years since our very first post appeared here. At the time, there were just two of us, plus #1; woofie Tommy and Abyssinian kitty Sen-Chan. Both were not yet a year old when they started blogging. At the time, we never imagined it would be such an adventure and so long-lasting! Over the years, we have written 6095 posts and received 93,790 comments. We have made so many friends, laughed and cried with so many, said so many hellos and goodbyes. We have seen many of our friends move away from blogging and we miss each and every single one of them.
Before we started blogging, there was just one cat, an Abyssinian called Ikkyu who was born in Japan at the time #1 lived there. He lived for 15 years, on three continents with #1 and was a very exclusive boy, and thus an only boy all his life. Even though he was gone by the time this blog started, we always like to include him:
We will celebrate the past 18 years through the 14 beautiful souls who have made it what is is over the years. We will post a single photo (in most cases) of them taken as near as possible to the time they joined the Poupounette Gang.
So let us start with the two "Founding Fathers" of the Poupounette, Sen-Chan and Tommy:
This is Sen-Chan with our neighbour woofie, Madrac. She was a wonderful auntie to both Sen-Chan and Tommy.
Queen Tama was the next to arrive as a small kitten:
And she was followed by Sei-Chan who originally came over at four weeks with her Mama, Viña des Mar, and never left:
Yuu-Chan, whom we sadly lost at 15 months, was next. He was the sweetest boy ever
We started a whole new adventure when young Vidock joined the Gang in late 2010:
Tama-Chan had a litter in late 2009. There were three boys and one girl, and one of the boys decided he was staying and grew into Da Beebs:
Even though the other three left for good homes, we wanted to post a picture of them all:
A year after we lost Yuu-Chan, we were joined by Genji, The Shining Prince, our one and only blue Abyssinian. This was the day when #1 collected him from Orly airport in Paris:
In 2012, Violette joined the Gang after #1 decided that she had no future with her breeders. Unlike Vidock who was born a prince in a manor house, Violette had to learn what it was like to be loved and cared for. She did well!
2018 was a terrible year in which we lost Sei-Chan and Tommy, and in May 2019, we lost Da Beebs. And then there was covid... It wasn't until March 2021 that Benny The Black joined the Gang:
And in May 2021, Violette's Mama, Hôtesse, and her little sister, Heloise, also became fully-fledged members of The Poupounette:
Benny needed a playmate and as he was pure black, we thought it would be fun to have a white cat too. We didn't expect Momo-Chan, who arrived in June 2022, to turn into such a Fluff Pufff!
As you will surmise from many of these photos, #1 loves Abyssinian cats, and she had been dreaming of having one more kitten, after the loss of Genji in the spring of 2021. So, when an unexpected opportunity arose in July 2023, we were delighted to welcome little Ryū-Chan, our very own dragon, among us!
And that, in a nutshell, is the list of all the beautiful souls who have made The Poupounette into what it is. We are already looking forward to welcoming little Noura, pulled from the rubble of a bombed building in Beirut, in our midst in September or October. The adventure continues!
Thank you, Dear Friends, for being our friends, smiling with us, crying with us, and opening the doors to your hearts to us.
