You know it's bad: Mother's animal cookies shuts its oven doors

Now this is a bad omen.

Mother's Cookies, those pink and white frosted animal cookies we all grew up with (I favored the pink), has abruptly shuttered its doors.

An Oakland, Calif. institution for 92 years, this company experienced the gamut of corporate attempts at money making in the '90s and 00's. Its final incarnation, as Archway & Mother's Cake and Cookie Co. of Battle Creek, Mich., was a holding of private equity firm Catterton Partners, of (where else), Greenwich, CT. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing the price increase of raw materials, and told workers to go home. It ceased all production as of last week.

According to SFGate.com, Catterton said in a statement it "took a number of actions to remedy" the company's financial crisis, "but these actions were not sufficient to overcome the losses and return Mother's Cake & Cookie Co. and Archway Cookies LLC to profitability."

One of those efforts was to seek financing. "But, as you know, the credit environment is very difficult now," said Meaghan Repko, a spokeswoman for the owners, in New York.

So now Mother's Cookies, source of comfort for millions for almost a century, is a victim of the credit crunch. Is this how the cookie is supposed to crumble?