I brought the new cat home last night. He's an exotic shorthair (which is to say he's a shorthair Persian). The name on his CFA papers is M&M. I had misunderstood my co-worker and thought she was saying Eminem, the singer. Nonetheless, that's not a name for a cat. Sunny didn't take the newcomer as well as I had hoped he would and in fact moped around the house treating me like a cheating spouse. :-(
After spending a little time with the new cat last night (I kept him in his cat carrier in my bedroom after letting him out to explore a bit and attempt to meet Sunny), I've decided on a name for him. My original thought was to name him Dante, after the main character in my favorite movie, Clerks. But that just didn't seem right. Tobias came to mind and it seems to fit him. So Tobias he will be.
Here's a great poem by T.S. Eliot about cat names. And a few photos of Tobias. Enjoy!
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, or George or Bill Bailey -
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
And it's also a song by Port Arthur, Texas band UGK (Underground Kingz).... Yes, there will soon be a new addition to our household (no, diapers are NOT involved!). I am getting a kitty from a friend at work who breeds Persians. She has a friend who has a neutered male Exotic Shorthair available. So .. what was I to do? He's four years old and is white with black markings. He'll be here Tuesday. I am 99.5% sure there will be no problems with Sunny, my resident cat because Sunny is SO mellow and was used to having another cat around because when I brought him home in 1999, I had a Maine Coon named Simon. And they got along spendidly, once the hierarch was established. I'll post pictures as soon as I get him. She said his name is Eminem. Maybe I'll change it to K-Fed or Moby or L.L. Cool J! {{snort}}
My cat has glommed onto the wicker bed tray. I don't use it much really. It had been on the floor with a pile of magazines stacked up on it, but since I rearranged my room the other day I just stick it on the chair when I go to bed and put it back on the bed after I make the bed for the day. So now guess who's decided to make full use of it?
It's not funny because clearly this kitty is distressed (there's apparently a kitten off camera that it's reacting to), but the subtitles crack me up every time. "Oh My Dog" and "Oh Don Piaaaaano" are new expletives around our house now!
I miss that cat.
The dapper cat.
Tail upright like a flag.
Insouciant feline,
devil-may-care.
Sleep? One eye always
open, tail hiding
true thoughts.
Come back, fur-rocious friend.
You are missed.
doesn't bear an uncanny (except the fur color) resemblance to this cat:
[1]
Whatta schnozz!
[1] This also happens to be the favored avatar of a certain blogger who shall remain nameless (he knows who he is).
For any fan of Gilbert Shelton's Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's Cat comics, word has it that there's a Furry Freak Brothers movie in the works, with Gilbert Shelton taking the artistic reigns of the film.
My normally placid and sweet kitty, Sunny, took a nice swipe at me this morning. But it was my fault. He has boundaries, and I crossed them. And I didn't just step lightly over the line, I drove a Sherman tank through it.
He hates being kissed excessively. To Sunny, "excessively" means "more than once." So I was kissing him, like for about five minutes, and I could see he was really annoyed, and the more annoyed he became, the more I kept kissing him. Finally, he decided enough was enough.
WIDGETIZE