WCB: Kiri's birthday and a special surprise

This weekend's cat blogging is special because it's Kiri's birthday! His beautousness is all dressed up in a jumper and tie (I swear that cat's on nip, check out that last picture) and ready to party, Kiri's got lots of friends hanging around. Complete guest list is at Kiri's slave's place (sometimes known as Eat Stuff).

The furling, who has finally been named—but we'll get to that in a moment—had to rest up before the party and chose one of her favorite spots.

The local food bank was collecting donations today, and since we sometimes donate to the food bank in honor of someone's birthday, it seemed like good timing. The furling checks out the bag to be sure it's a good collection.

Pasta, fruit, no problem, but there's tuna in there! Did I say you could give away tuna?!?

There are treats to share too. The remnants of the roe from the homemade caviar are the furling's offering. Too bad it won't squish through the Internet, it was apparently really yummy.

Any good party has games, and the furling is playing her side of tethermouse. Kiri, smack it back!

Now on to the naming portion of our day.

Cats should pick their own names—or so goes the wisdom around our place—and while this isn't as straightforward as many other methods, it just might be the most accurate. The nameless furling has been with us or just about a month now and until just about a week ago, she's mostly been known as "the little kitten," as in "It's too quiet, have you seen where the little kitten is?" (Believe me, like with a toddler, silence is not golden, it's worrisome. The last silence accompanied a demonstration that a roll of toilet paper could be unrolled onto the floor 30 feet away without any auditory indication.) As we've watched her get used to living here, her personality has begun to express itself a bit more definitively in a number of ways.

She is, by and large, a good-natured furling who can often be seen scurrying around the house burbling to herself in a manner highly reminiscent of R2D2 or the little bots on Farscape. Gurgles and coos waft down the halls in her wake. On other occasions, she sounds like Kenny from South Park—and we can almost decipher what she means. However it's identified, she is a talkative little thing, even if nobody but her knows what shes saying.

There is apparently an on-off switch buried somewhere; she goes from being the sweetest, gentlest, snuggliest kitten to a bundle of terror incarnate—and back—in a flash. With any luck, we'll discover the triggers before our forearms and jeans are reduced to shreds. When she's in kill-mode, she has a special relationship with gravity and serious hang-time.

Another thing: Houdini has nothing on this furling. At least once a day I search the house for her—and the areas that are not protected by closed doors are neither huge nor heavily furnished so this shouldn't be that hard—and, after failing to find her anywhere, blink and she's at my feet. In the middle of a room with nothing to hide under in it. I am thinking she is a half-breed, perhaps elf or pixie, or something that accesses additional dimensions to tesseract around...it's the only explanation.

Like many kittens she is frequently competing with our feet for floor space. Luckily, having had a few cats who did this, we're used to it and step lightly. Plus, the hardwood floors mean she slides easily while escaping from the great crushing human feet. Of course, that also means she slide a lot of other times too, but we have to get our laughs somewhere.

After living with the furling for a few weeks, we started trying out names to see what fit. Poof, in honor of the great appearing act, was a hot contender for a while, but it was a small slice of a multi-faceted kitten so we moved on. Many possibilities were examined and discarded, although an early decision was that she might need more than one name. That didn't make this easier.

Eventually we came to a decision. Once we had done so, we found ourselves saying things that made a lot of sense if you knew who she was named after, which must indicate we chose wisely. Given all that, got any guesses?

Oh, it might help to know that our last two cats were named Wesley and Moufasa, both after movie characters. The first got her name from some kids who were visiting us when the cat—a stray—adopted us. The kids were watching "The Princess Bride" and upon seeing the stray cat lurking around the yard, insisted on feeding her...while giggling, "Eat well Wesley, we'll most likely kill you in the morning." (Okay, so it was Westley in the movie, the kids were 3 and 7 and they said Wesley, so Wesley it was!) Moufie got his name because he this rather hulkingly low-to-the-ground orange and white fluffcat who was an adorably ferocious 6 week old when he killed his first critter; The Lion King was on our radar for some reason, someone said "he wants to be the King" and the name stuck. There was also a tiny grayling stray who briefly adopted us and was dubbed Shadow Underfoot—clearly her elven name.

Last guesses? ...the furling's new name, on the other side of the jump.

(artwork courtesy of Liselotte Weller)

Say hello to River Boo Underfoot!

River for the character in Serenity and Firefly. For those of you who aren't Firefly fans or haven't seen the movie, River was taken by the evil Alliance as a child and they messed with her mind in a big way. She is now this waif-like young woman with serious assassin  skills and some other special talents, one of which is this sort of knowing (and saying) things that nobody understands until later...sometimes too late. River, the character, has been programmed with triggers for turning her assassin-mode on and off. We have been heard to say, "Safe word, River! Safe word!" on more than one occasion. It seldom works. She does know how to stalk and destroy the Alliance string, no trigger required. Not good for the string.

Boo is for the little girl in Monsters, Inc., who does the magical disappearing/reappearing tricks. Through closed doors. Giggling. That's our kitten.

Underfoot is her clan name and self-explanatory.

The delightful naming announcement is courtesy of Liselotte Weller, who came to my attention during Farmgirl's name that sheep contest. I really liked the picture that Liselotte, the winner, made for her namesake sheep; so much so that I ventured a request for one for River. Liselotte graciously made one just for me, and I didn't even have a sheep to offer her! If you find yourself with a need for illustration work, you really should check out her site.

Kiri! Smack the mouse!

Comments

[farmgirl]

I love the tethermouse! I even wanted the cat until I got to about the third paragraph. : )

What a super, well-written, highly entertaining story. And of course the illustration is absolutely adorable. Several of our critters have more than one name, but I don't think any of them have explanations anywhere near as detailed as yours! (It was more like, I can't choose between these three, so Lucky Buddy Bear it'll be!)

BTW, this is probably just my computer, but when I clicked to the "read more" part, the entire left side of the text column was sorta not there. Like letters were missing. It was fine on the homepage.

Thanks again for the great post! : )

[farmgirl]

Well, crap. Now it looks just fine. Really, it was totally messed up before. Really. : )

[Linda]

What a great story! And I love the name too.

[kitchenmage]

But FG, the cat got the eggs! LOL

She's quite the crazy kitten, the names seem to fit her perfectly.

[s'kat]

That is an absolutely wonderful story! Congrats on finally becoming privy to her Secret Cat Name. She's a beaut!

ps thanks for the advice on the pitas, I will definately try that out with the last of the dough.

[Dawn]

Love the cute story of the disappearing, underfoot cat. (BTW, the same thing happened to me that happened to Farmgirl, when I clicked to continue reading the store, the entire left side of the article was cut off...?) But my favorite part is the pictures! So cute!

[Dawn]

Darn, my whole comment disappeared into the 'comment abyss'! I loved hearing the story of the disappearing, underfoot cat! My cats are often underfoot (sometimes they don't make it out of the way soon enough), so I appreciate that. I also had the same thing happen to me as happened to Farmgirl. I clicked to continue reading a the left side of the text was gone. But, lo and behold, it's back! Anyway, super cute pics, gave me a smile.

[kitchenmage]

I see Typepad's server migration is hiccuping, Dawn. I think that explains all sorts of weirdness.