My creative muscles have creative flu or something. I haven’t had the compulsion to make anything in a while, so in an epic attempt to kick-start my drive, I’m going to…write about cats. There’s not much of that on the internet, right?
Being cat people, we have several cats. Exactly how many we have is difficult to measure, sort of like trying to measure how many objects orbit the sun. There are the nine (or eight if you’re a joyless but technically correct pedant like Neil DeGrasse Tyson) primary objects that we can all agree on. There are, of course, rather a lot more than that. There are the moons…do they count? Comets? Asteroids? Weird alien constructs from the dawn of the universe? Where do you draw the line? It’s complicated.
The same is true of cats. So, let’s take a look at our cats, the cats who are perhaps de facto ours if not officially so, and the others in the penumbra of our orbits. Dunno where all the solar system stuff came from today. Maybe it’s because I’m watching a video on making Stranger Things-style music.
The Big Three:
Red Velvet (AKA Red Velvetron, Velvetron, Tron, Tronbutt, RV, Redly Deadly, Lady Redlington, World’s Naughtiest)
Red Velvet is the senior member of our household trio. She was dropped off with all of her siblings at the clinic Nicole used to work at. She’s the only one who gets to go outside from time to time as she used to get to go out on the porch at our apartments. She requires a lot of supervision because she will disappear in a flash. Tron is very much Nicole’s cat and sleeps on the pillow behind her head every night. She does not like interacting with other kittehs but now that we’re back up to three, she doesn’t have to very much as the two idiots occupy each other. Definitely not a lap cat, Redlington likes to have her back patted right at the tail.
Ramza (AKA Ramza Charles Soyuncu, Ramza Charles, Charo, Dingus, The Ultimate Baby)
Ramza is the middle child, but still very much a child. He’s not even two yet but he’s a very big boy. Ramza is Nicole’s baby; she saw his picture at the shelter and fell in love immediately. He was so tiny when we got him; we didn’t dare let him sleep with us for fear we’d squish him. Ramza doesn’t really meow, so it’s super cute when he tries to and squeaks. He loves to be carried around in Nicole’s arms and likes to jump on our backs. Charo is very sharp and we do not like it when he jumps on our backs. He can jump very, very high. At night, he sleeps on my legs which is nice in the winter. It is less so in the summer.
Aymeric (AKA Aymeric Leonard Bitingway Vardy, Wingus, Microdingus)
Aymeric is my boy. He looked so sad at the shelter. He is not sad anymore. He has squinty eyes like Aymeric in Final Fantasy XIV, and he has a little meow that is super cute. He hates that I close my office door when I’m working and he always runs over when I open it. He insists I play with him with the little wand toy that he invariably destroys. He gets along super well with Ramza, who took over the role of big brother so very well. Aymeric cannot jump like his brother, and he’s not as sharp in the “drawing blood from your veins” sense, but he’s 100% energy except when he’s not. Then he sleeps on me. He purrs louder than any cat I’ve ever had. My mission is to make sure he purrs a lot.
The Other Kitties:
This group spend a lot of time on our porch. Probably because we often leave a bowl of food out, we have a cat friendly hidey-hole, and lots of shelter from the cold. So, yeah, we did it to ourselves but the alternative is just letting Panthro fend for himself and he looks so cold sometimes. That was never really an option.
Panthro
Panthro is a tom with a huge neck who sometimes lives on our porch and sometimes under our house and sometimes he is very mysterious and we don’t know where he goes. We’re pretty sure he was another family’s cat, and we’re pretty sure we found the family, but they didn’t seem interested in getting him back and that is very sad. Panthro, being wild now, doesn’t let us come too close to him, but he is not as scared as he used to be and usually stays on the porch when we leave the house. He’s a very handsome boy. We made all the porch accommodations for him for when it was very cold.
Millie
Millie probably belongs to one of our neighbors, but we’re not sure who. She’s very majestic and very territorial and doesn’t get along with everyone else. She used to come over a lot more often. She doesn’t let us pet her which is probably for the best as she seems very pettable and our other cats would get jealous.
Fancy
Fancy is such a ham. She lives across the street from us and had a litter of kittens super young, but she’s since been fixed and she’s very healthy. She comes over to see us even when she isn’t hungry, but especially when she is. She loves to rub against our legs and lets us pet her. She drives Red Velvet nuts. We love Fancy.
Willie
Willie looks like a goofball, with crossed blue eyes and long white(ish) fur. He’s an infrequent visitor, and he doesn’t seem to like Panthro. He likes to sit in our garden or our back yard and roll around in the grass or dirt. He does not let us near.
Domino
Domino is a fairly new visitor and she is super friendly, so she probably has a home. She let us pet her almost immediately. I suspect she’s one of Fancy’s kittens, but we don’t know for sure.
Black Stripe (official name still pending)
This is our newest visitor and he or she is very skittish. They are comfortable around Domino but not around us. This cat looks a lot like Panthro and sometimes goes under our hours, so we mistake them for Panthro sometimes. Black Stripe is a lot smaller and thinner, especially in the neck, so we suspect they’re a lot younger too.
-RK
Fancy!