"When did
you get new cats? Who named them Gilda (Radner?) & Jane
(Curtin?)"
Really? I never posted about that? It appears not. Well, then, allow me to rectify.*
So, yeah, a couple months ago, Shays died. And then we looked at adoption agencies to get new kitties, and I wound up pissed off. Then I looked on craigslist and found Free to a Good Home kitties, e-mailed the guy, and off we went for a visit.
The guy was giving his cats away because he was allergic to them. Apparently he had tried to stick it out for a year for the rest of his Cat People family, but it wasn't working and they were going to get a dog instead. I found this amusing, because we are very much Dog People and the only reason we go for cats is because the Young Prince is allergic to dogs. I think this is not as bad as it used to be, but it is still pretty hard to watch him itch and snort while he adjusts.
The funny thing is, I completely forgot that cats have been known to do the same thing to me. We've had our cat for so long and I'd completely adjusted to her and it didn't even occur to me UNTIL WE WERE DRIVING HOME WITH THE BEASTS that, huh, I might start sneezing and having to take Claritin forever.
That hasn't turned out to be the case, so yay for growing out of allergies.
So, we go to visit the cats. One is a lovely grayish-brownish lonnnng hair furry calico -- named Clarissa -- and one is a gray striped shorthair tabby named Missy. Yeah, I dunno. Maybe they are big fans of Melissa Joan Hart? I have no idea.
Not Your Average Blogger and I had been thinking about what we'd name cats if we got new ones. I was really pushing to get a boy and a girl, a brother and sister. I like pairs. It's been my experience that same-gender pairs don't work as well as mixed. And there we were, all set with paired names. George and Gracie. Jimi and Janis. I think we had pretty much settled on Satchel and Nancy -- and here we are with two girls.
Um. Patsy and Edina? Liz and Jenna? NYAB and I hit generation gaps on girl duos. Either I thought they were lame or he'd never heard of them. I said, "OK, Jane and Gilda." He laughed. We kept going. Finally he landed on Roxie and Velma, which we thought the kid would like because he's constantly singing numbers from Chicago. Not so much. The YP apparently felt we should keep calling them Missy and Clara. (Hey, he was close.)
Of course, the minute we got the cats to our house, they went into hiding behind the living room couches, so we didn't get much glimpse of their personalities at all.* So we called them Roxie and Velma for about three days, but when they finally came out of hiding, NYAB decided that Jane just looked more like a Jane than a Roxie or a Velma, and back we went.
Funnily enough, when I finally looked at their vet records, Jane used to be Prudence before she was Missy. So maybe we should have given Gilda the name Mia instead? Eh. I like where we landed. If we ever get a third cat we can name her Lorraine.
Now that they're assimilated, they are pretty entertaining. Gilda is a total diva and fluffs her fur and prisses around like the beauty queen she is. She demands pats of anyone who looks at her. Janey is very much a Janey. She is the first cat I ever saw that will play fetch -- as in, you throw something, and she brings it back repeatedly. Not just once and "oh, I'm bored," but good volleys of 9 or 10 times. She is active and alert and has a very strong hunting instinct, as every single night when I am trying to go to sleep she attacks my toes under the blanket until I punt her off the bed. Then she hops back up, lies down and the two of them conk out purring at the foot of the bed.
And the best thing is, where Shays would usually try to kill the kid if he came within 12 feet of her, these guys will put up with ANYTHING. To wit:
Poor cat. I wonder how long it'll take her to wise up and slice him.
*Now I remember why I never posted. Because I was waiting for them to
come out of hiding and let me take photos. Then I posted photos on
FaceBook, but not here. Brilliant!
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