Dear George,
Hi, I’m Bentley and I’m a Christmas gift! It is true that I’m last year’s Christmas gift…but I’ve survived the high of holidays without being returned to the shelter! Actually, our human adopted three of us on the same day and we are still together.
One weird thing is that we were named after cars! I’m Bentley ….right as in the beautiful, elegant car!
My brother is Marti…as in Aston Martin! Ah! And my sister is …..not named after a car! (I wonder why?)
Being named after an elegant, luxurious car is not that bad as all I have to do all day is to “show off” and enjoy a pampered life. But, what if we were called Lamborghini or Ferrari? Were we supposed to “race” through the house? Are these people crazy? Can’t they enjoy Christmas? Why don’t they consult with us when it comes to names? I, personally, prefer to be a RR Phantom. Why can’t I?
George, I would like to learn more about cats and Christmas! It seems it’s a very important holiday for us, cats! What is a white Christmas? There are any other colors? And why do we have to wear that red stupid hat?
Merry Christmas
Bentley (a RR Phantom at heart)
Dear Bentley,
I adopted Celia just before Christmas too. I just had time to do so before the local Cats Protection closed down for the holiday. They won't let people adopt over the actual Christmas period - to stop people doing it on impulse and to prevent kittens being confused by too much going on during the day itself. (Incidentally, they have lots of kittens needing homes this year - take a look at the website. There are some lovely photos).
Celia wasn't the ideal Christmas gift for myself but in the long run I was satisfied by my choice. I felt sorry for her as she paraded up and down outside the chalet with imploring eyes. There are younger more beautiful humans I could have adopted, but I have always felt that we cats should give the oldies a chance. You can teach an old human new tricks
, even if feline tradition says otherwise. And they are touchingly grateful when a superior species takes notice of them.You don't get that gratitude from the younger ones.
The Naming of Cats is controversial, as a human poet T. S. Elliot says. (Copyright charges are too much for me to quote this but you will find it elsewhere on less scrupulous websites). Human names for us are often quite undignified, ranging from Sooty (as if we didn't keep clean), or Blackie, to Whitey or Snowy (as if we'd let that stuff stay on our fur). It doesn't surprise me that your humans named you after cars. It's the pathetic sort of thing that this inferior species would do. I look forward to the day when all cars are named after cats - Snow Leopard, Felis, Catus, Silvestris, Tiger, Bengal, Persian, Lion, and so forth. But when did humans get their priorities right? Cats before cars is an idea that seems beyond their grasp.
That hat.... I have never forgiven Celia for ambushing me with it. She waited till I was asleep, put it on, stepped back and did the photo. Luckily it is not a very good one. You can see from my expression what I think of that hat. I would like to make a public declaration to all humans. Do not dress up cats. We hate it. It is demeaning and Christmas is no excuse.
I don't much care for Christmas, myself. I make an exception for the turkey. A little plate of turkey meat, carefully taken off the dangerous bones, is an acceptable gift. Take note, humans.
Happy Christmas to all felines.
George
PS. I will report next on Christmas day on the behaviour of my humans and the current status of the white Christmas (so far snow is six inches deep). If comments are slow getting on, it is because internet connection has been lost due to snow.... unbelievable in 2010 but that's BT!
I've always used complete logic to name our cats. We have had several during the 44 years we have been married.
ReplyDeleteOur first little cat was Tittle. I don't know how that name stuck with her, but it did.
Then we got a little kitten. We called her Mandy, short for Amanda. I just like the name. She had a litter of kittens and we kept one. She had a very dark gray coat, so we were very original and named her Smokey.
We had a neighbor's cat that loved our house a lot. We called her Minnie Mouse the House Mouse. She was a small orange and white cat that was so sweet. She always came at night and wanted inside to sleep in the laundry room over the pilot light on our gas dryer. The neighbors moved and had the nerve to take their cat. It broke our hearts.
One day a little stray cat strolled up our driveway. When I saw him I said, "Well, Buster, where did you come from?" The name stuck, but we called him Bubba Cat (we are southerners). We had Bubba for 12 years.
Our neighbor's cat had a litter of kittens, two of which migrated to us. Their names were Marcus and Dexter given by the neighbors, but we called Marcus Twinkle Toes, Twinkie for short, because his feet were white and they kind of twinkled in the dark. Dexter was shy and spooky, so we called him Boo.
Then there was a large tom that we fed for a very long time. We named him Eric Rudolph, ER for short. We could never catch him or touch him, but we always fed him. Eric Rudolph was the Atlanta Olympics boomer that kept hiding and running from the FBI in the mountains of North Carolina, they could never catch him, so we thought it appropriate to name the stray cat Eric Rudolph.
There was the Little Terrorists. He was small and had the most beautiful brown coat. However, he would come over to eat with all the others (Bubba Cat, Boo, Twinkie and ER) but he would jump on the others, make all kind of screeching sounds like they were killing him, but he started every single skirmish. Thus he was the Terrorists.
Then our last three, Mollie Moo Cat who looked just like a cow with her markings, who brought us her two kittens, Emmie Sweet Pea and Oscar Snuggles. These were the sweetest babies ever. So we had an Emmie (I know spelled different) and Oscar even though we have never been in the movies. Just a bit of humor there. Sweet Pea and Oscar were brought to us by Mollie and placed on our kitchen floor before their eyes were open. They had no personality when they arrived, but they both fit their names perfectly, Sweet Pea and Oscar Snuggles, who became King of Tidewater.
George, I didn't mean to hijack your blog. I just got carried away talking about my fur babies.
Wow! Can you imagine that Porche name their model Cayenne after me? Not kidding! I got my name in August and Porche came out with Cayenne in Sept. same year :-)
ReplyDeleteCayenne
Tee, no one will think that you hijacked George's blog! The story about your cats is beautiful and touchy.
ReplyDeleteAnd Oscar was our dear friend.
Love
Fluffy
Bentley, you are really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the difference between a RR Phantom and a Bentley or any other car for that matter as I was very afraid of cars (living on the streets)
But you do look lovely.
Shumba
OMG George! THAT hat on your head.
ReplyDeleteDid you send Celia to a retraining center yet?
Amigo, I would kill anybody putting such horrible thing on my head.
Hasta la vista senior
Diego
Bentley.....you look very good....the way you are!
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to turn into a RR. Who needs that little siren or whatever it is on a car?
At least if it would have been a little bird; then you are driven :-)))
Thea
Good work
ReplyDeleteNo cat needs to be compared to anything made by apes. Bentley you are a fine cat.
ReplyDeleteTee, thank you for sharing the story of the naming of your cats.
We have taught our apes to wait until WE tell them what our names are. It's the only way :)
Happy Christmas to George, his secretary and all of the commenting cats!
Whicky Wuudler