When he arrived, he seemed to me a bit of a Stanisław: something about him reminded me of the last king* of Poland. After our little misadventure in the middle of the night (he threw up all over our couch), I didn't think so anymore. He has since made it up to us by a great deal of purring, peaceful sleeping, and good toilet manners. And a wikipedia search yielded a better name for him.
This little guy looks like a miniature żbik (felis silvestris silvestris), with that same pattern of gray stripes and exceptionally furry ears and paws. In reality he probably is the fruit of an affair between a tabby cat and a Persian, unless he's a European expat, like us.
But now we call him Mały Żbik, which his human companion would most likely find unpronouncable.
He's made our Thanksgiving break very special, not just because of all the laundry and disinfecting the couch.
* Yes, I know that the last king of Poland was actually a Russian czar, but I don't accept it.
5 comments:
Is he a Maine Coon? My friend has those, and they are magnificent, strange looking cats. She had a beautiful gingery (that doesn't do justice to his colour) one who liked to wander, and was once retrieved from a conference of C S Lewis academics, all of whom, because of Aslan, were breathlessly excited to see such a wonderful feline.
You're incredible! Yes, he most likely is a Maine Coon! The second photo on the wikipedia page looks just like him.
He's going home tomorrow - not to Maine but a few streets from our place. He might be back here for Christmas, though.
Do you have a cat/ does a cat have you as its human? If I remember your posts about Kiya correctly, you were her temporary human. How is she, by the way? :-)
I don't have a cat, but did spend a year and a half minding three of them: Omar, Wolfie and Elvis. They were quite an introduction to the world of cats. And Kiya, of course. I haven't seen her for a while, so will ask Chendaberry to report!
Kiya is getting all excited about her imminent move to a flat with a garden - her very own garden for chasing birds in. Right now she's also enjoying the packing process (much more than I am), 'cos she gets to clamber up mountains of cardboard boxes and disport herself in hrad to reach places between them. Thanks for enquiring! :)
Bowleserised, like you, I have experience in occasional cat care. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a cat full time, but at present I can only wonder: I could not declaw a cat to fulfill a landlord's sick fancy, nor would I want the animal to go through a long, Kafkaesque quarantine in order to travel to Europe...
Hello, Chendaberry! Kiya is the heroine of some memorable blog posts, so it's good to hear what she's up to these days ;-) I hope your move goes smoothly. I'm sure Kiya appreciates all the cardboard boxes.
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