And here’s the cat …
On January 14, John Scalzi posted the 6000th post on his Whatever blog and posted a photo of his cat.
I mean, 6000—how amazing is that! I celebrated when I passed the 250 mark on December 30 but this tells me what I long road I have yet to travel.
I suspect the cat of being a Scalzi-esque in-joke (something to do with most blogs not getting past “hello world”, followed by “not much has been happening here lately” with the final post of desperation being “here’s a photo of my cat/dog/budgie”) but it made me realise that I have been remiss! Over 250 posts now, and closing on 300, and I have not yet posted a photo of my little cat buddy, aka “Ignatz”, “Iggy” or “the Igster” (plus a variety of other even more ridiculous ‘handles’, but these will do!)
Why “Ignatz”? Well, it’s a long story but the short version is that he is named for the mouse, Ignatz, in the cartoon “Krazy Kat”, first created by George Herriman in 1913.
The slightly longer version expands on the shorter one by explaining that we found Ignatz when he was very small, about 5 weeks by my estimation, and brought him home when efforts to find out where he belonged failed. Needless to say, he had been dumped, and so the “bringing home” has lasted now for 18 years. But back then, I also had two other cats who were still quite young and disposed to be friendly. I had a chinese chest with lion dog feet, too, just high enough for a 5-week old kitten—who was not at all convinced of the friendliness of those overtures—to hide beneath and defend ferociously against all comers.
In the annals of my cats, I like to call this the “saga of the growling chest”, although hissing and the brave swipe of tiny claws also featured. Suffice it to say that the other two cats—who really were just being friendly—were bemused and all other observers amused. If not familiar with the cartoon, I will let you click on the Krazy Kat link above to work out why, given this episode, I might have chosen to name the kitten “Ignatz” …
The happy ending, in this case, was that even though I went off to work with some misgiving on the Monday, when I came home and looked into the outbuilding where the cats had their daytime basket, three heads popped up from above the rim and feline amity remained the norm thereafter. In fact, the phenomenon of the three in one basket, or together on the one rug or sofa, became so much the norm that it got its own name: the “catterole.”
Iggy’s a handsome chap, and has reached the sort of age where be honored by his very own post is certainly deserved! I love the image of him hiding under the lion chest and protecting it against all-comers 🙂
Iggy’s years are long in the land and his consequence enormous … 🙂
Aww, I love that 🙂
What a cutie!
& 18 – wow!
Is it required for a writer to have a cat, or two?
It seems to be almost a requirement if you look at Sacalzi, Stross, Westerfeld et al. And there were two until 3 years back, when Bushi, the last of the other two cats mentioned died at age 16. 🙁