They love eachother so much. Two Pics inside.
Continue reading Cats Again
Tag Archives: Apollo
Sad Apollo DREAM
I had a dream last night that Stan and I were in a room with a bunch of cats including Apollo. It was sort of like the Dog Play we go to with Lucifer Sam and Jasper, except this was Cat Play. Yeah, that’s an idea that would work out well. There were some cats there that were huge, maybe about 30 lbs or so. Not fat, just proportionately large. They kept chasing Apollo and annoying him. Now IRL Apollo is an Alpha, but he was so scared in this dream. He actually started to cry, and it sounded human. Finally Stan grabbed him away from the other cats and held him.
—
IRL, this is probably based on how Jasper seems to be targeted by large dogs. It happened the other weekend at a dog park. We were leaving, woman with two large unmanageable dogs is heading toward the dog park, she can’t contain one of her dogs, it heads over to Jasper in a not so waggy tail friendly way. Stan grabs Jasper and starts to scold the big dog. Big dog runs over to me, I have Lucifer Sam on a leash. Lucifer Sam scolds the dog too. Fortunately Lucifer Sam seems to hold his own around big dogs, but not Jasper. And Jasper is even taller than Lucifer Sam, so I don’t know what’s going on. He must just give off super-submissive vibes around big dogs. Maybe Pugs give off more confident vibes–they say that Pugs are like big dogs in little bodies.
We used to have to worry that Plato would unnecessarily aggress toward other dogs…now the shoe is on the foot with Jasper. Jasper is like the bizarro world Plato. So similar, yet so different.
Valentine’s Day Cats
I’ve never had a cat pair that loves eachother more than these guys.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Click them for a larger view.
Nicks
After being a pet owner for many years, one of the questions I start asking myself as soon as I get a new animal and name it is: “what will its nicknames be?” Nicknaming is an organic process that just evolves. It’s not like naming your animal, which has been a much more thought-out process, usually dependent on the many interests and activities in our lives, like with the dogs. Hieronymus: art (after Bosch); Plato: philosophy; Lucifer Sam: Pink Floyd (the song); and Jasper: decorative stones.
The cats’ given names had stranger beginnings. We got a small iguana shortly before we got our first cat. We named it “Boris.” I don’t know why. So we named our cat “Natasha.” To go along with the Russian name theme, our next cat that we got six months later we named “Vladimir.” After we lost Vladimir, we ditched the Russian theme in favor of classical antiquity. But we stuck with the brutal bloody ruler theme with our next cat, because it makes for a sweet cat. Go figure. And it did, hence, Caligula. Well, we also chose that name because of the little boots. Then came Apollo, again classical antiquity, and we chose the name for his bright sunny yellow color and Leonine sun sign (born August 1), like a sun god of the same name. Nothing to do with 1960s space flights.
But nicks just happen. We usually can’t control them, because some of the nicks are almost embarrassing. Or downright odd. Some nicks get applied to all animals, like “Nutty Buddy.” And some nicks are sacred–like Pappit.
Pappit was Plato’s nickname. Sometimes we referred to him as “The Pappit” when talking about him. Other times we addressed him by “nickname” and called him “Pappit-dog.” Plato also had other nicks like “Pippy” or “Bunny Monkey.” I’ve called Jasper those. But no matter how much Jasper will sometimes remind me of Plato, I will never intentionally call him Pappit. There was only one Pappit, and he is gone. Jasper will probably be the only “Little Boing Boing…but I don’t know. Maybe another Boston in the future (if there is one…if Jasper doesn’t outlive me) might be bouncy too, and inherit the Boing Boing nick.
Here are a few of the other strange nicknames we call our current animals:
Caligula: Bootcake (keeping the “Little Boots” theme, and adding a “cake” at the end because he’s so sweet), Bootcake-Fruitcake (because it rhymes), Fruity Boots
Lucifer Sam: Snoft (contraction of SNuggly and sOFT), The Snoft, Pug (well, I guess that one isn’t so odd), Pug Doodle, Wiggy (I think we also called Hieronymus the latter names as well, but definitely not The Snoft, as there is only ONE Snoft), Wiggly (pronounced “wig-o-wee”), Silly Willy, Snoftages
Apollo: Iddy Bee, Itsy Pids, Itsy Pidders, Itsy Pitsy Kitsy (those sound awful, don’t they?), Appy Pollo Wollow (I think I got this one from Alex of A Clockwork Orange who said “appy polly logies” instead of “apologies”), Wee Kitten
Jasper: Boing Boing, Little Boing Boing, Goofball, Puppin’ Stuff, Puppin’ Wee, Wee Puppy, Puppy, Puppy Puppy Nut or Puppy Pup Peanut
Collective Cats: Fruits and Boots
Collective Dogs: Nuts and Butts, Nutty Buddies, Nutty Butts
Jasper and The WeeBots
Back in the good old days when The Internet Gave You Stuff, I had accumulated a bunch of points just for having a popular site on GeoCities, which earned me points I could redeem at various places like The Museum Shop (I got jewelry and decorative glassware) and The Sharper Image, which had these crazy little old school electronic toys called “WeeBots.” I don’t know why I got a bunch of WeeBots, but they are rather fun for animals. Their batteries are wearing out, and some of them don’t work as well as they did ten years ago, as you can see from the movie. But they do elicit some fun expressions from the pets.
I don’t think Caligula is in the movie…he’s the oldest animal now, and he’s seen it all before.
I’m guessing Jasper was around 3 months when this was taken.
The Cycle of Life
I know that getting another animal does not replace the animal that precedes it. It is silly to think such. Each animal is unique and has its own personality. But what it does do is bring our focus from depressed to engaged again. It continues the cycle of life, of our life together with our animals…cat, pug, cat, boston, cat, pug, cat, boston, and so on.
I feel it is important that there are 2 of each. Having not had one like myself growing up, I know how much it sucks. Even though Lucifer Sam is a little freaked out by Jasper right now, soon they will be couch snuggle buddies together…a little pack of two. Caligula was a hiss-monster with Apollo at first, but now they sleep in touching symmetrical shapes on the bed together. Plato grrrred at Lucifer Sam when we brought him home and snapped at his head. We had to keep them separated for several days until Plato acclimated to him. But after that, they were buddies until Plato died.
When I have my 2 sets of 2, I feel much more balanced, like life is normal. And I can remember all my other animals that have moved on fondly, but not have to cry myself sick about it.