Turns out Emily is a boy. That’s okay, his full name was Emily William since I wasn’t sure, but it was still a shock, though I don’t know why. It wasn’t like the cat had been playing with Barbies and wearing pink. In fact, Emily William is pretty comfortable being gender neutral, possibly because he’s been spayed. (We found out a lot at the vet’s.) Anyway, Emily is taking it in stride, much better than he took the trauma that was the cat carrier. He seems to have forgiven me now, but it took a while.
I knew you’d want to know.
We also found out his weight. That’s thirteen pounds of cat up there. I was impressed. That cat carrier was heavy.
OMG.
I’m sure Emily’s glad to have his gender identity recognized and respected. Too funny!
I’ve found that boy cats are really the most openly affectionate. Girls love you too, but are cool with loving from a distance. I’m glad s(he) has found a home. (As a side note, when my boys sleep with me, I have 15 lbs of cat on one side of my leg and 13 lbs on the other. It’s very hard to move!)
Yes, I’ve found the same thing, Nancy. My girl cats liked being patted, but there came a distinct point at which they said, ‘That’s enough!’ Whereas the boys would just lie there saying, ‘More, more. Why have you stopped?’
Reminds me totally of my kids personality: ds very affectionate, dd only when she feels like it.
I always thought if them as golden retriever vs Siamese…
If we ever get a cat, I’ll remember to get a boy…
I feel this is also true of girl and boy children
What are Emily’s preferred pronouns?
She answer to the rattle of the treat box.
Well that might explain why Emily went missing for a few days. He or she, Emily is beautiful and has grown under your care.
Ze is a handsomely beautiful cat and probably couldn’t give a rat’s ass about zir pronouns. 🙂
How cool! Our cat, Mr. Fluffypants, was misidentified by my husband as a girl when he/she/it was wandering around on our street for a couple of weeks, then confronted DH one winter morning with a loud “Meow!” on his way to work. I kept saying I was not sure what the gender was and we’d have to ask the vet. He kept calling the cat “she.” When we got the call from an owner, puzzled and worried at why their cat had appeared with our name and phone number on its collar, we found out that Mr. Fluffy (DH called it/her “Snowball” because of that bright outline on a winter morning) was actually their cat Pancho, who was a bad boy for having run off from the new house after the move.
Snowball/Pancho/Mr. Fluffy kept running away back to our house after that reunion, so many times that owner Sarah decided he was making a choice. She said that Pancho had been HER adopted cat and her husband had HIS adopted cat girl; the two cats hadn’t ever gotten along well. Furthermore, Pancho had been kind of grumpy and standoffish for months and months after the second baby was born, when he got banished to live in their screen porch all the time. So she handed over the old collar, the favored food dish, and a horrible electric Cat Hut thing that was supposed to protect him in his porch banishment. And we have traded notes & photos and news of Pancho/Mr. Fluffypants ever since.
So kudos to E.W. for having adopted you. May you both live forever 🙂
Mr. Fluffypants definitely traded up!
I read your cat story, Jinx, to the family. Applause!
Old tale: My mother-in-law’s name was Lois and the story is of her childhood dog Monty. Monty disappeared. A full year later, Lois’s dad saw Monty in the yard of a neighborhood in a different part of their town. Dad brought Monty home and Monty lived a long and happy life.
A friend painted Monty’s portrait. The painting is handed down in the family.
Cat and dog stories give us a glimpse of the life stories of animals who are our companions for only parts of their whole story, I think. Husband’s first cat was a barn kitten (Norwegian Forest Cat, we think) in northern Iowa who’d been looked after for awhile by one of DH’s coworkers. Then moved to the DC area riding under the seats of an AMC Pacer, and becoming the tiny grande dame of a mixed cat household in the DC suburbs.
Pancho/Fluffypants reigns over a kingdom alone, with two elderly human servants, a pond and bird paradise outside, a cat door, four fluffy cat nests with towel bedding changed frequently in high, low and medium spots around the house, a cat door, two water dishes high and low, food on demand imported from Japan and who knows where else, and from time to time DH will say “I think we should make Snowball a front flagstone path from the door to his favorite stump,” or “do you think it’s time we bought some fresh catnip at PetSmart? I think the stuff we have is getting stale.”
So he’s living the life of Riley. Sounds like E.Wm. GorgeousCat is living a chosen life in similar conditions. 🙂
You spell Emile oddly, and pronounce it correctly. 🙂
Cat and dog stories reminded me to check Al Johnson’s Goat Cams. That’s the Swedish restaurant with goats on the sod roof. There are goats on camera today. 🙂
He’s a gorgeous cat no matter what his gender. It reminds me of a stray cat that adopted us years ago. I grew up in the country and people frequently dropped off their unwanted dogs and cats because there was a farm next door to us and they figured the farm family would take them in (not true). One cat has been hit by a car and dragged itself up to our house by its front paws. We took it in and named it Katie. When we took Katie to the vet for treatment, Katie’s name quickly became Cato. She was actually a he!
I think all cats self-identify as “cat”. My cats are both female, but people tend to assume Mischief is male because of her grey colouring and standoffish first impression. She has never seemed to mind.
My son lives near a feral cat colony. One young female bonded with him and visited frequently for about a year, but without becoming pregnant. Then his balls dropped.