Shhh, the kittens are napping …
Currently, the two tiny sibling balls of fur snoozing in a makeshift cardboard box bed in a safe cordoned off area at the back of the room as going by the work-in-progress titles of Cat and Rabbit.
The girl, who has darker markings on her tabby back and is slightly smaller, is Cat. The boy, whose tabby is more of a grey blue colour above his white stomach, is Rabbit.
There is logic, here. When we went to the pet shop to finish off buying supplies, there was only one bowl that said ‘CAT’ left on the shelf, and even if there weren’t, buying two would have led to the kind of matchingness that would not have suited us, our house, or our socks. So we walked out with one bowl that says ‘CAT’ and one bowl that says ‘RABBIT’.
At the moment they are therefore called Cat and Rabbit. Also, it would have been confusing to call them both ‘Cat’, as we wouldn’t have known which one we were referring to.
We do not know what to call the kittens. We are waiting a couple of days, we think, until we know them a bit better.
Names currently under consideration:
Dame Judi Dench
Hilary
Sir Ian McKellan
Liono
Cheetara
Findus
Spaghetti
Wanda
Zola (for the boy. It’s a Chelsea thing, apparently?)
Monk
Pookie
Killer
Geraint
Rabbit
Cat
And many others. Although I might as well just stop kidding around and call them ‘Baby’ and ‘Substitute’, being, as I am, a thirty year-old woman with new kittens.
(Please note, Mac and PC are not under consideration at this time, as, apparently ‘we are not prepared to damn one of our cats to being lameass this early in life’.)
They are quite nervous at the moment, though growing more confident by the hour, and cute as hairy buttons.
But please be assured, Little Red Boat will not, and you have me on record, become a cat-blog.
Though they are two little walking balls of content, for which I am most grateful.
Yay. Kittings.
UPDATE …
For those asking for pictures - well, there will be more pictures, but Cat (although I have spent most of my time at home today calling Cat ‘Widget’, so that might be another option) has a gammy eye at the moment, so she isn’t being very pictured until we get to the vet tomorrow to find out how to fix these things and she gets a bit happier. I think she has not been very loved. Still, we can do that. That is the point.
But for just two pics:
Rabbit, and Cat(-Widget).
I like Cat and Rabbit meself.
Comment by yay — 25 November, 2007 12:05 pm
You got two! Yay! Good for you. They will be much happier together and much less trouble in the having-to-play-with-them-all-the-time sense although more trouble in the Amount of Trouble They Can Get Up To Sense.
You don’t wanna trade for one old, fat cat I suppose?
Happy Kitting.
Comment by Lisa — 25 November, 2007 12:29 pm
Yeay! One of my kittens is called LionO and it confuses the vet who calls him Lion. I did want to call him Professor Falafel (it has a ring about it, no?) but that would confuse the vet even more. The other name in the running was Chairman Meow but he’s too soft in the head for living up to that name.
Comment by Tea & Biscuits — 25 November, 2007 12:31 pm
Hurray!! My kitten, Murray, is 14 weeks old. I am already nostalgic about the days when he was that size! Maybe we need another kitten to keep him company.. hmm. OH how lovely. Kittens!
Comment by Fi — 25 November, 2007 12:58 pm
I think due to the problems with the Government that there is a sinister plan taking place whereby cats are taking over the country “…”http://www.crazybrits.co.uk/2007/11/25/cat-control/
Comment by Sephe — 25 November, 2007 1:33 pm
[...] see Shhh, the Kittens are nappping http://littleredboat.co.uk/?p=2785 [...]
Pingback by Crazy Brits » Cat Control — 25 November, 2007 1:37 pm
Hello! I’ve been lurking on your blog for a while, but I just had to join in the general kitten-happiness. “Killer” sounds like a fine name, especially if the kitten in question is comically small and fluffy! If my husband ever lets me have a cat, it’s going to be called Pyewackett, for a number of complicated reasons, though I also loved Tea and Biscuits’s idea of Chairman Meow… Enjoy your kittens!
Comment by Lorna — 25 November, 2007 1:59 pm
Hurrah for keetuns! Now, non-cat-blog-ness fully appreciated, but pleeeeeez can we have a picture? Just one? Please?
(I’ve known very fine felines called Cow and Fish - not in the same household - so Cat and Rabbit make perfect sense to me.)
Comment by scroobious — 25 November, 2007 2:08 pm
Kitties!!!
I lean toward calling them both Max. (Annie Hall reference)
Comment by Nicole — 25 November, 2007 2:52 pm
Since we are never going to get the cat we wanted to name this, I will pass the name on to you for consideration: Albion! Then you can refer to him as Perfidious Albion when he tears up your curtains.
As for the other one, I don’t know, Gaul?
Comment by Krissa — 25 November, 2007 4:35 pm
*SIGH* Stuart would like to submit Boudicea and Vortigern. Because he is a DORK.
Comment by Krissa — 25 November, 2007 4:36 pm
Oh oh! Milo and Pepper Ann?
Comment by Katy Newton — 25 November, 2007 4:55 pm
I vote for Hinge and Bracket
Or possibly Morcambe and Wise.
No, Hinge and Bracket I think.
Comment by Just Me — 25 November, 2007 6:03 pm
I think you should just stick at Cat and Rabbit.
Comment by Andria — 25 November, 2007 6:31 pm
Yes, I am also in favor of sticking with Cat and Rabbit. That is excellent!
Congrats!
Comment by Katie — 25 November, 2007 6:51 pm
Love “Cat and Rabbit”, but then again, I called my hamster Sparkplug, so I don’t think I’m a good one to ask about names…. Yay kitehs!!!
Comment by kat — 25 November, 2007 7:42 pm
Geriant, that is bloody brilliant. please call one Geriant! :)
Comment by shauna — 25 November, 2007 7:44 pm
May I suggest Snuggle Muffin Bunny Princess, the name of my late great departed cat. Although, to be far, SMBP is quite a mouthful, and not suitable for screaming at the top of your lungs when the cat is swimming in the goldfish bowl, and it tends to make veterinarians giggle.
Cat and Rabbit it is, then.
Comment by kellyd — 25 November, 2007 7:53 pm
You’ll give the poor thing an identity crisis…
Comment by the B — 25 November, 2007 8:49 pm
Cat and Rabbit are good names, why think of others?
Umm exactly how do you plan to work now? With two cute furballs who think moving hands(ie typing) and moving pens (ie handwriting) are for the catching? And don’t even think about a Christmas tree - way too easily climbed.
Enjoy them and take lot of pictures, please post one.
Comment by H — 25 November, 2007 9:47 pm
I will post proper pics later - veh veh busy this evening - Bingo reasons (will explain)
But for just two pics:
Here are my very new Rabbit, and Cat(-Widget).
Comment by anna — 25 November, 2007 11:06 pm
I like Panthro, but may I also cast my vote for Chairman Meow, oh and I like Hinge and Brackett too.
Comment by Caroline — 25 November, 2007 11:19 pm
Although I like Cat and Rabbit, I must say that Spaghetti and Rabbit pleases me most. If not, then Zoe and Zeus. I make a great guardian as well, you know.
Comment by zed — 25 November, 2007 11:39 pm
Cat/Widget and Rabbit sound good. Though, if I may offer up Terry Pratchett’s advice: ‘never give a cat a name you would mind shouting out in a strained, worried voice around midnight while banging a tin bowl with a spoon.’
Mine’s called Elgar. Which shows I know buggerall.
Comment by Rachel — 26 November, 2007 1:31 am
i like cat and rabbit. it reminds me of the names my parents gave their cats: ‘black cat’, and ‘little black cat’.
Comment by 'b. — 26 November, 2007 4:00 am
Yay kittens!
Cat and Rabbit are perfect, given that they already have those bowls.
Also, consider:
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
So, Cat Johnson Pickard and Rabbit Pickard Johnson!
Comment by xl — 26 November, 2007 4:01 am
Ooooh kittens are my favoritest favorite thing in the whole entire world. I say go with Cat and Rabbit, and wait for the slow realisation that no matter what they are ‘named’, they won’t come to it anyway, and you will develop five hundred other nicknames - from the embarrassingly gooshy to the ear bleedingly colourful.
Comment by Nine — 26 November, 2007 10:22 am
Traffic and Accident.
Comment by Mr H — 26 November, 2007 10:54 am
Wow, Mr H, that sounds like it could be trying to be funny, but is actually just angry and violent and quite unpleasant.
Oooh, what about “Fucking’ and ‘Charming’?
Comment by anna — 26 November, 2007 10:57 am
meerkat, surely? You can buy it a neckerchief. Meerkat and rabbit. I like.
Comment by hfactor — 26 November, 2007 1:38 pm
oooo Meerkat and Rabbit- rolls off the tongue, but I like Widget too. Good thing this naming business isn’t up to me.
They are seriously cute though.
Comment by asta — 26 November, 2007 2:41 pm
I borrowed my ‘Comment by’ name from one of my cats.
I vote for Rabbit and Cat, they’re cute names, although I’ve found cats largely ignore what you call them and they’re not very bright either. If my cats were human they’d be in some sort of facility for adults with learning difficulties.
Comment by arch stanton — 26 November, 2007 3:56 pm
Awwwwwwwww.
Very very cute.
I won’t enter the naming discussion. Naming other people’s wotsits is way too hazardous an occupation.
Comment by clare — 26 November, 2007 5:00 pm
Sorry, but it does sound as if it is turning into a cat blog. That’s not a bad thing, just a thing.
Comment by joeinvegas — 26 November, 2007 5:32 pm
Two posts does not a theme make!
Comment by clare — 26 November, 2007 6:06 pm
Joining the chorus to say, yes, Cat and Rabbit are very good names and seeing as how their food dishes are already suitably identified. . .All cats have three names anyway, according to TS Eliot.
Comment by Molly — 26 November, 2007 7:23 pm
Re the Terry Pratchett comment, my wife’s cousins when they were small found an abandoned/lost cat on their way home from choir practice, and after failing to find where he bel nged they kept him. He was duly named “Choir Practice”, mercifully shortened in general to C.P..
How about Clark and Lois? (They are, after all, super furry animals.) Though Cat and Rabbit has class too.
Comment by Rob — 26 November, 2007 7:46 pm
Re “Fucking” and “Charming”, there’s always “Cooking Fat” (thank you, Rev. Spooner).
Comment by Rob — 26 November, 2007 7:48 pm
And if this is turning into a cat blog, was there a previous version which would have been a cat alog?
(Never bothered taking coat off.)
Comment by Rob — 26 November, 2007 7:50 pm
Oooo! You’ve gone ahead and done it? There’ll be tears, mark my words. I tried to warn you but oh no… Anna knows better. Those kittings, they’ll grow you know, and as they grow they’ll start to spread their wings.
In next to no time they’ll be fully grown and flying all around the house - flapping those huge feathery wings all over the place, scattering feathers as they go.
They can break a man’s arm you know - with their wings. It’s true, oh yes.
:-)
Comment by Brennig — 26 November, 2007 8:12 pm
oooh, kittens! Cuteness in abundance. I always wanted to call my cats after biscuits (Jaffa, Digestive, Gypsy Cream -you get the picture)… but then we only had the one. Still, his name WAS Biscuit, so it was a start.
Comment by nemish — 26 November, 2007 8:32 pm
Can I vote for a cat blog?
And how about Keith and Prowse seeing as they will soon have all the best seats in the house? Or Simon and Garfunkel? Gilbert and Sullivan? Or as you will find out, their real names will soon be getoffoutofityoubloodycat and wherehastheotheronegottothistime? There are continual cries of ‘where is the other cat’ in our house. Also they get called Mr cat and Mrs cat.
Comment by Debster — 26 November, 2007 8:57 pm
I would go with Cat and Rabbit, since they’re already on the dishes. But Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen as a close second.
Comment by srah — 26 November, 2007 10:42 pm
Do you also promise not to start posting ‘lolcat’ pictures?
(Apropos nothing, in the words of Alan Partridge: “Don’t put your cat in the microwave, its Atomic Kitten.”)
Comment by William T — 26 November, 2007 11:19 pm
Cool names. Stick with them and don’t - under any circumstances - pick a “pair”.
“Go-Kart” and his late partner “Ferris Wheel” were named while staring at the Palace Pier apparently.
Takes a lot of explaining later.
Comment by nationwide — 27 November, 2007 3:44 am
How to prepare for a new cat
1. Take cold chicken and stars soup straight from the can and splash it across the carpet and the foot of the bed and then walk in it in the dark with your socks on.
2. Set up a mouse trap at the foot of the bed each night so that if you move a toe one inch while you are sleeping, you are sure to get snapped.
3. Cover all your best suits with cat hair. Dark suits must use whitehair, and light suits must use dark hair. Also, float some hair in your first cup of coffee in the morning.
4. Put everything cat-toy sized into a water bowl to marinate.
5. Practice cutting your chicken into teeny tiny bites so that when they steal, it won’t be the whole breast.
6. Tip over a basket of clean laundry, and scatter clothing all over the floor.
7. Leave your underwear on the living room floor, because that’s where the cat will drag it anyway (especially when you have company).
8. Jump out of your chair shortly before the end of your favorite TV program and run to the t.v. shouting “No! No! Don’t chew on the electric cord!” Miss the end of the program.
9. Put chocolate pudding on the carpet in the corner of the living room in the morning and don’t try to clean it up until you return from work that evening.
10. Gouge the surface of the dining room table several times with an exacto knife. It’s going to get scratched anyway.
11. Practice searching every closet and open cabinet door before you shut it.
12. Knock all small items off your kitchen counter.
13. Chew the eraser off every pencil in the house.
14. Take a fork and shred the roll of toilet paper while it’s still hanging up. Pull a few sheets off and scatter them around the bathroom.
15. Take a staple remover and punch two holes in every scrap of paper around the house.
16. Get a litter tray without a lid and mix in some tootsie rolls with cat litter and then tip it over right before the company comes. Make sure your guests get to find this before you do.
17. Buy a mixed bag of cat toys and stuff them under the refrigerator.
Practice getting up at 2AM and fishing them out with a ruler or broomstick.
18. Take a warm cuddly blanket out of the dryer and immediately wrap it around yourself. This is the feeling you will get when your new cat falls asleep on your lap.
Comment by Debster — 27 November, 2007 10:16 am
My daughter had “Kat and Alfie” - it was an Eastenders thing
Comment by AndyB — 28 November, 2007 9:23 am
We used to have Cow & Chicken, until that ungrateful Chicken broke up the party by running away to a family who renamed her ‘Jake’.
I’m loving Cheetara, personally.
Comment by Wondy — 28 November, 2007 11:01 pm
I like Cat and Rabbit, although you could have Widget and Dongle. (I suspect Dongle would have to be the male one.)
Although you could call them the same name. Our three goldfish were called Boutros Boutros Gali. We never had any trouble telling them apart: Boutros and Boutros were the gold ones, and Gali was a black one.
Comment by Damian — 3 December, 2007 2:48 pm
kittens!!
My friends and I have cats that are named for slightly obscure characters from now-obscure tv shows we have loved. So, for example, one friend has two girlkitties named Anyanka and Halfrek, the two vengeance demons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No, I am not joking.
I recommend scoping out the personality, then assigning a name. And a couple of nicknames that are what they’ll actually answer to anyway. My boykitty Andrew often answers to “Buddy” rather than his actual name. Who knows why, since his previous name (shelter-given) was Flower (they had a Bambi thing for his litter…ugh).
Are your kitties spastic? calm? friendly? hostile? etc. their names will come to you!
Comment by teri — 4 December, 2007 12:28 am
No debate.
Your work is done.
Cat and Rabbit.
Comment by Duck — 4 December, 2007 1:33 pm