Monday, August 31, 2009

Name My New Cat - Update


Thank you, all, very much for all your great suggestions. As you know from a recent blog piece, a stray cat adopted me. Okay, here's where I stand. This little furball very much has a queenly aspect, at least till she hears the crackle of the cat food bag crinkling in my hand. The catch is the queen names have been done to death: Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and so on.

Little meowgirl also has the way of the enchantress, so I'm also thinking along the lines of Sappho (ancient Greek erotic poetess) and Circe (who beguiled Odysseus and crew).

Yesterday, a friend took a good long hard look at the photo on my iPhone and came up with Sheba. Another done to death queen name, I'm thinking. Then, suddenly, Bathsheba popped into my head. Bathsheba, as you may recall, is the Bible babe (pictured here) who made the mighty King David all weak in the knees (but strong in the loins), which kicked off a sequence of events that involved the usual lust and bliss followed by an unwanted pregnancy, which resulted in David dispatching husband Uriah the Hittite to certain death in battle, thereby incurring the wrath of God, who visited ultimate calamity upon the House of David.

(Something we can all identify with, obviously.)

The next thought that popped into my head was that a good shortened name for Bathsheba would be Batty.

As things stand right now: I'm leaning toward Bathsheba and Batty, but nothing is final yet. I've narrowed my choices to queen names (the more obscure the better) and enchantress names. So - feedback on Bathsheba and Batty, please, and ideas on queen and enchantress names. Please use the comments below ...

4 comments:

Willa Goodfellow said...

My highest queenly hero is Elizabeth I, a GenX survivor if ever there was one. Betty for short. I see that fierceness and disciplined determination in this young thing's eyes.

E said...

Bathsheba, nicknamed Batty, sounds wonderful! Go with it.

An update concerning the newborn kitty my friend has been nurturing: about a week ago, the kitty started dying. My frinend called every vet in town. Most said, if the cat lives, call me in a week. A 90 -year-old British-born vet ordered some antibiotics (which we dosed with acidopholis). We spent two days crying over this kitten as she opened her mouth in pain but couldn't make a sound.

But Dora (the Exporer, named by my friend's four-year-old grandchild, who my friend has legal custody of) is absolutely thriving. Huge for her age. A gleaming coat, bright eyes just lately able to focus. Yumm.

Louise Woo said...

I had a cat named Sappho for years. She was a love and used to get into the shower after I turned off the water.

But for a queenly name, I vote for Latifah! She ROCKS in every way!

Jen said...

The cat that blessed my life for 19 years with her demanding, adventurous and incredibly loving personality, was a beautiful blue eyed Tonkinese named Jasmine - Jazzy for short. I took one look into your kitty's mischieveous eyes, and thought of her. Though not exactly a queen's name, there is Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin - one of the Princesses of Heart :-) .