It seems that I only have photos of our solid black cats in my previous posts. Although four are completely black, we do have one little tuxedo. And he is the court jester of our family, and the biggest troublemaker. General gets into mischief more often than the other four cats put together. He chases everyone and everything, and he fights with all the other cats. He has a penchant for finding wads of paper or plastic in garbage cans then dragging them all over the house (then goes insane with crying when you take them away from him). He meows relentlessly when he wants something. And because of him, we have to leave the basement door open at all times, or else he will cry and literally jump at the door and bang on it with his paws. If that doesn't get my attention, then he will just pace in the hallway in front of the door crying. James and I have different "parenting" skills. James tells me to just ignore his behavior and he will give up, and learn that he can't always get his way every time he cries. I tell James that while he gets to go off to work, I'm the one who has to stay home and deal with all General's crying and his temper tantrums. No, I don't have children, but I swear I might as well. Of course, with that over-the-top personality of his comes ultra-cuteness, and I've had several pieces of art commissioned of him by different artists. Why are the bad ones always the most lovable??
I get a lot of questions on how we came up with the name of General. Even my six-year-old nephew asked me on the phone last week why we named him that. Well, we didn't. The amazing rescue shelter where we adopted him from had named him General Lee, and they swore to us he knew his name and answered to it already. They asked us to please keep his name. I couldn't have a cat named after the car in the Dukes of Hazzard (sorry Civil War fans, that's what I automatically thought of), so we shortened it to General. I should have known, watching him run around the cages at the shelter and jumping up on things, that we would be in trouble. But those antics made my husband fall in love with him. Incidentally we were there to adopt another kitten (Tipper- now renamed Maarten) and ended up coming home with two! I can't say that I am crazy about the name General, but it seems to fit him now because he is definitely full of energy and certainly commands me to do his bidding! All our cats have little "pet" names, and his are Booger and Doo Doo, and they fit him well. I also call him Stinkwad, but I say it with great love in my heart.
I'm sorry to say that we found out later that General was born with a heart defect, and although he shows no symptoms, the problem is there. The specialist we took him to said eventually it will worsen and he will end up on medication, and perhaps even require surgery, but we will deal with that later on when we need to. She also said he probably won't have the normal life expectancy of a cat. We adopted him when he was six months old, and that was back in 2006. We know we still have a lot more years with him, even though he may not live to be a ripe old age like Hairy is. And I'm sure the future holds nothing but joy and laughter and lots of love with General in our home.
(photos of "the little General")
I get a lot of questions on how we came up with the name of General. Even my six-year-old nephew asked me on the phone last week why we named him that. Well, we didn't. The amazing rescue shelter where we adopted him from had named him General Lee, and they swore to us he knew his name and answered to it already. They asked us to please keep his name. I couldn't have a cat named after the car in the Dukes of Hazzard (sorry Civil War fans, that's what I automatically thought of), so we shortened it to General. I should have known, watching him run around the cages at the shelter and jumping up on things, that we would be in trouble. But those antics made my husband fall in love with him. Incidentally we were there to adopt another kitten (Tipper- now renamed Maarten) and ended up coming home with two! I can't say that I am crazy about the name General, but it seems to fit him now because he is definitely full of energy and certainly commands me to do his bidding! All our cats have little "pet" names, and his are Booger and Doo Doo, and they fit him well. I also call him Stinkwad, but I say it with great love in my heart.
I'm sorry to say that we found out later that General was born with a heart defect, and although he shows no symptoms, the problem is there. The specialist we took him to said eventually it will worsen and he will end up on medication, and perhaps even require surgery, but we will deal with that later on when we need to. She also said he probably won't have the normal life expectancy of a cat. We adopted him when he was six months old, and that was back in 2006. We know we still have a lot more years with him, even though he may not live to be a ripe old age like Hairy is. And I'm sure the future holds nothing but joy and laughter and lots of love with General in our home.
(photos of "the little General")
Yep, those tuxes are bad to the bone (in a cute, warm and fuzzy way!). :) I swear Gracie is a stand up comedian. Jake is getting older and more mellow but he still has his very funny moments. Have a wonderful evening!
ReplyDelete