Why? Well, there was this friend (or colleague, if we're being picky here) who found a litter of six kittens on her doorstep. There were a lot of her friends (or, again, colleagues) who didn't want any of them kittens. And there was me. Go figure.
I had two weeks to decide on some names. My first try was Merry and Pippin. Everyone's first reaction was "why do you name one of your tomcats Mary?". Except for those of course who watched the Lord Of The Rings with open eyes and ears, but they were definitely in the minority. Since I wanted the names from some movie or story that meant anything to me, it was quite clear that it had to be either The Lord Of The Rings, Discworld characters, something from Hitchhikers Guide Through The Galaxy or the Matrix. Well, Frodo and Sam are really trite (dict.leo.org tells me this is the english word I'm looking for, so don't you come complaining to me about it!), Neo and Morpheus, Ford and Arthur or Tank and Dozer don't sound too well. And Slartibartfast and Zarniwoop (not a character couple, but the names match nicely) were too cruel even for my twisted taste... And then I had this idea. Two short and snappy names, both with two syllables and ending in -i, just the way cats love to be called - well, ok, at least that's what the internet says. And the best part: both names are short versions of something that passes as real names, that can be written down in any official document. So now my two cats are names Franklin and Benjamin. Or Frankie and Benjy. Now I wonder if anyone will find out from which book or movie I took these...
So I picked up Frankie and Benjy in the afternoon at said colleagues house. We also tried to catch two other cats who were relocated on this same trip. I got my ones pretty fast, but in the half hour it took us to chase the last kitten around the garden and into the carrying box, Benjy managed to escape twice from his case by squeezing between the bars of the cage door. Amazing little bugger.
And now they are here. Have looked around a bit, but stayed mostly in the kitchen area. I hope the remember where the litter pan is. I dumped each of them in there twice, so I hope they got the message. Will leave some lights on in the bathroom, even though I know perfectly well that they will see where they're going with the lights off. So far they are mostly hiding in some corners at the windows and try not to be caught and petted, I guess they're still a bit traumatized. After all, it was not only the long wait in the transport box, but also me trying to inject worm-medicine into their teethy little mouths. Frankie took it all quite well, he's playful and purrs away as soon as I reach out my hand, but Benjy is rather afraid of me. Can't imagine why. Will sort it out tomorrow.
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