Oh look, it's Dietrich

Zephyr, Cat of Tomorrow, has been lonely for a while. Wandering about Menage, no other cats to play with or lie in wait for, he yowled at the top of his lungs daily at around 11 am and 6 pm, and at various points in between. He especially loved coming into our room at six am, meowing loudly, and clawing vigorously at my hair. Sometimes, he would wander into a room and get lost.

The poor guy was just bored.

So we decided to get a new cat, as a friend for him. The original idea was to get a young female, so that they wouldn't be aggressive and alpha-like toward each other; rather, Zephyr would spend his time trying to impress her. redheadedmuse might well remember the relationship between her tanklike tabby male and Zephyr back at Versailles: Zephyr spent much of his free time (which, in cat terms, is all time spent neither sleeping nor eating) stalking, then attacking him, intending to play, which her cat took as fighting and responded accordingly.

This did not go well for either of them.

Nevertheless, at the MASPCA we fell in love with Rick, a skinny 3 1/2 year old grey-and-white-patched male who meowed at us in a low voice and made sinuous lovey-movements when we petted him. We brought him home, and for a day or so, kept him alone in the living room with some food and water and litter.

He was skittish, though still lovey, and getting over a cold. We gave him the antibiotics sent home with him, spent time in the room and cuddled him a lot.

Then we introduced him to Zephyr.

Zephyr puffed up, put his ears back, stood defensively, yowled loudly and hissed. Rick didn't react so much, except by backing up. Eventually, he started approaching Zephyr, no matter how loudly he yowled, and sniffing his nose and/or his butt. This went on for a night and a day, until they seemed to reach an uneasy truce: Rick would sleep on ert's bed, while Zephyr lay on the floor nearby, sleeping with one eye open.

Sometime during this, Rick (whose name is obviously entirely inappropriate) went through several name permutations: ert wanted Cat or Astro-Cat? (to be shortened to Astro, which I insisted was a dog, or to Asscat (thanks, amber_phoenix), which is just wrong, if amusing), quinnclub suggested Bogart (Rick from Casablanca, y'see), and I wanted Rasputin. Somewhere along the line I noticed I wanted him named something Russian, at which point amber_phoenix helpfully pointed out that he seems part Russian Blue, which could be why.

I also noticed that he acts kind of like a meerkat, sitting up very tall suddenly and looking around in watchful alarm.

So I wanted to name him Mir.

We found out that Mir means "peace," which fit, since when asked "who's winning" during the Zephyr/Rick melees, Ert would often answer, "It's leaning toward the forces of peace."

Ert wanted him to have a long silly name, however. Preferably named after an 80s band, apparently, since his next suggestion was Mir (Not Mir).

Eventually, though, it came to be that our new cat is called Bluegrass Mir, the Wide-Faced Bard.

Or Mir, for short.

At this moment, the two cats are scampering around the house, play-wrestling, occasionally licking each other and/or biting each others' necks, and otherwise causing a good-natured ruckus.

I think Zephyr has a friend.