A few weeks ago, Gina sent me an email from her co-worker that said she was moving to Mexico and couldn't take her cat with her. The email included a picture of said cat literally snuggling in the arms of her dog. How was I supposed to resist that?
I forwarded the email to Rich immediately and proceeded to wear him down over the next 24 hours incessantly mentioning the cat until he agreed we could get him. I admit at that point being a little resistant then, wondering if we really needed a third cat in our lives. But that only lasted a few minutes before the excitement set back in again.
Since the co-worker isn't moving until July, she wasn't in a rush but agreed to hand him over this past Saturday. I made a special trip up to Richmond to have lunch with Gina and Alan and then acquire the kitty. He was just as friendly as she described if not more so. Unfortunately, he's not a fan of riding in the car and he cried for 90 minutes straight on the way home. I now know why they say poorly played bagpipes sound like cats because towards the end of the trip, he sounded like someone was squeezing him just like a bagpipe.
He's settled into the guest room for the moment to get used to his new surroundings. He spends a lot of time under the bed but comes out to play if you call him. Speaking of calling, his name is Monk and we are debating if he will keep that name or get a new one. Rich seems to think he will be lost without the same name he's had for 21 months, but I content that he's a cat and whatever we name him won't matter to him anyways.
He is the longest cat I have ever seen, so we keep calling him longcat. But we also have come up with a variety of other nicknames like Mr. Whiskers, Reverend Jim and Baron Von SnuggleHoff. But since he's the only male in the house other than Rich, we should call him something like Dude or Man or Bro.