Two of my five roommates have dogs - one a Rat Terrier and the other a German Shorthair. Two of my other roommates recently visited the Muncie Animal Shelter and hope to add a German Shepherd and Samoyed to the mix within a few weeks.
Despite the nearly incessant barking, I'm remaining positive about the prospect of four dogs. Before the inaugural winter blizzard, the motley crew will be trained to pull me on a sled to class, and I won't have to take the MITS bus, slippery with slosh and raging with the flu virus, or in this year's case, H1N1.
Still, as unconducive to sleep as living with dogs can be, I see how playful and curious the shorthair Brody is and how Casey the terrier loyally awaits his owner's return each afternoon.
These sentiments led me to procure my own animal and wanting to create diversity within the household. I opted for a kitten.
The animals I have owned often reflect my reading trends, evidence of my evolving literary taste. My last pet was a spritely cockatiel, who I called Grisham, owing to my curious obsession with legal thrillers at the time. Looking around my room, I saw Smoke and Mirrors, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. I recalled one story wherein a black cat guarded his family against Satan each night and, hoping to instill within my kitten that same courage, I called him Neil.
Unfortunately, a few days after christening him, I remembered a more-embarrassing-than-usual period of my life from high school involving a boy of the same name. Each time I said the kitten's name, I was reminded of homemade cookies and pop-up Valentine's Day cards - not as endearing as one may believe. According to a friend, I had one week from the day I got him until he needed to have an official name. With four days left, the frantic search began.
Shortly thereafter, I was part of another frantic search. This past Friday, when I came home from class, I heard an unremitting meowing, though I couldn't see the source. I searched my room for the then unnamed cat and, unable to locate him, I ran back outside and listened. The meowing had stopped. Growing more anxious, I went back to my room, and hopefully ventured once more, "Cat?" This time, the kitten lazily crawled out from beneath my comforter, his ears popping upward, no longer restrained by the blanket.
In the two minutes I thought I'd lost him, I was reminded of a few summers ago, when two friends and I found a stray kitten and unofficially adopted her. The three of us took turns keeping her at our house and hiding her from our parents. On an especially bright afternoon, after getting ready for work, I thought it a pleasant idea to check the mail and take a brief walk in the sun before confining myself within the walls of my hospital employer. As I came back inside, I slammed the front door with my foot as I shuffled through the bills and junk. Walking toward the kitchen, I turned back around, wondering why the front door was ajar. The kitten had been poking her head outside as the door slammed, and it bounced back open on contact. The force of the door snapped her neck and the kitten began convulsing and gymnastically flipping and jumping. Despite the popular belief about feline immorality, I assure you cats only have one life. Or in this kitten's case, had one life.
Recalling this traumatic experience, I questioned what made me think I had the ability to care for another cat when I can't even think of a suitable name. Was this really a subconscious attempt to rectify the other kitten's inadvertent and untimely demise? Moreover, this cat could live as long as ten years, clawing furniture and chasing ping pong balls until I'm 30. What inkling of hope is there that both (or either) of us will survive that long? Nevertheless, this weekend marked the one-week anniversary and after a friend enumerated the similarities between the kitten and Charlie Chaplin, he was aptly renamed. This name is the only protection from myself I can give him, and it's also a hope that the influence of his namesake will afford him a song and dance lasting longer than a one-act show.
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