Name that cat
The other day I saw The Scarlet Tunic, a movie adaptation of The Melancholy Hussar, a short story by Thomas Hardy. It’s based on a Thomas Hardy story with ‘melancholy’ in the title, so you know it’s no barrel of laughs. Watching the protagonists meet their tragic fates, all we can say is, “You guys should’ve been in a Jane Austen novel, those end happily. At least you’re not in Jude the Obscure because compared to that, this is a ray of sunshine. If you have to be a Thomas Hardy character, try to be in Far From The Madding Crowd.” I was prepared for the human tragedy, but not for the scene in which the hero’s horse breaks a leg and has to be put down.
This prompted me to compile a list of movies I refuse to see because they have a major animal character and the animal either endures terrible privation or comes to a tragic end.
Umberto D. by Vittorio De Sica (Flag the dog)
Au hasard Balthazar by Robert Bresson (Balthazar the donkey)
Old Yeller (No! Not Old Yeller!)
Movies where the hero’s horse breaks a leg and has to be put down
I could barely watch Babe: Pig in the City because I feared for the pig.
Large-scale human carnage on the screen, no problem; suffering animals, trauma. Near the start of Far From The Madding Crowd, an idiot dog causes a flock of stupid sheep to jump off a cliff, and the newly-impoverished shepherd shoots the dog. I had to stop the DVD for a few minutes.
In his NYT blog Dick Cavett says “the reason the death of a pet is worse than the death of a human is that you have mixed feelings about all people.”
Speaking of animals, our ampon stray cats Jarndyce and Jarndyce have been bringing a friend to dinner.
The cat is pretty, though very dirty.
She/he has some resemblance to Mat, who spent a couple of years outdoors getting to know the local females.
Mat: “You can’t prove anything. I demand a DNA test.”
The new cat is well-behaved, so we’ll let her join the feeding sessions. But she/he needs a name, so why don’t you make some suggestions and post them in Comments? My cats’ names are combinations of tennis/literary/historical/TV and movie names so I would be more likely to pick such a mixture.
If your entry is chosen, you get a copy of In the Wilderness by the Spanish writer Manuel Rivas, to be mailed to a Philippine address (Assuming you send the right name and address and the postman finds you). According to the blurb, the Rivas novel has “A glorious cast of animals and birds.” Rivas wrote Butterfly’s Tongue, which was made into a lovely Spanish movie with a tragic ending.
Saffy Safina wishes her father Marat a Happy 29th Birthday.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 27th, 2009 at 02:11
Briony Ottilia Goolagong
Briony (you know)
Ottilia (from The Magician, Ingmar Bergman)
Goolagong (extinct Australian tennis player)
January 27th, 2009 at 03:08
i’d name him Rafa because they both look dirty.
January 27th, 2009 at 09:26
neil, after neil gaiman. short, simple, one-syllable moniker like mat. the cat reminds me of neil gaiman’s short story “the price” – about an adopted cat who mysteriously disappears at night and then reappears at the adopter’s porch the next morning with deep scratches, and gash and puss all over. turns out the cat was fighting and holding off the devil from going inside the house and eventually wreaking some unknown ills to its inhabitants, perchance even taking their lives away as well.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:31
The part in “Unbearable Lightness of Being” where Karenin the dog dies was the worst. I started bawling! (Haven’t seen the movie, though, so I don’t know if that was in there.)
January 27th, 2009 at 12:04
Not connected to cat topic but it’s here because I was too lazy to search your blog for the tabo topic. Pinoy in Oz fired for uhm, turning his back on TP.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2009/01/27/35221_hpnews.html
January 27th, 2009 at 12:15
male name: Boccaccio Twisto Salinger Fed
Boccaccio (writer of The Decameron)
Twisto (from Twisted)
Salinger (author of The Catcher in the Rye)
Fed (Roger Federer)
female name: Baracka Oishi Pusa Arfaz
Baracka (from Barack Obama)
Oishi (favored brand)
Pusa (meow meow)
Arfaz (Zafra in reverse)
January 27th, 2009 at 12:32
Fitz, short for Fitzwilliam Darcy
January 27th, 2009 at 14:36
Satine Lecter
January 27th, 2009 at 17:33
Male name: Philip Pirrip “Pip”
Female name: Biddy
January 27th, 2009 at 18:06
Dorian Gray. It’s beautiful and dirty at the same time.
January 27th, 2009 at 19:11
ang dahilan kung bakit ako naging semi-vegetarian dahil ayaw ko nang may namamatay na hayop para lang mabusog ako. hay…
allen gatsby. pwede sa kahit anong kasarian.
January 27th, 2009 at 19:16
Female: Tatiana Simone Tsonga, or simply Tati Tsonga
Male: Henri Henin Hardenne, or Triple H.
Ccccorny ba?
January 27th, 2009 at 21:24
Keyser V. Soze
Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects
V. for Valentina from Darna!
January 27th, 2009 at 22:16
Just call her Kournik as in Kournikova. Think it’s a she.
January 27th, 2009 at 22:33
Yevgeny Ripley (Yevgeny Kafelnikov, The Talented Mr. Ripley)
Craggy Amarro (Danel Craig, The Crime of Padre Amarro)
Bjorn Bocca (Bjorn Borg, Boccaccio)… BB for short (incidentally, Uma Thurman’s daughter’s name in Kill Bill)
Morticia Azumi Decameron (Morticia Adams, Azumi-samurai/slasher heroine, book by Boccaccio)… call her MAD.
January 27th, 2009 at 23:56
Name him Tootles, or Rafatootles.
or
Name him Slightly, or Slightlyfed.
or
Name her Wendy Moira Angela Darling.
January 28th, 2009 at 06:28
Since I have know idea if the cat is a he or she, I’ll use Calliope (from Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex). Also, he/she has striking resemblance to Mat, second name will be Copycat.
Calliope Copycat
January 28th, 2009 at 09:36
princess monique lubanadie (all first names) to be nicknamed digsby or luba
princess after manny pacquiao’s daughter
monique after my favorite tv character
luba after luba luft, the android opera singer
nadie because im not a big tennis fan so i dont know the other cool players. rafa is my favorite because of his personality
digsby is my father’s favorite pet name (all his dogs were/are named digsby)
January 28th, 2009 at 11:33
fine. i’ll go along.
Nole’ (pronounced like Olay)
djokovic’s nickname.
January 28th, 2009 at 14:44
how about naming it “boyet”?
January 28th, 2009 at 19:45
ask your cat if he’d like to be named Melquiades Mola.
if she’s a she, how about Ursula Hingis.
January 28th, 2009 at 20:56
I agree with diejamaica. Dorian Grey is a perfect name. Or what about Demitriy, from that Rurikid Tsar of Russia who claimed to be Ivan the Terrible’s long lost son?
I completely agree with you. When I watch movies, I don’t care if the main character suffers carnage, but when the animals are wounded, I wince.
January 28th, 2009 at 22:25
ENIGMA!!!
January 29th, 2009 at 10:21
Humbert Humbert if it always licks itself down there, or trembles at the sight of little kittens playing.
January 29th, 2009 at 13:44
Matutina
Bella
Ibarra
Andre’
January 29th, 2009 at 16:44
Matisse sounds nice. It’s good for both genders, plus it kinda takes after Mat’s name – both cats resemble each other anyway.
January 29th, 2009 at 20:00
Woof :)
January 29th, 2009 at 21:22
i hope it is a boy because i think John Galt is the perfect name.
if not then maybe Dagny Taggart :)
February 3rd, 2009 at 13:20
BANTAY
though its not a common name for a cat. its unique. cute and adorable
It is really meaningful give it a thot.
February 7th, 2009 at 11:04
I think RAFAPOVA is a good name. Combination of Dirty ( RAFAel Nadal) and pretty (Maria SharaPOVA) hehehe…
August 16th, 2009 at 12:33
what a lovable cat..i love cats actually…missed my old cat who love to sleep beside my bed and first thing in the morning i hug my cat and spin around ..if i had a cat again i would love to name her SPINNIE