AROUND OUR HOUSE, CAT HAIR
IS CONSIDERED A CONDIMENT.
"PRINCESS PANCAKE B. ERLENMEYER"
Luckily for us, Rex knows the director of the shelter, Rita. She was nice enough let us see the dozens of cats kept in the back. Sitting in a cage on the top shelf, all the way at the end of the room, was this huge, black ball of fur with the unlikely name of "Scarlett." When I looked in the cage, all I could see were two amazingly gold round eyes staring back at me.
Rex commented about how pretty she was and I, of course, agreed. I thought little more about her. She hadn't really captured my attention. She wasn't particularly friendly and resisted being picked up out of the cage. I moved on.
When it came time to decide on which ones to adopt, Rex suggested we take her. He seemed very taken by her, so, despite my ...well, I won't go so far as to call them reservations... my.... lack of enthusiasm, perhaps, I consented and she came home with us.
Shortly after we brought the cats home, we went to Paris for about a week and had a neighbor look after them for us. When we returned, we found a note waiting for us about how Pancake had taken to relieving herself in a corner of the dining room instead of the litter box. This was not good news. Especially about a 13.5 lb cat that eats constantly.
It was at this point that Rex decided to confess something to me: he had suggested we adopt Pancake because he thought I liked her. He wasn't particularly drawn to her, but thought I was. I came clean to him, too. I had done the exact same thing, thinking he liked her. We came to the unpleasant realization that there was a likelihood that we had made a mistake.
We decided to give her a couple of weeks, just to make sure. Perhaps she would mellow out. After all, we had been gone on vacation and it wasn't really fair to judge her so quickly.
It wasn't long before we began to notice that what we had at first thought was a very nasty and confrontational personality was in fact just her way of playing! At 2 years of age, she was the youngest of the four cats and was desperately trying to get one of the others to play with her!
She would lay in wait behind the couch and jump out when another cat passed by. She would stalk them outside as they hung out in the backyard, always hanging back a good distance, but shadowing them whenever they moved. We began to notice that she would place herself in certain areas that would give her the best chance of attacking the tails of unsuspecting housemates. A favorite place was under the glass coffee table - the others liked to be on top of it and Pancake would bat at their tails (often not even touching them - they didn't even know she was playing with them!).
We also discovered that she is drawn to making a bed out of trays and baskets. The other cats curl up on chairs and in the occasional box, but Pancake is a tad more particular. We like to drink coffee in bed on the days that we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, so we decided to set up a tray with coffee condiments on it and place it on a bedside table (I'm the wuss that has to have cream and sugar). We could keep a coffee thermos there and avoid having to go to the kitchen for refills. Well, not 2 minutes after I had set up the tray Pancake sat down on it, pushed everything out of the way, and stretched herself out. There are now towel covered trays and wicker baskets all over the house just to keep the princess happy.
Which brings me to her name. I am a firm believer that people do not name cats - cats name themselves. She definitely wasn't a "Scarlett" to us, so we cast about for an appropriate name for her. We laughed about how she flattened out like a pancake when she lay down and it just stuck. But, when you look at her from behind, you see she has a small head and slender shoulders set on top of this round body. She looks just like an Erlenmeyer flask. Rex called her Erlenmeyer jokingly and then when his sister came over she - without knowing we had already seen the resemblance - began calling her Erlenmeyer, too. I don't think she ever once called her Pancake.
The rest of her name kind of fell into place over time. "Princess" because she acts like one. And the middle initial... well.... you know how when you were a kid and you misbehaved your Mom would call you by your full name? That's where the "B" comes from. Yep, it stands for "Bitch" because she certainly can be one.
I'm glad to say that this story has a happy ending. Pancake - or "Panner" as Rex often calls her - has blossomed into a wonderful companion, both for us and the other cats. She has managed to get the other cats not only to tolerate her but to play with her, too! What's particularly amazing to me is that she and Louie have become fast friends, following each other around and staying close to one another. This surprises me because Louie has never been friendly to another animal as long as I've had him! I guess he just can't resist the Panner's sparkling personality.
Background image courtesy of Stockstash.com
