Home Blog Music Writing Gaming Designs Photos About Me Forum Links  Social Media  RSS Feed  Blogger Profile  Updates  Blog List • Alphabetical • By Date  Category • Cats  Other Categories • Beer • Finance • Fitness • Gaming • General • Music  Month • October 2010  Next Post • Staying the Course  Last Post • A Walk in the Park Six Months of Barclay  Tomorrow marks the six-month anniversary of adopting my cat Barclay from MEOW Cat Rescue, so I wanted to write some more about he’s adapting to living here and post some pictures.  This one should be a lot more fun than previous picture blogs, as most of those were rather bittersweet.   My first encounter with Barclay was through a profile page on the MEOW website, which showed a picture of a very fluffy grey kitty and described a calm and gentle creature.  I definitely wanted to see him before I made any decisions, but I was unsuccessful in doing so on the first trip to MEOW, as he had a cold at the time and was in quarantine.   The second trip was much more successful, as I had time to interact with him and had the time to decide whether or not he would be the cat for me.  Obviously, I chose to adopt him over four other candidates (one of which named Sugar Bear was adopted and returned recently), and he came home in the same fashion that Mouse did – mewling away in a crate.   Here’s a contrast of the photo on the MEOW website and a picture of him under my bed that I took on his first day here:   It’s kind of strange, as he looks more like he did in the MEOW photo now that he’s older.  He was a very cute kitten though and I got this great picture of him before he really started filling out:   He was rather adventurous when he first got here and he wanted to explore his new home with reckless abandon.  He was given a bed on my bed so he could sleep while I slept, but he moved on to sleeping on pillows shortly thereafter, then took over the whole bed.   He also had an abundant amount of energy (which hasn’t changed much) and he played with lots of different toys on his own and with some assistance from me.  His favorite toy at the time was a bee on a metal wire which he would watch intensely and jump high off the ground to attack.   [A short movie of Barclay playing with his bee toy] He’s also found some new places to sleep aside from my bed – those being the shelf in front of the window, a stack of boxes next to my closet (his current favorite), on my desk while I’m working on my computer, on stacks of my clothes, in the plant window, in the living room by the fireplace – what can I say.  The guy’s a sleeper and he takes pride in his work.   He’s also acquired a profound amount of nickname in his short tenure here, which is unsurprising as Mouse had a bunch and Bootsie still does.  I’ll do my best to list them with a short description.   • Barc (the most common and short for Barclay) • Barc Barc (like a dog bark) • Barcle (another shortened name) • Barcle Buddy (because he’s my buddy) • Barcle Butt (all in the alliteration, and Bootsie gets called Bootie Butt) • Barclay Butt (ditto) • Barcle Sparkle (more alliteration) • Barcle Spark (shorter) • Aardbarc (like an aardvark – hey, it rhymes) • Jalapeno Plopper (when he plops on the ground) • Toofie Guy (because of his teeth) • Count Barcula (ditto) • Tufty Toes (because he has tufts of fur between his toes) • Tufty Guy (a combo of Toofie Guy and Tufty Toes) • Crazy (because he is) • Rafferty (my dad calls him that and he responds to it) • Hop Czar (more explanation in a minute)   Not a bad collection of nicknames for a cat that’s been around here for six months!  As for the Hop Czar nickname, I had an empty box that was full of the Bridgeport Hop Czar IPA at one point, but I hadn’t recycled it yet.  On a whim, I put it on the floor and Barclay proceed to hop in it and start chewing on the lids and the handles.  It’s currently tipped on its side and Barclay likes to relax in it while I’m out in the living room.   [A short movie of Barclay chewing on the Hop Czar box] All in all, it’s been a really fun six months with the rapidly growing guy (from 8 pounds in April to 12.5 currently) and I can’t wait for all the years of joy to come!       Discuss this post at the For the Love of Creativity Forum!   Posted on October 16th, 2010. External Links   • Bridgeport Brew – Makers of Hop Czar – BRIDGEPORT • MEOW Cat Rescue – MEOW Cat Rescue – Home • Sugar Bear – Petfinder Adoptable Cat | Domestic Short Hair-Black And White | Kirkland, WA | Sugar Bear © 1999- Jason Vincion | For the Love of Creativity | jasonvincion@gmail.com | Logo by Jason Vincion | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy