Readers of this blog will notice that I often reference the same people (OK, cats) often, so I figured I should explain who they are in one central location.
Ian: My husband, who I met back in 1997 when I first moved to Murfreesboro. We started dating in 2003 after six years of friendship, and got married Oct. 4, 2008—11 years to the day we met, as best as I could figure it. He’s the smartest guy in the room (he is a statistician for the Department of Safety), but is also the funniest and kindest. And pretty damn cute, too.
Gordo: Real name Finnegan, he’s my 13-year-old cat that I’ve had since he was four weeks old. The only reason the shelter let me take him home at such a young age was because he was eating without help. I should have seen that as foreshadowing, since now he weighs about 14 pounds. He’s my buddy, though, and we’ve been through a lot together over the years. When we adopted King Boo he moved upstairs to escape the insanity for a while, but eventually they bonded over their mutual love of wrestling and now they’re BFFs.
BK: BK is our 8-year-old purebred Maine Coon, a birthday present from Ian (partially financed by my mom and an old cellphone sold on eBay, too) who we adopted from a cattery in a small town outside of Greeneville, S.C. BK is the largest, smartest, best-behaved cat we’ve ever had—and she knows it. She is the ruler of the roost and everyone in the house bows to her whims. She’s the sweetest cat ever, though, so it’s worth it.
Evil Twin: Evil Twin got his name because he looks very similar to Gordo except dirty and kind of ugly. He first showed up sometime in late 2004, the year we moved into our house. Ian ran him off with a water hose, and we didn’t hear from him again until the next spring. Eventually he moved inside full-time and we realized he was diabetic, so now he gets insulin shots twice a day. His fur is gross and he smells bad, but he’s a pretty well-behaved cat. As much crap as we give him, he’s still a part of the family. The gross, expensive, diabetic part.
King Boo: Originally named Link, he is our youngest, weirdest cat who vies with BK for the Best Fur in the House title. We adopted him in March of 2009, and for a good two years he annoyed everyone in the house except for me, because I knew he meant well. He still just wants to play. All. The. Time. But he looooves me and is almost never in a different room in the house than me, and the feeling is mutual. He’s my little badger-face friend who has slowly won over everyone else in the house. Except for Evil Twin, but he’s an asshole. (Oh, and the name change came out of our realization that his raspy meow sounds like the laugh of the King Boo character in Mario Kart Wii. It was a nickname at first, but it’s stuck.)
