We were going into withdrawal. The symptoms were obvious: shakes, uncontrollable need to pet other peoples pets as they walked by, scanning the neighborhood for cats who might let us pet them. Yep, we needed a pet and we needed it NOW!!! Ally cried night after night wanting a cat to sleep in her bed so we finally made the move and adopted a kitten. We have long had the habit of naming our cats according to the place where we lived when we adopted that cat. In Athens, GA I had a cat named Finley, after a street in town which has a tree that owns itself. It was a famous street because there was a man who owned some land with a tree that he loved dearly. So when he died he left the land to that tree. Now all the land around it has been built upon except for this one tree which has a sign in front of it... I digress. In San Diego we had a cat named Jose because we lived in the barrio. So here in China we decide the new cat needed a Chinese name. So, we named him Joe. How is Joe a Chinese name you may ask. Quite frankly and obviously... IT'S NOT!!! For some crazy reason all the Chinese who work in the service industry that caters to western expatriates choose western names. It is so crazy to me. Our realtor's name is Joe and he found us this great apartment when two other realtors failed to do so. So, the cat is named in honor of our wonderful Chinese realtor who still helps us out when we are in a pinch.
Joe is tiny. As you can see from the picture he's just a little thing of about 8 weeks old. He has the loudest meow I have ever heard. He cries a lot right now, just walking around looking for his sisters and mother. In this picture he is sleeping on our CD rack.
We had to go to Puxi to pick him up, which is about 45 minutes from our house by taxi cab. The other picture I have posted is of the children squished in the back of the taxi.
He is so cute!
ReplyDeleteI guess the name Joe means that you may be able to avoid the angry and/or confused looks from your neighbors when they see you yelling out the name Joe and realize it is a cat. I will always grin upon reflection of the cat named Jose in San Diego. From my customer service experiences on the phone these days you may be able to get away with the name Joe or Michael or something like that in India too.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the cat. It was really only a matter of time. :) Just don't tell Jack. Any idea of when he may be able to come overseas?
Is Joe on Ally's bed? Tell Ally I think her bed does not look so soft and I knew things were different in China...now I am sure of it! Oh and yea, I want a date night like that!
ReplyDeleteI sent that box over a month ago and I can't believe it isn't there!