Cat names

I really let out an SOS yesterday didn't I? Between Meggie and myself we figured out Blogger was having issues. Being on the same side of the world we were both trying to and unable to use Blogger and somehow contacted each other. I think the rest of you were still in the middle of the night. Within about an hour Blogger was back and working.

I have a complicated story today. Now it is funny to me but at the time it wasn't.

Our new kitty, Mi was almost named Tama. Tama is another normal name for a Japanese cat and means ball, such as in a yarn ball or maybe a cat curled up in a ball. Everywhere you go, you meet Japanese cats called Tama.

When we picked up our kitty and took her to be spayed, my vet said she was about a year old and had already had a litter of kittens. We left the then un-named Mi at the vets and he said he would spay her that evening.

Around 7:30 I got a call from the vet. That alone made me wary. Something else has gone wrong (that morning we'd found out Mi was a Feline Aids carrier).

"Tanya, your kitty has kou-gan." A Japanese word I don't know.

"Oh no. Cancer?" (gan means cancer in Japanese).

"NO! Not gan. Kou-gan."

"Sensei, (Doctor) I don't know that word. I don't understand."

"Kou-gan! Kou-gan! You know. Balls! Like in boys' b-lls!" (My poor vet trying to be professional with a foreigner with a limited vocabulary.)

"Doctor, I don't think I understand. This morning you told us that the kitty had had kittens."

"Yes, she did. I'm doing surgery and I find she has kou-gan (test-cles) alongside the uterus."

"What?! I've never heard of such a thing. Does that happen often?"

"NO! That's what I'm saying! This cat is a hermaphrodite! (I didn't know that word either) I've never seen one before!"

"Oh dear... What should I do?"

"Do? DO? There's nothing to do! I'm in the middle of surgery. I just needed to let you know so that I can proceed."

And he hung up. Talk about my head spinning. What was he talking about?

When Tetsu got home I was still wringing my hands.

"Tetsu, Tetsu. The vet called and said that the kitty is a hermaphrodite. He... She... I don't know... It has b-lls!"

Tetsu, calmly hanging up his jacket says,

"Does it matter? I mean, the cat is in there to take all that stuff out anyway. So what."

Oh. That's right.

When I went to pick up the kitty the next day the vet very conscientiously showed me the uterus and the test-cles that he'd removed and was preserving in a jar. And pictures. He'd taken pictures during the operation for proof. Good thing I have a strong stomach.

So the kitty came home none the worse for having a little extra surgery. And then we started thinking about names. And Tetsu comes up with Tama. Balls.

"That's terrible! Poor kitty! She doesn't want to go through life being reminded of that." (We'd agreed that she is a she.)

So Tetsu relented and named her Mi.

Mi and Tetsu are very happy together. Don't you think my life has some interesting twists and turns?

I hope I don't get censored for this post.