Season of mice and mellow fruitfulness

[pameladean]

I was going to post yesterday that Arwen had caught the first mouse of the season. Being emphatically Lydy's cat, she brought it, not quite dead, to Lydy. But I did not post, and this morning, running up the basement stairs after moving the laundry along, I thought, "My goodness, that dead leaf sure does look a lot like a mouse; the stem is the tail, and... oh." Very small, very dead mouse. I removed it to the outdoors. I hope none of them gets upstairs, as Ari is very good at incapacitating them but even worse at delivering a clean killing blow than Arwen. We do not know who did in the one on the stairs, but I suspect Naomi, because Ari was upstairs for a considerable period before I found the mouse. Jordan is a very good mouse watcher, but is primarily a theoretician and seldom, if ever, catches any.

I don't know where they are getting in.

I'm hoping to do a series of posts talking about things I'd have written about at the time if Zeno's Manuscript had not eaten my brain. Soonish.

Pamela

Comments

[clindau.livejournal.com]

Jordan is a very good mouse watcher, but is primarily a theoretician and seldom, if ever, catches any.

I love this.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Me too. The image of a mouse theoretician is delightful, and so very apt for certain felines.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Replying just because I adore your description of Jordan as 'primarily a theoretician'. I've seen exactly that look on cats (though not, alas, ours - small biologists, amateur haruspicisits, absolutely, but they believe that experience is far superior to any theorising).

[elsmi.livejournal.com]

My adoration of the theoretician line is tempered only by my distraction at learning you have named a cat "Ari".

If you name one "Con" then I shall truly worry.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

And here I was just thinking "Are they named Ari and Jordan for the reason I think they are?" (i.e., after characters from CJ Cherryh's Cyteen.)

[pameladean]

No, Jordan is named for Michael Jordan because she was a terrific jumper as a kitten (I think; must consult her person), and Ari is actually Aristophanes, because he has a clownish disposition and is also very fluffy and, thus, airy. They did not start as a set, and indeed to this day Jordan can't stand Ari and Ari is puzzled.

P.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

Heh. Your last sentence almost fits the characters, as they don't get along, save that book-Ari is rarely puzzled.

While we are speaking of names - I forget what made me think of it while I was walking yesterday, but is there any particular reason Con was given that name?

(Even more of an aside: I am very much looking forward to reading Going North, whenever the publisher decides to make that possible.)

[pameladean]

Con was given that name for three reasons. One was that I wanted it to be clear that people in the Dubious Hills didn't regard gender when giving names -- her actual name is Conrad, which is also a connection to the Secret Country. I am not sure, in the event, that this actually made it into the book. Much of my cogitation never does.

The second reason, converging on this one, is that there's a character about Con's age in Madeleine L'Engle's A Winter's Love. She is named Emily Conrad Bowen, after her mother, whose maiden name is Emily Conrad, but she is always called Con or Connie, presumably to avoid confusion. Her personality is a more realistic version of Con's; I think of Con as the way little Emily Conrad Bowen might have been if she'd grown up in the Dubious Hills with magic rather than in a more or less realistic venue.

The third reason is a character is Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree, who is a young man named Con. I forget what that's short for, but he's rather dangerous, and I wanted that reminder when I was writing Con.

P.

[aedifica]

I'm pretty sure Con being Conrad didn't make it to the published version of the book. It's a neat detail to know now, though.

[pameladean]

No fear. The cat came along when I thought I was done writing about the character, and is actually named Aristophanes. He is often called Mr. Stoph, the Stophler, or Mr. Nair, but those aren't formal enough for LJ>

P.

[redbird]

Theoretical mousing: just what the world needs.

OK, julian_tiger has to be mostly a theoretical mouser, but only for lack of actual mice; we haven't seen a live mouse here since he moved in.

[aedifica]

But maybe the leaf-mouse was actually a leaf until you believed in its mouse-ness, and then became mouse to fit your perception?

[pameladean]

Alas, I lack leaf-mouse perception fu, or the mouse tail I grabbed in a swimming pool years ago, believing it a leaf-stem, would not have yanked itself out of my hand and scared me silly.

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

We are having our first bit of cooler weather -- the temp actually dipped into the 40s last night -- so I expect the explosion in mouse hindquarters around the homestead won't be far behind.

[pameladean]

Oh dear. I guess I prefer the mostly-dead but intact mice to that scenario, though at least you do know they are DEAD.

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The Scamp likes the head and front quarters.