This Guy

I wanted to name this one.  I hadn’t named anything since Julia was born, I argued, so it was my turn.

Problem is, I wanted Just The Right Name.  He’s mostly black, with a white hind foot and lighter swirls in his undercoat of fur.  So I’m thinking things like black and midnight and dark.  Dusk and shadow and then all those same words, or similar ones, in various other languages. 

My daughter’s friends came up with names.  Brownie.  Bear.  Jack Black. 

And my husband called him Darth Fluffy.  We’d just seen “The Force Awakens” two days before, so we had Star Wars on the brain.

Darth Fluffy was a huge hit with Julia, and that’s what she calls him half the time.

I called him Cloudy, because of the white swirls. 

I know.  It’s kind of lame, isn’t it.  It’s like when Alex and Julia were very little and named their new kittens Softie (because she was) and Scratchy (because he was).  Only I’m a grown-up.  I’m supposed to be able to do better. 

Yesterday I thought perhaps we could name him Darth Cumulus, or Darth Cirrus – you know, keep the “Darth” and get in my cloud aspect.

But it doesn’t matter, really.  He is Darth Fluffy to Bill and Julia, and sometimes to Alex.  And I call him Cloudy because I’m stubborn.

He is actually making me think of a silverback gorilla right now.

I’m watching him and Cookie frolic around in their “playpen,” a structure that I built and it’s really a work in progress.  I have improvements to make to it.  Plans.  Big plans.

Right now it just looks like this:

The boys love it.  They race around making their little chirpy happy sounds, and they do this thing called “popcorning” which is when they sort of jump happily in the air, sort of like a popcorn kernel exploding in a hot pan.  Only I don’t think the popcorn kernel is as happy as the Guinea Pigs are. 

It’s pretty cute.  And funny.  And it makes me feel good because it means they’re happy.

But anyway, there are improvements to this playpen/cage that are in the works, and I’ll show you as I go along.

Can’t wait, can you?

Comments

[Zoe]

That's awesome. Will you be able to give them some of your garden scraps this summer? :)

[Linda Sapp]

If for no other reason than it's a cute name, name him "Popcorn".

[jayne]

Absolutely! We're giving them stuff from the garden now, in fact. Kale is very hardy and is still alive, so we give them that sometimes, and I dug up a carrot the other day and they loved that as well.

[jayne]

It would be very cute. I think, though, that the name(s) will stand, sort of. Bill and Julia still call him Darth Fluffy. Julia sometimes calls him Cloudy - Bill says she does this for my benefit. I call him Cloudy. Or Little Guy. Isn't there a Chinese proverb that goes something like "The well-loved child has a thousand nicknames?" Especially if the well-loved one is a victim of indecisive naming....