Aiurophile: That’s me!

ailurophile (noun) A cat fancier; a lover of cats.

It is amazing that in a land of so many ailurophiles, the word is used so rarely. Cat-lover may be a more straightforward term but it is also ambiguous and potentially misleading. Play it safe and use this: ailurophile. Don't like cats? Well, we have something for you, too—you are an "ailurophobe," someone who hates or fears cats. The adjective is ailurophilic, unless you mean "cat-like," that's ailuroid. Etymology: a concoction of Greek ailur-os "house cat" + phili-os "friendly, fond of."

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

Most cat owners can attest to the fact that if you put an empty box on the floor, the cat will decide to turn it into a nest. This box contained documents and miscellaneous papers. While looking through a pile of papers I’d removed from it, Duquesa, ever the opportunist, jumped in. Can you read the newspaper? It’s a personal ad that appeared in an old edition of The Hartford Advocate. It says: “Stop the clock, come be my love.” Attractive SWJF, 47, of very sound body and mind in search of a man for all seasons. I wonder if that single, white, Jewish female found ‘a man for all seasons’ or just a seasonal man. Hee-hee.

Overheard at Tonight’s Knitting Gathering

The Silver Spring Knitters had their weekly meeting at a restaurant in downtown Silver Spring. While we were eating, knitting and talking, a little girl came up to the table holding up a pair of circular needles, “Does this belong to any of you? I found it in the bathroom.” Jennifer, who’d been wearing them around her neck reached for them and said “If they’re size 3’s they're mine. They must have fallen off my neck.”

A knitter from across the table comments, “There’s a lot of needle sharing going on around here. At least it’s not too dangerous. Usually you wouldn’t want to pick up needles you find in a public bathroom, much less share them.”

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“I’m friends with a couple who got pregnant late in life. It was all so unexpected that they couldn’t decide on a name for the baby, so they named him after the cat.”

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

I read somewhere that in Russia it is considered good luck for snow to fall on New Year’s Day. Well, if Michigan were Russia, it would be one very lucky state. Did I mention that it snowed every single one of the five days I was there? And would you believe that I was tromping around in this stuff without boots? It was quite pretty and reminded me of my years in New England. It also reminded me of why I moved away. Brr!

It appears that one of Duquesa’s New Year’s resolutions is to be more cooperative, as evidenced by her willingness to sit still for a little photo shoot (which I’ve been trying to get her to do since November). Or perhaps she has decided to be on her best behaviour lest I abandon her for another five days. Who knows what thoughts run through a cat’s mind.

Gatita Bonita (Pretty Kitty)

Somehow the subject of cats came up one evening at our monthly Savory knit meet-up and we discovered that almost everyone present had at least one cat (we also noticed that about half of us were wearing Dansko clogs). Also, it seems that the vast majority of knitting bloggers out there have cats and/or dogs. I often browse knitting blogs from around the world (even if I can’t read the language) and have discovered that the same is true in Finland, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Canada, etc.

So I shall now post the requisite pet picture. This is Duquesa. She is a ten-year-old tabby. I got her when she was 1.5 years old. She’s a wonderful, if occasionally crazy, companion. After my first cat died at two years old from liver cancer, the apartment (my first) felt desolate, so I waited six weeks and then went to the Connecticut Humane Society in Newington and adopted Duquesa. She had some unimaginatively generic name, so I asked Mami (my mother) for help and she came up with ‘Duquesa.’ Of all the cats available at the Humane Society I chose her because she was female, she purred and she was really friendly.


She enjoys El Bosque because there are plenty of birds and squirrels there to keep her entertained with their comings and goings.