The Born Cat Identity Starring Shoog

Due to popular request, Shoog makes his photographic debut. I apologize for the quality of these pix but he is a constantly moving target that is extremely camera (phone) shy. He is a smart boy that just cannot understand why I kept putting a phone in his cute face. I mean, yeah, he is smart but he cannot talk...yet. Plus, not many of his friends have phones...yet. You know there is a pet owner psychology that says something along the lines that you can determine the type of relationship a person has to their pets by the names they give them. For example, if you give your pets human names, according to this train of thought, your relationship is more personal...more friend like...more equal. According to the theory, if you name your pets names not normally given to people like Spot, Puff, etc., your relationship is more master-subject based or less personal. It is very unusal that I would name a cat, Sugar Plum. It is very indicative of something profound. In the past, my cats have been named: Andy, Russell, Blaine, Max, Abbey, Phoebe, Claude, Felix, Oliver, Nigel, Henry....now Sugar Plum??? What does it mean? You see, usually my cats live a long time. (knock on wood!) I can easily have a cat that lives 20 years.Claude is currently 18. Knowing that, it is easy to predict that there are not too many new cats in my future or they will very possibly out live me. Therefore, being the responsible pet owner that I am, I decided with Henry that he would be the last. So what happens soon thereafter? Sugar Plum captivates my heart. So, I put him at arms length by naming him a non-human name. I will love him 'some' but 'not that much'. But see what is happening? His name is morphing. I am now calling him Shoog. Who knows? Tomorrow, I may be calling him Cedric. Meet Sugar Plum a.k.a. Shoog. Yes, he is the typical red tabby that this neighborhood produces.