Naming

Tarquin, AKA Mr Fangers

I can't claim to have named every cat that showed up in our yard. But we did name quite a few. As I mentioned, Tarquin's mother was Greta. His litter got Cubs names--Rondelle (after Rondelle White), Sammy (Sammy Sosa), Gracie (Mark Grace), E.Y. (Eric Young), and of course Tarquin/Delino (Delino DeShields).

A trio a few years later I named Tinker, Evers, and Chance--the great Cubs double play combination. A solid gray male was dubbed Steel. And a couple of the tuxedo cats, who looked like they had Fu Manchu moustaches, were names Fu, FuDa, and Fu Two. I rescued two newborns that someone, possibly Greta, had abandoned under our porch. They needed to be bottle fed, and the Humane Society took them in. They became Ferdinand and Isabella.

Mimsy sniffs my hand--she was still living outside here

Finally, just before we had to move--because our landlord was going to demolish the house and build a duplex--I rescued a little tortie that I named Mimsy. Her name came from a line in Lewis Carroll's "Jaberwocky"--All mimsy were the borogoves. I was on a "Jaberwocky" kick--one of my two old tabby cats was named Brilly, from the line: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe. Mimsy had had two litters of kittens by the time she was one, and only one kitten had survived. He was a grey tabby, whose fur looked a bit like a Rorschach blot. He would jump on the screen door and emit a long, drawn out meow that sounded like a roar. So he was named Rorschach--Rory for short. Mimsy and Rory now live with us, and sorely miss their brother and uncle Tarquin.

But about naming Tarquin. While we didn't dislike the name Delino, I was afraid the baseball player Delino would be traded from the Cubs, and I wasn't sure I wanted a cat named after a traded player. We thought about Honus (as in Hall of Famer Honus Wagner), but it sounded more like a dog name than a cat one.

Finally Lloyd said: "How about Tarquin, as in the Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay poem 'Horatius at the Bridge.' I've always liked that poem. And he started reciting it:

Lars Porsena of Clusium,

By the Nine Gods he swore

That the great house of Tarquin

Should suffer wrong no more.

By the Nine Gods he swore it,

And named a trysting-day,

And bade his messengers ride forth,

East and west and south and north,

To summon his array.

He might have even stood like a mighty orator as he intoned his poem. Hmm, I had to admit, the name Tarquin was ok. "You might be on to something," I said. "And you know what? There was a Monty Python Tarquin--Tarquin fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-f'tang-f'tang-olé-biscuitbarrel--so I think that's a grand name."

From thence, the little black cat with the white smudge on his chest was known as Tarquin. He also became the cat with many nicknames: Tarkilly Darkily, Tarquin the Dark One, Tarquinius, Tarkie, Tarks, Tarkle Puss, and, because he had very long fangs, Mr Fangers.

That Tarquin--he was one cool cat.