Titus
Previously I’ve only mentioned my cat, Titus, in passing here on my blog. He’s my best friend and one of the sweetest and cutest cats I’ve ever met. His striking looks are due to his breed, which is Bombay.
Bombay’s are a human-created breed which is a cross between a Sable Burmese and an American Shorthair. The intent and indeed the result of this is a large sturdy cat that looks like a minature panther.
Titus is not a purebred, although except for the few white spots he has on his underside (particularily a white ‘C’ on his chest that you can’t see in the photo) he’d be show quality.
When this sweet kitty came to me, he was actually a very tiny Silver Tabby. Stangely after a few months he slowly changed colour from tabby to black! If I wasn’t certain he was the same cat and had watch the gradual colour change, I think it’d be hard to believe it was the same animal. However, this is apparently common in the pet quality Bombay breed due to their genetics. Likely a tabby had it’s genes thrown into the mix somewhere in Ti’s past.
He was found with his siblings as a kitten, drinking from a puddle on the side of a highway on a cold November day. While looking for a suitable name, I came across ‘Titus’ which has several attributed meanings, however the two that influenced my decision (almost) seven years ago was “The Saved” or “The Brave”, and it has a bit of Roman regality that fits him well.
He befriends pretty much every other living creature he comes in contact with, except birds and small rodents. He stares at the birds out the window with a very un-friendly look, and small rodents he either ignores, or hides from. Within two weeks of joining me at my new apartment he had already made fast friends with one of my roomate’s Minature Pincers, Olive. It took merely a few more weeks before the other min-pin, Bambi, calmed down enough to get his attention. He grooms them and occasionally will let them curl up with him, which is the cutest thing since he’s bigger than both of them.
I’ll upload some more photos soon, I just need to sort my digital pictures that I have archived first.
Themocracy
Titus is indeed a very handsome boy. I had the privilege of cat sitting him awhile back, and he was very affectionate with our household’s pets. I have never seen such an easy going, non-chalant animal. When my cats first saw him they hissed, and Titus just walked away casually, as if to say, “You’ll come around in good time”. And, they did.
Titus would also help me stay awake during the midnight hours when I was studying for some graduate courses I was taking. He would always curl up nearby, and if I started to doze he would meow to me, or rattle something noisy to get my attention.
Titus, you can come stay anytime your human needs a sitter. Hello from Princess.
[...] not seen a single mouse dropping nor sign of the little rodent since my encounter the other day. Titus has maintained a fairly continual vigil of guarding the laundry room since the weekend, so perhaps [...]
[...] upside to this encounter is that my cat, Titus, also saw the escaping creature and immediately got very excited. He is now dutifully keeping watch [...]