You are probably wondering why I call my kitties "Fuzzies." Well, most likely you're not but just in case they are a few of you out there with the slightest bit of curiosity, I might as well sate it.
And yes, I do call kitties "Fuzzies." Make sure it's with a capital F. Why? Lower case means it's all cats. Upper case means my cats.
It started way back when I first rescued Ayla in 1990. For some reason, I had a lot of problems finding a suitable name for her. Sometimes you don't even have to look at the cat and the name will fit. In her case, I had a premonition it wouldn't be that easy. Until I could figure out what the "right" name was, I started calling her "fuzzy." Why? She wasn't long-haired but she wasn't short-haired either. She was...well...fuzzy.
Now at the time, I didn't want a cat named Fuzzy. No offense to those of you have cats named "Fuzzy," or "Snowball," or another simple, common name. This was back when I was one of those smug-assed college history students who could give her cat some kind of profound name like "Confucius" or "Augustus" or "Dante." One of those type names if you know what I mean.
It took two weeks before we agreed on a name. By this point I threw out almost every name I could think of and she would give me this "oh I don't think so" look. You know, the kind that if you do something the cat doesn't like she'll poop on your pillow type of look? The name we finally agreed on was Ayla. I had been reading the Clan of the Cave Bear at the time and the main character was smart and independent. When I said the name to her, she looked at me and said "that will work."
However, the name "fuzzy" just wouldn't go away. Until she passed on I would occasionally call her "Ayla-Fuzzy." She accepted it and I couldn't let go of it. After a while, the term "fuzzy" morphed into a generic label for all cats. Mine just got the upper case "F" 'cause they're special to me.
As for "Flock O' Fuzzies"? Well, what do you call a grouping of fuzzies? I've heard some strange ones over the years like a "gaggle of geese" or a "herd of cats." "Flock" seemed to go with fuzzies (upper case "f" on both for mine). Then, the "o'" just came with me being silly.
Hence, my little Flock o' Fuzzies.
6 comments:
I get lumped in with puffy and sweet peas all the time, though I am neither... and they get lumped into being fine cats, which I am!
We think we unnerstand a bit of what you are sayin, an The Big Thing says he knows ezactlty what you are sayin (He loves the Clan books).
An he says he hopes you don't mind but our next girl-kitty is gonna be named Ayla - (He's planned on that for a long time).
But we all love the idea of "Flock of Fuzzies"...
Skeeter and LC
Thanks for the story of how Ayla got her name and how the blog came to have its name. It was very interesting. I have read the Clan books, but the connection never occured to me. I like Flock O' Fuzzies as a name for your crew.
Wow, that was wonderful! Thank you for sharing about the Fuzzies and how your Blog got it's name. Ayla was a beautiful name for a special cat. And Flock O' Fuzzies is a great name.
Your FL furiends,
When you say "Flock of Fuzzies," I's sure it sounds like Flock o' Fuzzies, so that werks. Cats come in clowders, I fink, but that makes me fink of chowder, an now I's hungry. Purrs!
Mom calls us "Crew" with a capital C, so we know what you mean.
Mom just said, "Aha, I knew it!". She always thought Ayla's name came from the character in that book.
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