Weekend Cat Blogging: Gummitch the Handsome

Claire, of Eatstuff, and beloved companion of Kiri, the Amazing Christmas Miracle Cat, asked us to show folks what the cutest thing that our cats will do for this week’s Weekend Cat Blogging.

However, I already posted a couple of pictures illustrating that last week, (if you missed them, check them out here), so instead, I am posting a photograph that Zak took for me, which I call, “Gummitch the Handome.”

It is such a good picture, I think I have to print it out and hang it in the kitchen or my office, because it is such a good portrait of my sweet boy cat.

People in multiple cat households are like grandparents. We are not supposed to have favorites among our cat children. But, just as grandparents do have favorite grandchildren, whether they admit it or not, we cat-parents have our favorites, even though we love them all.

Gummitch, who was named after a cat in a Fritz Leiber story (even though he looks nothing like the Gummitch in the very famous tale–what he does look like is the cat on the cover of the book where I first read the story), is my especial favorite. We saw him two months after I suffered a miscarriage, and he was such a beautiful kitten, that we adopted him.

The love of a kitten is very good for soothing the sorrow of a grieving heart. And Gummitch is one of the most loving cats I have ever known.

He immediately bonded to me, and would sit for hours on my lap or next to me on the couch while I worked at writing, and he stayed small for so long, we thought he would never grow up.

But, grow he did, until he has turned into a very handsome, lithe, princely sort of cat. He is goodnatured, and loving to with the other cats. When we brought Tatter home, he started taking care of her immediately: washing her, cuddling down with her to sleep and gently playing with her.

And he still keeps me company. Most days, while I write in my office, he sleeps in the reading chair by the windows, content to keep an eye on me from there. Sometimes, he will wake up and put his paws on my leg, demanding a cuddle, which of course, I grant–how can one refuse eyes like that?

9 Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

1. What a beautiful cat, those marking are awesome. I still think thatbonding with a cat i sone of the best things that you can do 🙂

   Comment by clare eats — February 11, 2006 #

2. […] Check out that snarl! ROAR on Black kitty at Bunnyfoot Check out Pixel, and Billy Lee more kitty’s with lots of cute habits at The food pornogropher Check out the 2 naughty kittens having a rolicksome good time at Masak-Masak Check out Kitties another guest kitty who was kind enough to keep Linda company at Kayak soup Check out Mance and Lomax being cautious with a crawfish and Sophie come in for a sneak attack at Cracker Jack’D Check out Babaganoush and Max peppin in from the edge at Passionatenonchalance Check out Gummitch in a beautiful photo and learn why he is such a special kitty at Tigers and Strawberries Check out the kittty […]

   Pingback by eatstuff.net » Blog Archive » WCB36 — February 11, 2006 #

3. Gummitch is such an intellectual!

   Comment by T — February 11, 2006 #

4. Only cat-people can truly understand the bonding that happens between people and their cats.
   I’m glad your kitty came in to your life, he truly is a beauty!

   Comment by kross-eyed kitty — February 12, 2006 #

5. What a beautiful boy! We humans are so lucky to have cats in our lives. Thank you for sharing your beauties with us.

   BTW, my cookbooks reside on a bookcase that is exactly the same color. 😉

   Comment by Hannah — February 12, 2006 #

6. It’s as if he just belongs there!

   Comment by KT — February 13, 2006 #

7. That’s so nice that you found Gummitch just when you needed him. He’s a pretty fellow, indeed.

   What Fritz Leiber story was it?

   Comment by B'gina — February 13, 2006 #

8. Hannah–glad to know that there is someone else with such amazing taste in bookshelves. 😉

   B’gina–he is named after Gummitch from “Space-Time for Springers.” It is one of my favorite SF stories of all time, and not only because it is about a kitten, though that does play into it, of course….I also like it, because parts of it were autobiographical for Leiber, and stands as an illustration of the though process by which an SF or fantasy author takes the events of his own life and turns them into fodder for imaginative stories.

   Comment by Barbara — February 13, 2006 #

9. Saw the photo of your cat and he is almost idntical to my Spooky, a silver tabby with champagne coloured stripes. She is amazingly intelligetnt and behaves more like a dog than a cat. She hates all other cats, thinking herself “not one of them” and has a very regal opinion of herself. She loves people though and instantly goes to greet anyone who comes to the house, chatting to them. She also is very funny, choosing odd places to sleep like the bath or handbasin or as your cat book shelves. incredibly loving often coming into my bedroom early and laying across the back of my neck and stretching her paw to pat my head.

   I am sure you enjoy him as much as I do Spooky.

   Comment by jane — October 26, 2006 #

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.