Kipling Moonshadow

I have the loveliest childhood memories of my father reading bedtime stories to me and my favourite was Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (I loved Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows too and always wanted to name my house Toad Hall).  Being a cat person for as long as I can remember, Bagheera was of course the character I cherished the most and wondered why we all couldn’t have large, black panthers as our loyal and wise guardians.  So you can well imagine that the moment I saw Bagheera, the all black kitten available for adoption on Chrystal’s blog, I was a goner!

The name Bagheera however does not exactly flow off the tongue and the other day when Robert called him Bags, I was convinced we had to change his name.  I immediately thought of Kipling, as an homage to the author who penned Bagheera and the fact that the name shortens nicely to Kip sold me on the idea.

Kipling also wrote The Cat Who Walked by Himself, a story about how animals became domesticated while the cat’s true heart remained untamed!  I have always believed that when a cat or kitten comes to live in our houses they bring a little wildness into our lives.

As for Bagheera's second name, it was very difficult to see our all black kitty during the drive home to Canada from Ohio which was at nighttime.   Out of his carrier and moving around against the dark interior of our car, he was only a little slip of a moonshadow....

Therefore felines of all ages, I would like to present Kipling Moonshadow: aka Kip :-)

Hi there

Bagheera is home!!!

Wow, what a trip!  Other than a couple hours shopping at the outlet mall in Jeffersonville (yay for Pottery Barn) and a few stops for food etc, we were on the road for nineteen hours.  Robert did all the driving and was amazing but so were Chrystal and Jeanne, it it weren't for their fantastic generosity we would have had to add at least ten more hours to the trip.

Bagheera was a dream in the car.  As soon as we left wonderful Jeanne's house we opened up his carrier and let him come out if he wanted.  He was a little timid at first but quickly acclimated and spent most of the journey either reclining on the back seat or lying upside down on my lap doing happy paws in the air! 

Sadly this comfortable behavior evaporated when we got home and he spent most of Sunday under the bed hiding.  I have never had a cat hide before so this was highly distressing for me.  Thankfully Ben came to the rescue and sat outside his door that evening cooing which lured him out from under the bed.  Bagheera sat quite relaxed by the door and chatted back to Ben.

can you see Ben's paw under the door?

I'm hoping that Bagheera will soon realize that this is a safe, happy place and that there is no need for him to hide or be frightened!