My Glamour Boy

This is Harlow, the most gorgeous cat I ever had.







Sometime I have to get a good shot of his tail. It's spectacular.

Robin

Thank you everyone for admiring my boy, Harlow. Besides his exceptional good looks, he has an exceptional heart. He is beside me now, as he is much of the time. He is very dear.

His shelter name was "Daddy-o." He was there more than 2 years. It's a cute name, for sure, and suits him as he is a cool cat. He was one of those found at the door in a box at 6 a.m. with his mate and their kittens. Hence the name.

He is named after Jean Harlow, for his glamor, and because the name means "hare hill" in old English. There is something rabbit-like about him. Actually, the name came to me out of the blue at 4 a.m. the first night I had him. He was locked in the bathroom and yelling his head off. I kept going in every hour or so to comfort him. In the sleep deprived stupor, I suddenly knew his name.

Yes, I think those "blue" cats have some kind of magical, almost, presence. My Ariel is also like him, (actually they may be siblings, but no one knows for sure) and is named after a spirit of the air from The Tempest. I didn't name her, but it suits her, because she is like some kind of fairy or gremlin or something.

Harlow's other name is "Cloud Cat" because he feels so heavenly soft, his coat is the color of a rain cloud, and there is something of the sky about him.

The white patch, as well as his yellow eyes (instead of green which Ariel has) would have made Harlow "unshowable" if he had papers. However, I don't think there is hardly a more beautiful cat (inside or out) even with his "flaws."

But, I'm prejudice. I love him.


Robin

I really like all cats - even the ones with difficult personalities. And I think they are all beautiful and/or cute and/or adorable and/or lovely, etc. - to a greater or lessor degree. I truly never met a cat I didn't like. And I must have been a born ailurophile as my first encounters with cats - age 3 or 4 - were not so successful (I got scratched!) but I was always fascinated with them, anyway. No one in my extended family had cats. My mother thought she didn't like them. And I lived in apartment buildings where they weren't allowed. However, I persevered with the begging for a cat for several years, and with the help of a Great-Aunt who had a lot of influence over my mother, I finally got a cat at age 9. I've never been without cats since.

I only had one long-haired cat before now (and now I have two), a stray who adopted me, named Morgan, with a lovely tortoiseshell coat. That is after the coat changed from the tattered mess it was when she arrived. She was one of the more interesting and intelligent cats I've known.

So, I'm not a person who needs a glamorous, very beautiful cat. I'm not interested in pure breds or exotics, or anything like that, though I admire them much. But I am completely enamored with my plain DSH black cats and am constantly championing their cause (because there are too many at the shelter and they are perfectly wonderful cats who deserve a good home and will give undying devotion to those who love them).

And if I have to pick a cat look that appeals to me most, it would be the gray/brown tabbies with the pink noses like your Chumley, LDG, and my very first cat, Falstaff.

But, Harlow was at the shelter for over 2 years and he needed out. He had been confined to a cage the last few months there and he was going nuts in that cage. I knew he was a nice cat and deserved better. Not everyone at the shelter was so crazy about him and some tried to steer me to others - including another male blue DLH. But I always had connected with Harlow (Daddy-0 then), and I knew he needed a chance for a better life and then he would be a fantastic cat. And I was right.

Bringing him home was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I did it based on my own instincts - by listening to my heart.

That he is a raving beauty is frosting on the cake and I'm glad of that. It's a pleasure to have him around to look at him.

Oh, and he is really easy to take care of. I use a pin (or wire) kitten brush on him, which he loves, or sometimes a comb. And I don't do it more that a couple of times a week. He very rarely vomits hair balls. He's an easy cat to deal with all the way around.

Robin