not just a regular brown cat — WCB #77

Weekend Cat Blogging — no. 77

this post is two parts. the first is a bit about the burmese breed and the second, a short story about my cat and how he came to me.

the burmese is a cat with a rich history which goes back to burma [myanmar] and thailand. it was originally a temple cat looked after, and doted upon, by monks and one owned and cherised by nobility. it has a personality and character like no other.

in the 1930s, the first burmese was brought over to san francisco. it has since been bred and developed and today is categorized into two distinct classes: the american burmese and the european burmese. they differ in their coat colours and certain physical characteristics. see the links for more information.

map of burma, now called myanmar

photo: graphicmaps.com

wong mau, the first burmese to come to america
her face reminds me of a cartoon character

a very interesting article about the evolution of this breed by cats and kittens magazine.

if it interests you, more information about the specific breed is available here and here.

now for the story of my kitten, or should i say, my cat tale:

several months ago i went to the airport to pick up a very special package which would bring much happiness into my life. waiting nervously — not to mention a long time (damned security and immigration!) — the courrier ... or should i say carrier ... finally arrived. i felt like an expectant parent.

it was love at first sight.

when i opened up the little black sherpa carrier, out popped the cutest little head, letting out a set of mee-yews & mee-yows that made heads spin at the arrivals section of the airport. it was my golden-eyed, sable burmese kitten, a little brown baby of 4 months. soft as silk and purring loudly while "talking" at the same time, he immediately let me know what a bad flight it had been. thank goodness he was able to fly in cabin and not some dark, scary cargohold.

he immediately climbed out inspecting the scene from a quiet corner where i had taken him for the big reveal. after taking a good look at me, he then climbed up me and started licking my face. this was my first introduction to my "loverboy" of a cat who doubles as a dog in a cat's suit. the burmese really is a cat like no other.

from esquire magazine:

THE BURMESE CAT (Michael Walker, Esquire magazine-August 2002) Every so often a cat goes missing in an airliner cargo hold and we're treated to video on the local Fox affiliate of baggage handlers making simpering entreaties to Fluffy to come out. Like most men, I considered such incidents, with their leitmotif of J.Lo-like entitlement, a powerful disincentive to owning a cat. Then my girlfriend brought home a pair of Burmese, and I have had to make an agonizing reappraisal. The Burmese is a cat a man can love because the Burmese is more dog than cat. You can teach them to fetch and roll over. They actually like people. They do just about everything dogs do except snarl at the FedEx guy and force you to walk them in the rain with a hangover. And you want smart? Clambering over my computer, one of them hit the right sequence of keys, creating his own folder, and named it. Let's see your weimaraner pull that off.

read here and see pictures of what i mean from a fellow owner. it's all true.

he follows me from room to room and is constantly by my side. that includes the bathroom. it seems i cannot be let out of his sight ... well, at least for any length of time. he loves to talk and expresses his opinions about everything and even loves to be held like a baby. i call him my "crouching tiger, yowling dragon" because he does the typical burmese crouch next to me for incredibly long periods of time and can let out a yowl when he wants something. puts a siamese to shame, i tell you. he is also fearless and would think nothing about leaving the house to go on city-wide exploration. this is not one fraidy-cat. even the vacuum and coffee grinder doesn't scare him! he also fetches and plays hide and seek. what more could i ask for?

my 'baby', {pink rabies shot collar}, a few months back with his brother
his brother lives in the united states

burmese cats are normally quite long-lived. there are stories of cats living 20 years and longer. my friend's burmese is now 18 years old.

i look forward to many long years with my little guy.

special thanks to the house of the (mostly) black cats for hosting of WCB #77.

.... and seeing as he is related to the siamese, i could not resist adding some bad cat video. i am sure a lot of people remember the following scene from a famous disney movie.