Meet Muse

Meet one of my kitties, Muse.

It was 2004 and we’d just moved into a new apartment the month or so prior.  I had a cat before the two kittens, Kahlua, but unfortunately she was hit by a car before we moved.  It was never my idea to let her be an indoor/outdoor cat, but I got her my junior year of college and my roommate at the time had an indoor/outdoor cat and didn’t really heed my wishes to keep my cat inside only.  It was a safer area with a big open field behind our apartment, so it wasn’t that bad.  But once I moved home and into a city, she had gotten more aggressive, harder to get inside at night, and that’s how it happened.  So I knew that these next kittens would stay inside only, so Dominic suggested we get two at once so they’d have company.

I got Muse and he brother from the same litter – sort of.  The woman giving the kittens away had two cats that were both black and white and both happened to get out of the house the same day and come home pregnant.  So they both had very similar litters and it was hard to tell, but she was pretty sure mine came from the same cat.

Muse was the runt of the litter and the only girl left, so we ended up with a chunky little boy who was very stoic and quiet on the ride home and a noisy tiny little girl who mewed nonstop. I am a big fan of writer/director Kevin Smith and wanted to name them with homages to one of my favorite movies of his, Dogma, but didn’t want to be super “on the nose”. Based on their behavior on that first car ride home, Jay & Silent Bob seemed like the best fit.  But she was a girl, and I didn’t want to be super literal, so I instead named her Muse after Salma Hayek’s character and a play on the name of the actor who plays Jay, Jason Mewes.  I’ll introduce you to the other cat in another post.

To this day, Muse lives up to her name.  She is more vocal than the other cat, and also more hyperactive.  Being the runt, she’s also a lot smaller than he is, so they are still very true to their names.  Muse was not always a cuddler, but since moving into our current house in 2008, she has softened up a lot and is my constant companion on the couch.  Hence how I grabbed this shot of her on the arm of the couch beside me.  Unimpressed.  You know, like all cats are!