Speaking in kitty tongues

Orange received a new brother this week! (Imagine her delight...)

Rebel, nervously looking around for the Spawn of Satan

The only problem with Rebel so far is the name he came with...because he kind of came with a real name, and we're all unsure of how to deal with this.

See, we used to have another cat who was gray...so we named him Gray Cat. Way original, I know. And completely not boring at all. (However, we have actually had more than one person ask, "Now which one is called Gray? And which one Orange?" while looking directly at our cats...one who was all gray...and one all orange...)

So in our confusion, we're now making things worse for poor 2-year-old Rebel as he is now being called anything but Rebel. So far he's heard a strange combination of The Gray and White Cat, Way Cat or Grite Cat (two lame combos of "white" and "gray"), New Cat, Robo Cat, Rumble Cat, Fluffy McMeowHead, and (for some unknown reason) Chipotle. Not only is he facing the (thankfully too lazy to move) hissings of Orange in a strange new house, but poor Chipotle can't ever figure out when we're talking to him because we never use his real name.

But get this: The other night I suddenly woke up to someone cheerfully chirping, "Hello!" in the dark from across the room. I froze in bed, unsure if I was still in some lingering remnants of a dream and also somewhat petrified of finding someone other than one of my kids standing there in the dark. Upon shining my phone light into the inky corner of the room, I found no one there. Except Way Cat.

What. the. heck. Did The Gray and White Cat just.........talk?

I knew I was insane, so I forced myself to relax and fall asleep again. Sure enough, two mornings later, Rumble Cat looks at Rob and me, licks his fur for a moment, then nonchalantly meows in greeting, "Hello." I look at Rob in astonishment, hit him in the arm, and query, "You heard that, right?? I'm not crazy?" And Rob, all excited himself, responds, "I know!! I heard it last night and tried to tell you! You must have been asleep."

Yep. So now I'm calling him Polly, which is probably adding just another layer of confusion to his poor life. And my sister Kayla is quite sure he's actually an Animagus, which would explain his owner's hasty (and possibly terrified) decision to bring him to the pound. As I was googling "cat says hello" and mentally counting the fat stacks of cash this new kitty was going to make us, I unfortunately found this video on YouTube:

Apparently Robo Cat has to step up his game and add a few more words to his vocabulary - Tiggy here is beating him, paws down. Even just one additional word would do it: "Hello, Potter" (preferably in an English accent) would get us far...and rich....

Welcome to your new home, Professor McGonagall.