A Charming Tale of Friendship and Romance

Once upon a time, some years ago, a new class of students began their tenure at the most venerable and exclusive public boys' school in the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy.  Among the class were two young cats who could not possibly be more different.  One of them was the eldest son of an ocelot baronet; he was dutiful, responsible, and impeccably well-mannered for one so young.  The other was the eldest son of the eldest son of a panther marquess and clearly destined for a life of trouble, even at such a young age.  When their classmates started teasing the baronet's son for his overly proper mien, they fully expected the marquess's grandson to join in, but he surprised them by taking the baronet's side.  And so began the highly unlikely friendship of Tristan Rivers (Sir Tristan, upon the death of his father) and Ruthven Jet Shadewater, later Lord Ebonwood, known to his schoolmates as "Magick".

There are two key elements holding Sir Tristan and Magick together.  The first is that, despite their many differences in opinion and character, they have rather a lot more in common than one might at first suspect.  They were, for instance, easily the two most intelligent members of their class, which meant that they found each other much more interesting company than the rest of their classmates; they also had interests in many of the same areas, from the arts to politics and diplomacy.  The second important factor in their friendship was that they complemented each other very well in a number of ways.  Sir Tristan was responsible for ensuring that Magick did not slack off on his studies and performed at the level at which he was capable, while Magick ensured that Sir Tristan had a bit of fun.  In short, they balanced each other very nicely and were intelligent enough to appreciate it rather than fear it. 

 The greatest test of their friendship came about after they had left university and had begun their training for a career in diplomacy.  Among the other newbies was a formidably brilliant young serval named Lady Faraday Pebble-Stone, the daughter of an important earl.  She was clearly destined for greatness every bit as much as the boys were, and the three of them swiftly became the best of friends.

(Left to right: Sir Tristan, Lady Faraday, Lord Ebonwood.)

The next phase of this drama, of course, is entirely predictable, given knowledge of the general character of the particulars.  Females, especially intelligent females, were already one of Magick's great weaknesses, so he, predictably, began pursuing Lady Faraday.  Since females tend to have a corresponding weakness  for Magick, and Lady Faraday was quite definitely female, as well as already very fond of her two new friends, she was quite susceptible.  Sir Tristan was terribly in love with Lady Faraday himself, but elected not to compete with his best friend, not least because he had far less experience with females and suspected that, being quieter and less flamboyant than his friend, he was unlikely to be successful with any female Magick already had his eye on.

Nevertheless, the relationship between Magick and Lady Faraday did not last all long, as they swiftly discovered that they were not particularly compatible as romantic partners.  They decided to return to simply being friends and cheerfully explained to Sir Tristan (and others) that they were rather confused about the whole affair.  Everything went back to the way it had been before.

Sir Tristan, of course, was still desperately in love with Lady Faraday, but he was too conditioned by the expectations of behaviour for a gentleman of his class and station to actually tell her about it.  Eventually Magick realised what the score was and started trying to coax his friend into revealing his feelings for her.  Being a rake rather than a gentleman, Magick found the situation rather exasperating, especially as he was coming to suspect that Lady Faraday was in love with Sir Tristan herself, although she, of course, being a lady, was much too genteel to show it. 

After a number of conversations with Sir Tristan explaining that, as Lady Faraday was a lady, he really did need to make the first move (these conversations were tremendously frustrating for both parties), Magick accepted an assignment in India.  Since the other two were still posted locally, they started spending more and more time in each other's company.  Even then, they might well have gone on pining for each other oh-so-politely, except that Sir Tristan accidentally dropped one of his (highly embarrassing) sonnets praising the intelligence and wit and beauty and talent of Lady Faraday, and she found it.

Exactly what happened next has never been revealed by either party, both of them being immensely proper and private individuals, but they've been together ever since.

Sir Tristan and Lady Faraday are difficult to photograph together because of their characteristic poses, but we did our best.

After a while, Sir Tristan was posted to the Wild Republic, which forced him and Lady Faraday to carry on their romance long-distance.  They wrote each other letters every week, (rumour has it that Sir Tristan's letters often contain sonnets, while Lady Faraday prefers haiku).  Nevertheless, the situation was less than ideal, particularly given that the Wild Republic had made Plouie Postmaster General to keep him out of trouble.  Every now and then Plouie would happily present Sir Tristan with a bundle of six or so of his own letters to Lady Faraday.

But when their superiors decided that Sir Tristan's mission had been so successful that a full diplomatic delegation should be sent to the Wild Republic, the lovers finally found themselves reunited.  Lady Faraday requested to be included in the delegation; she now is sufficiently high-ranked that she has a measure of choice over her assignments, and this one is suited to her rank and talents as well as advantageous to her personal life.  Magick somehow found himself attached to the delegation as well.  Thus the trio of best friends has been reunited, to their considerable satisfaction.

And, of course, Sir Tristan and Magick are still the very best of friends.

When Murchison Met Magick

Although we're understanding the institutional details of the Wild Republic more and more all the time, there are still a number of aspects of it that AJD and I don't really understand.  The arrival of the new delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy has only highlighted some of these deficiencies in our understanding.

Near the top of our list is Murchison.

Murchison is an arctic fox and a secret agent of some sort; apparently most arctic foxes go into espionage.  When you think about it, this doesn't make all that much sense: how can your secret agents possibly be effective if everyone knows about them?  Murchison isn't undercover here, but surely he can't truly be undercover anywhere, right?  And what exactly is he doing, anyway?  We know he's up to something, something beyond merely being highly suspicious of Sir Tristan, but we haven't a clue as to what it is.

Now that the new delegation is here, we're even more intrigued, because the new delegation includes Magick, and Murchison is very clearly interested in Magick.

To be fair, everyone is interested in Magick.  Magick is an interesting character.  We're not certain, for instance, what exactly his role in this delegation is supposed to be.  He's a peer's heir and not precisely expendable, yet he's clearly known more than his fair share of danger; Pedro is apparently always having to patch up unusual and unexplained wounds for him.  Some of these are probably from duels (Magick's been in so many duels he's lost count) or from escaping from ladies' bedrooms (Magick's taste in women often runs towards the inappropriate), but he's definitely up to something and neither of us is certain what that is.  We suspect, from what Angel Joe has let slip, that Magick was given this assignment after a particularly ill-advised liaison with a married noblewoman necessitated sending him somewhere out of trouble (though Sir Tristan probably had a hand in that too), but that doesn't help to elucidate what his assignment actually is.  From his general attitude, one would be forgiven for thinking him primarily a bodyguard for Sir Theo and Lady Faraday, except that his rank precludes his accepting such a menial station.

We suspected that the meeting between Murchison and Magick would be epic.  Murchison, we know, has been rather bored here for some time; Magick is probably the answer to any number of his prayers.  Naturally he'd have heard of someone of Magick's storied reputation.  Nor were we disappointed, either; they met and promptly made it clear that they're going to be keeping an eye on each other.  Conceivably, this is evidence in favour of a theory making Magick Murchison's WPM equivalent.

Here they are, staring each other down.  They both wanted to make it clear that they are in no way intimidated by the other, and that even though Magick is here on a diplomatic mission, neither of them is letting down his guard.

I'm particularly fond of this picture for two reasons: I have always appreciated the aesthetic quality of a good black-and-white contrast; and this is the only picture we have of Magick that really shows him off, since photographing someone that black turns out to be hard.  Look at that gorgeous silhouette.

Here's the thing, though: we have reason to suspect that there's more to the relationship between Murchison and Magick than meets the eye.  We suspect, for instance, that this was not their first meeting, although it's difficult to articulate where this notion comes from.  We also wonder if they're less adversaries than they appear to be.  Consider this picture of the two of them in an unguarded moment:

Murchison appears to be whispering in Magick's ear.  Is he issuing a threat, or are the two of them in collusion over something?  Do they meet up in Bombay for friendly chess matches with lots of witty banter and then get back to being nemeses?  Are they secretly allies?  We'll have to keep an eye on them.

The Wild Republic Meets the New Delegation

On Wednesday night, while the Thundersnowstorm raged in the background, the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy was formally introduced to the Wild Republic.  They'd been staying in the south room until they'd had a chance to recover from jet lag and Alfredo and Sir Theo had had an opportunity to confer for a few days, but now everything was in place for their visit.  We made certain to document this historic event.

First of all, we got a group picture of the eight members of the delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy.

Back row, left to right: Lady Faraday, Viscount Twilby.
Middle row, left to right: Lord Ebonwood (Magick), Nicodemus, Sir Tristan.
Front row, left to right: Sir Theo, Dr Pedro, Angel Joe.

It's really hard to photograph Magick so that he doesn't look like a void of darkness; it's probably highly symbolic.

The leaders of the various factions had a small summit meeting while the rest of the groups were getting to know each other.  Here you can see Sir Theo, Alfredo, and the Fox.

Neither of the canines is particularly small; Sir Theo really is that enormous.  He's about the size of a pillow.   In addition, he's incredibly wise; you can see it in his face.  This combination makes him approximately the cuddliest creature in all of the cosmos.  Holding Sir Theo and having him put his giant paws on your chest or face is guaranteed to make you feel better about life.

Nicodemus was delighted to discover that he's not the only ungulate around.  He really hit it off with Parsley, in particular; they spent quite a while chatting.  Then he met Rochester, and discovered he'd found a friend for life.  Rochester is, in some respects, not particularly sophisticated: he has this thing for head-butting.  It's a sign of affection with him, actually.  So far we've been unable to train him out of it in even a tiny way; we haven't even been able to convince him not to terrify the more sensitive members of the group, like Cami.  He doesn't understand how anyone would fail to understand how affectionate he's being if he head-butts you.  Nicodemus also really likes head-butting, however, so the two of them will doubtless have numerous happy hours together.  This might take the pressure off the members of the group less keen on this particular bonding activity... or it might make it worse.  Too soon to tell.

Here's Nicodemus and Rochester, demonstrating their newfound friendship.  You can see Laszlo in the background (Nicodemus was very impressed with his equipment); Laszlo's okay with head-butting, but doesn't show the same marked enthusiasm for it as the other two.

 The one we're really worried about, of course, is poor Angel Joe.  We've worked out a bit why he's here, and what happened to him: he was on some sort of highly dangerous secret mission, in the course of which he was captured and tortured and left seriously traumatised.  He is to be knighted for his service, although the official ceremony is still some time away.  AJD, with the assistance of Pedro, was able to successfully extract his whiskers from their confinement, but the tape will remain forever, unfortunately.  And the psychological damage is much worse.  The Wild Parliamentary Monarchy has been very solicitous of Angel Joe since his rescue, appropriately so; they sent him here on an easy assignment in hopes that he might have a chance to heal.  He'd been kept in isolation for a while, but they don't want him to spend the rest of his life cowering in a room alone.

The fact that Angel Joe is willing to go along with this plan when he is clearly mortally terrified speaks highly of his intrinsic bravery.  To put it bluntly, the poor fellow is afraid of his own shadow, and being surrounded by lots of cats and wolves and the like is a major strain on his nerves.  He's particularly afraid of Lord Ebonwood, which is really quite sensible of him, because Magick is pretty scary.  Magick tries to keep away from him for fear of scaring him and tries to look out for him (he might be scary, but he's a fundamentally decent individual), but Angel Joe still cowers whenever they get too close.  Lady Faraday and Pedro are particularly protective of him.

We were very worried at how Angel Joe would react to the Wild Republicans, since a lot of them are kind of larger than life and/or possessed of bizarre quirks.  Fortunately, he quickly found two good friends.  Butterfinger, being a teddy bear, will probably be very good for him; and Cami is as sensitive a creature as one is likely to meet.  He isn't a trauma victim, but he's shy himself.  We suspect their friendship will be good for both of them, as well as being aesthetically pleasing, as you can see here:

Of course, the single most-anticipated meeting was that between Viscount Twilby and the two penguins, and this did not disappoint. Tibby was just so excited to meet a real live owl.  He was jumping up and down, flapping his little wings, and talking a mile a minute in Birdish - such a delight to finally get to speak his native tongue again!  Twilby, for his part, was delighted to meet such an intelligent and earnest little fellow and promptly took him under his wing (...ouch... pun not intended, I swear); he's offered to be Tibby's primary tutor.

As predicted, Plouie went into palpitations upon meeting Twilby; he was so confused that he fell over, and when we picked him up and put him on the iceberg, he promptly fell off and landed on his head.  Being a responsible doctor, Pedro immediately dashed over to him to ascertain whether he was all right. His primary mode of examination involves sniffing you at warp speed, which made Plouie twitch a lot.  Pedro eventually concluded that Plouie was all right, but he's not really sure why Plouie is all right; you could almost see him writing an article for a medical journal.

Twilby took Tibby for a flight around the room, to their mutual enjoyment.  Plouie was not similarly favoured because of the near-certainty that he would start wiggling around in mid-air and fall on his head again.  We didn't get a picture of the flight, but we do have a picture of the birds together.

Left to right: Tibby, Twilby, Plouie.  They've all hit very characteristic poses here, which is kind of neat.

I mustn't forget the cats, since the delegation contains four cats, three of them new, and the Wild Republic already has a healthy feline population.  Much of the local feline population is on the juvenile side, and consequently all three of the new cats were going to produce strong reactions in them: Sir Theo is intimidatingly enormous; Magick is intimidatingly bad-ass; and Lady Faraday is... a girl.  They reacted to these three revelations exactly as predicted.

First, they're all kind of terrified of Sir Theo.  Well, except for Flurry.  Flurry's the youngest animal we have, and he has the fearlessness of some young creatures before they're old enough to know better.  He just thinks Sir Theo is Awesome.  Which he is, of course, but the others are too intimidated yet to realise how essentially avuncular he is.  Sir Theo knew the correct address for lions, which Navarre appreciated - although then he sort of passed out in terror.  He handled Rusty with proper respect for tigers without any deference. 

They also all have a massive case of hero worship for Magick.  You can't blame them, really: he's a confident, mysterious, clearly dangerous panther with a reputation for getting himself into dangerous situations and ladies' bedrooms.  Mahler, being a teenager, is particularly obsequious, but Rusty, who wants to be just like that when he's bigger, is more obnoxious about it.  Magick is basically a good guy; he sees a bit of himself in both of them and this makes him somewhat sympathetic, although he's not inclined to give quarter.  Khamsin he finds more interesting, but the one he seems most inclined to like is Cami, although Cami, being the shyest, has so far kept his distance and conducted his hero-worship remotely.

And then, of course, there's Lady Faraday.  Most of the cats are too young for her presence to be a serious distraction; all of them adore her, but not in a way likely to be annoying.  They're just sweet.  Cami's old enough to have a crush on her, but he's Cami, so he's mostly just sweet too.  The ones likely to be problems are Mahler, who has hormones out the wazoo, and Rusty, who is younger but somewhat precocious.  Fortunately, Lady Faraday knows how to handle these things, and she has both Sir Tristan and Magick to intimidate them into leaving her alone.

Speaking of Magick and ladies, AJD has a little grey cat named Skwidjit who lives on his windowsill.  She's not part of the Wild Republic and doesn't really pay them much attention, although Mahler's had a crush on her for ages.  Magick's already taken notice of her.  She's not his type, but she's the only available female feline around and we're talking about Magick.  He took far too much notice of Sithri when he was in the south room, too.  Sithri's too in love with Skandar to fall for him, but she's a little diva and she's not above generating drama, so I was kind of glad when Magick relocated.

Here we have all of our cats, except the ones who live in my room.  Once again, you get a sense of just how huge Sir Theo really is.

Back row, left to right: Flurry, Rusty, Navarre.

Front row, left to right: Mahler, Sir Theo, Lady Faraday, Cami, Sir Tristan, Khamsin, Lord Ebonwood.

Minor dramas involving cats and fainting Plouies aside, everything seems to be working out well so far.  Here's Twilby in rapt conversation with Tibby, Lady Faraday, and Sir Tristan.

And here's Sir Theo clowning around with, of all individuals, Leprosy:

Leprosy is not the clowning-around sort; think Sam the Eagle from The Muppet Show, and you'll have a fair idea of what he's like.  But he approves of Sir Theo, and apparently this inspired him to chill out for a bit.

Here's one of Sir Theo and Twilby together, celebrating the initial success of their mission.  These two are old friends; they've known each other since their days at university.

Finally, here you can see more or less everybody (the "less" are the Ice and Snow animals, who by this point were all gathering at the windows) all mingling and getting to know each other.  I think they were probably preparing for a Jingo by this point, too.

Thundersnow &c.

Wednesday night we were hit by a truly impressive Thundersnowstorm.  The snow animals were absolutely delighted.  Here you can see Murchison, Flurry, Vim, and Plouie watching the storm with great enthusiasm.  Plouie actually calmed down a little for once.

At precisely 4.58 the following morning, I was awakened by an eerie, remarkably high-pitched alarm noise, which disappeared almost as soon as it had happened, along with our power.  For awhile the power company claimed the culprit was a tree, but the tree turned out to be mythical.  What had actually happened was a gas leak under the street, so that the power company couldn't fix the outage until the gas company had fixed the leak, which was a complicated endeavour what with all the cars and snow on the street.  The power was out for almost thirty-six hours, along with our heat.  Our heating is actually gas, so technically it was working (we did, for instance, have plenty of hot water), but the thermostat  is electric, so the gas didn't know it was supposed to turn on.  This meant our apartment became very cold, and we eventually elected to crash at the house of a friend of ours out in Upper Darby.

When we first established that the power was gone, AJD said, 'Uh oh, I'd better go make sure no one is telling Angel Joe ghost stories.'  Fortunately, everyone had better sense than that.  When we made the choice to evacuate, though, AJD realised we'd better check to make sure Angel Joe was in good company.  It turned out he was with Nicodemus.  'That's a terrible idea,' AJD exclaimed, so Angel Joe was relocated to Butterfinger's company.  Teddy bears are good for traumatised ermines.

Just as we were leaving, Vim decided he wanted to come too.  Barry and Gilly got to have adventures, he pointed out, and he thought possibly he might be useful for us.  So we smuggled him into my bag, and he got to ride the subway train (which he thought was great fun), spend the night in Upper Darby (likewise), ride the bus all the way to Center City (he was disappointed I made him stay concealed until I pointed out that the other passengers might be frightened if they knew he was aboard), and then go to work with me.  We proclaimed it Take Your Polar Bear to Work Day; I wonder if it will catch on.

So Vim had a great time, and has been regaling the others with the story ever since he returned; and no one told Angel Joe ghost stories; and we have both power and heat again; so all is well.

Wild Parliamentary Onomastics

It took some doing, but we finally figured out the names of all seven members of the new Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegation.  I am particularly proud of us given that three of said members are felines and two of them also have titles.  

Some of these names are old news, of course, i.e.,

• The capybara is named Pedro, which is a reference to The Twenty-fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
• The lynx is named Sir Theophilus Pearl, Bart., commonly called Sir Theo; the surname is a reference to the almost pearlescent quality of his fur.
• The ermine is, yes, named Angel Joe.  It came to me in a dream.  I don't know why.

 Others of them are not old news.

• The goat is named Nicodemus, probably because his nouveau riche parents were trying too hard.  My cousins had a black cat named Nicodemus, so it seemed like a good name for a white goat.  [This is not a complete reconstruction of my thought process, but it's kind of very close.]
• The owl is named Hrothgar Q. Hornbeam, Viscount Twilby.  Since he's a viscount, he'll typically be called Twilby, although Sir Theo addresses him as Hrothgar because they're old friends.  He has graciously given his permission to me to address him thus myself, which makes me very happy because I am uncommonly fond of the name Hrothgar, but I'll probably end up using both names.
• The serval is named Lady Faraday Pebble-Stone; the "lady" is due to her status as an earl's daughter.  Her surname is a reference to the markings on her coat, which look rather a lot like pebbles; we agreed that plain Pebble felt a bit too Flintstonian, and surely one of these guys would have a double-barrelled name.
• The panther is named Ruthven Jet Shadewater, Earl of Ebonwood, although his intimates (including Sir Tristan and Lady Faraday) call him Magick.  Coming up with a surname for him that was a) a reference to nature and b) a reference to black things and c) not a totally obvious reference to black things and d) vaguely plausible as English pseudo-aristocratic was remarkably hard.  I'm rather proud of both his title (by which most of the Wild Republic will be required to address him) and his nickname, which is a very indirect reference to blackness.

Everyone has a name now, which is a relief.  Tomorrow we're going to introduce the new delegation to the Wild Republic, who so far have met only Sir Theo, who has been in AJD's room to confer with Alfredo.  This promises to be memorable and we fully intend there to be photographic evidence.

Also at some point I really ought to tell everyone the story behind the Sir Tristan-Lady Faraday-Magick relationship, now that I've learned it.

The Wolves Are Intrigued

Not long ago, on the recommendation of KH (who edited them) I read the first two instalments of Robert Redick's (totally awesome) fantasy epic, the first volume of which is entitled The Red Wolf Conspiracy.  AJD wanted to read them after me, so I passed them along.  Alfredo and Beppe saw the book on his bed and were highly intrigued by it.  

Here they are, being intrigued:

That's Alfredo on the left, the one who looks more recognisably lupine.  Beppe really does look more or less like a ball of fur like that; AJD's first words after laying eyes on him were, 'He's rather hairy, isn't he?'

Their intention is to read The Red Wolf Conspiracy after AJD has finished it; they're very curious about the nature of a conspiracy involving wolves.  Alfredo is particularly interested, because he doesn't believe wolves are naturally part of conspiracies; his job, as he sees it, is to keep everyone in line.  If it were The Arctic Fox Conspiracy, Alfredo would merely nod sagely (and Murchison would be highly flattered).

A Spectrum of Pandicity

We introduced Gilly to Hrithik tonight, which had two positive consequences: Hrithik got over being angry with me over relocating him, and they really hit it off.  They have a lot in common: both tree-dwellers, both game lovers, and both possessed of awesome ringed tails.  Their bond was forever sealed when Gilly joined us to watch Jeopardy!  He spent his formative days at the MIT Mystery Hunt, so he likes that sort of thing.

Red pandas also have some things in common with foxes: shape, colour, tailness, that sort of thing.  So, in a manner of speaking, there are only two degrees of separation between ring-tailed lemurs and foxes, and if you put the three of them together, you get a spectrum.  

I shall now produce the proof: here are, from left to right, Hrithik, Gilly, and the Fox.

Here's an aerial view, so you can see their tails:

We finally broke down and told Gilly that Sleepyhead is also a panda; this confused him utterly, because clearly, he says, Sleepyhead is a bear.  He was satisfied only when we agreed to refer to Sleepyhead as a panda bear rather than simply as a panda.  For all that, they get along pretty well.

Here's Sleepyhead on his own; it's not his best angle or a very good picture, but it gives you an idea of his habitual affect.

Here's a better one:

Note that Gilly's tail is in both pictures.  Gilly has quite a lot of tail, so these things happen.

Monarchic Miscellany

Pedro's form of diagnosis is to smell you.  He sort of scurries around you - very like a guinea pig - sniffing maniacally. It's not really a particularly inspiring mode of practice, but apparently it works.

AJD says that the panther has clearly survived a number of duels and has probably been in the army and is probably here now as Sir Theo's bodyguard.  It's a slightly unconventional career path, given that he's the heir apparent to a marquessate, but we figure he was probably packed into the army to keep him from getting into more duels.  Clearly he has a fractious relationship with his father and has been rebelling from the cradle.  He and Sir Tristan really are a curious pair of best friends.

The serval is a good example of the way women are treated in the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy: she hasn't had any trouble on her chosen career path because of her gender.  She's here now because she chose a mission that would put her nearer Sir Tristan; she's not here exclusively because of him, and she has enough clout that the choice was hers to make.

With the exception of the egalitarian role of women, the Wild Parlimentary Monarchy comports itself much less like the modern British monarchy of today and more like Britain of, say, two hundred years ago.  I don't think this is because I read too many historical romance novels.

Welcome, Gilly

AJD and Barry have returned from a successful MIT Mystery Hunt with the red panda sent in my direction in tow.  He got to hang out at the Hunt too, and apparently enjoyed it a great deal.

Here he is again, with AJD.

His name is Gilbert, because his mother was a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan, but he's usually called Gilly.  You can't see it in this picture, but he has an absolutely first-rate long fluffy tail.  I'm very enamoured of his tail.

In retrospect, it must have kismet that led us together.  The Wild Republic line has red pandas, and twice or thrice I've been this close to getting one, but there were always others too, and the red panda kept being the one who didn't make the cut.  Gilly is a much better red panda specimen than the one the WP makes.  Not that theirs is bad, but it's just not as quality as Gilly by a long shot.

Gilly is probably going to get along well with Tibby; they have a similar sort of bright-eyed inquisitive earnestness. (Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, in Gilly's case, but not in Tibby's.)  Possibly he'll also get along well with Hrithik, as two fellow tree-dwelling creatures with impressive long ringed tails, so long as they don't decide to be jealous of each other instead.  Gilly's not the jealous sort, though - and maybe Hrithik will start speaking to me again if I give him a friend.

We've already introduced Gilly to Sleepyhead, which was... entertainingly confusing.  Gilly was told there was another panda, and he was absolutely delighted - sort of dashing around being adorable and looking all over for the other panda.  Unsuccessfully.  We shook Sleepyhead awake and set them face to face.  Gilly completely failed to recognise Sleepyhead as a panda; Sleepyhead, upon hearing "that's not a panda", concluded he was probably dreaming, put his head on Gilly's back, and went back to sleep, to which Gilly reacted with "Oooh, cuddly," not that he said so out loud. So in essence, they're getting along swimmingly, but still have yet to recognise each other as fellow pandas.

The "So I have an elephant named Barry" Post

As previously announced, we've recently acquired an elephant, and his name is Barry Gaylord.  Here he is again.

Barry is so called because he's a musician; baritone saxophone is of course his primary instrument, but he also plays bassoon and is learning tuba.  He's very adventurous and just a little full of himself - he spent the last two weeks going to parties, telling stories to crowds, being adorning with magnetic sphere jewellery, and being the subject of a puzzle in the Mystery Hunt, and it's gone to his head a little.  Mostly, though, he's great fun.

His introduction to the mix could prove interesting, because Mimsy has major prejudices against elephants; I think it's related to the fact that elephants, unlike mammoths, are not extinct.  He calls them "bald pachyderms" and stuff like that.  I don't think it's fair to blame extinct animals for having a complex about it, but I hope Mimsy is mature enough to deal with it without hurting Barry's feelings.

My Menagerie Gets Media (sort of)

AJD's team has just finished running the 2011 MIT Mystery Hunt (very successfully, from what I hear), which means that I can now reveal that several members of my menagerie were involved as well - in pictures, even.  The others who weren't included (particularly Rusty) are very jealous.

The puzzle featuring my darlings was called Soooo Cute!  If you go to the solution page (by clicking "Call in answer"), you'll see at the top that they're all credited:

featuring Parsley, Seleucus, Desmond, Barry, Vim, Winslow, Khamsin, Humphrey, Henri, and others

The others alluded to are not from my menagerie.  Barry was, initially, one of those others, but DS was looking for homes for them (because it would have been hard to transport them, I think?), so we adopted Barry.

Not only can I now reveal that this has happened, but I can also show their pictures, which I wasn't at liberty to do before.  So, here goes.

Barry:

You'll see that one again shortly, because I ought to do "so I have an elephant named Barry" post.

Humphrey:

Desmond:

We did two shots of each of them.  Desmond blinked the first time.

Henri:

Henri is very shy.  I'm not sure if you can tell.  It's something about being a mini-giraffe; it would probably make me shy too.

Winslow:

It's really hard to get a good picture of a beluga whale on a white background.  Try it yourself and you'll see.  The other one we took was sort of blindingly incandescent; it made Winslow look like a whale god, as far as you could make him out.

Seleucus:

Khamsin:

Parsley:

Vim.

You can't see his earring in this picture very well, but he has one.  If there are prizes for cuteness to be given amongst my animals, Vim is a really strong contender. 

Getting to Know the New Ambassadors

Some of the members of the new delegation are more secretive than others, but here's what I've managed to learn about them so far.

Pedro, the capybara, is in fact Sir Pedro.  He was knighted for his merits as a doctor.  At first glance, he seems an unlikely candidate for such distinctions: he looks like a very large guinea pig.  He's got this sort of steely-eyed glare, though, which indicates that he's a force to be reckoned with.  All of the others clearly respect him - including the panther - and he's the sort of person who doesn't say much, but always says something worth listening to when he decides to say something.  He also has a rather caustic sense of humour and remarkably cute little ears.  (I'm not going to let him see that last part.)

The only other member of the delegation I've successfully put a name to thus far is the lynx, who is, somewhat improbably, the largest cat I have.  (Go figure.)  His name is Sir Theophilus Pearl, Sir Theo to his friends; like Sir Tristan, he's a baronet.  "Pearl" is an appropriate name for him because his fur has this sort of pearlescent quality. He's been in diplomacy since he was a young kitten, and is the official head of the delegation, with appropriate gravitas, although he's more genial and avuncular than Sir Tristan.  I'm quite fond of him, actually.  He seems to be both level-headed and compassionate, and I can already tell that he and Alfredo will get along swimmingly.

I haven't learned the owl's name yet, but I suspect it's even more eccentric than Sir Theo's.  What I have learned is that he's a scholar, in the grand old tradition of half-dotty abstracted gentlemen.   Sometimes the others refer to him affectionately as "the Professor", but in fact he's not officially affiliated with any university; he's a viscount. He's quite intelligent and (of course) very wise, but a bit absent-minded.  His academic tastes are quite eclectic: officially he's here because of his work on behavioural dynamics, but he spends at least as much time musing about philosophy and he also collects rocks.  Tibby is going to love him.

The goat is not a viscount; he doesn't have a title and is the son of self-made goats.  I feel a bit bad for him.  He was sent to all the best public schools, and his behaviour is generally impeccable, and he's done quite well for himself; but... he's a goat.  Goats aren't really known for their elegance, gentility, or decorum - quite the opposite.  Every now and then he starts randomly eating something, or his speech  sounds a little suspiciously Cockney, and then he gets all embarrassed.  He must be quite brilliant - the others clearly respect him and tactfully look the other way when he starts trying to eat the carpet - but he's a little insecure.

Then there's the panther, whom I find terribly intriguing.  Black felines in general, and black panthers specifically, really take my breath away, and this particular specimen is quite splendidly beautiful.  He's also  (as I said before) very clearly dangerous.  It amuses and astounds me that he and Sir Tristan are best friends from school, because they're so very different and Sir Tristan's impeccable decorum makes him seem much older.  I'm not entirely clear on exactly what his role here is: he seems a highly unlikely candidate for a diplomatic delegation, because he's definitely a loose cannon.  (Also probably a ladies' man, so it's a good thing that he and Sir Tristan are so close.)   Possibly it has something to do with his familial connections;  he holds the courtesy title of earl, as the eldest son of a marquess.  I've yet to learn his name or the specifics of his title, although apparently his friends often call him Magick.

I haven't had much of a chance to get to know the serval yet; she and Sir Tristan are still enjoying their reunion and I'm reluctant to interrupt that.  My impression of her is favourable, both in general and as an appropriate partner for Sir Tristan.  She's very much a lady (officially, even, as the daughter of an earl), and everything she does is eminently dignified.  But she's not here merely because of her association with Sir Tristan.  Apparently she's extraordinarily brilliant and knows absolutely everything one could possibly know about policy.

This leaves the ermine.  I'm still kind of baffled about the ermine; he's so damaged, and I'm not entirely sure of their intentions in sending him off on a mission like this.  Possibly it's a clever disguise, but it doesn't really feel like one.

snow snow snow

More snow.  I peeked into the (still absent) AJD's room.  The snow animals are absolutely delighted.  The non-snow animals look suspiciously hungover, with the exception of Reggie, who is alert and upright.  It wouldn't surprise me if river otters are immune from the less pleasant effects of alcoholic overindulgence.

In further news, Sleepyhead has fallen out of bed again, and the ermine is staring down at him with great concern.  I continue to be concerned for him, as he's been here long enough for it to be absolutely clear that his issues were not the result of jet lag.  Also, Hrithik still hisses at me when I try to get near him, which hurts my feelings.

Maybe It's a Sign?

So I had some weird wacko dream last night that had something to do with a football game.  As American football is my absolute least-favourite sport (no one has ever successfully managed to explain it to me and the men are hideously unattractive; enough said), this was peculiar anyway.  I don't remember much about it other than the football, and the fact that they all had bizarrely long numbers (like, eight digits) on their uniforms, and that "I" - and I think I was a guy, too - was talking to this guy and his girlfriend who was my totally fictitious friend's sister and the guy's name was Angel Joe.

What does this have to do with my menagerie?  Well, I woke up after this dream and found myself cuddling with the still-anonymous ermine, and now I'm wondering whether I should take it as some sort of vision telling me that his name is Angel Joe.  He is white.  White things are angelic... right?

Angel Joe is a very weird name, but now I can't get it out of my head.

In further onomastic news, I have deduced that the lynx's surname and/or title is Pearl, relating to the almost pearlescent quality of his fur; and that the black panther's friends call him Magick, although that is neither his name nor his title.

Hrithik Isn't Speaking to Me Right Now

I cleaned my room yesterday.  The primary objectives in doing this were eliminating the dust and getting the books off the floor.  I had a series of minor fits or something over the last couple of months and wound up with piles and piles of Harlequin Blazes on the floor, so I had to rearrange the contents of my bookcases to make room.  Now they're all on shelves.  I still have books on the floor (I've shoved them under the dresser for the nonce), but they're books I could get rid of.

The problem was that in doing this I had to displace Hrithik.  Lemurs like trees, right, so I had him on top of one of my bookcases, to imitate the tree environment as much as possible.  But I wasn't sure how much space I was going to need and ended up using the top of that bookcase for books.  Hrithik had to move.  He was distinctly unhappy with me over this.

Fortunately, it turned out I had about a shelf and two-thirds left over after I'd moved everything, so I could leave the top of one of the other bookcases (on the other side of the room) blank.  Now Hrithik is up there, on one side of my driftwood bat statue (Henri is on the other side), and it's just as high as the other one.  

I think this worked out just fine.  Hrithik still has a tree, and it's just as good as the other one, and he's even in a better position for conversation now because he's on the side of the room with more animals.

Hrithik, however, is distinctly pissed off at me.  He's been refusing to speak to me ever since I moved him down from his old tree.  I think he thinks I didn't care about removing his habitat.  Which wasn't true!  It really wasn't!  One of my other bookcases has my tarot card collection on top of it, and the tarot cards don't take up the whole space, and I'm pretty sure Hrithik could have lived up there, if the other bookcase hadn't worked out.  It would have been a tighter fit, is all.  I tried to tell him that, but he's still not talking to me.

As a result of the re-organisation, Skandar and Sithri have been moved to the shelf below Hrithik and Henri - they barely noticed, they were so absorbed in each other - and the chameleon has moved to Hrithik's former bookcase on the second-to-the-bottom shelf.  Casper and Seymour have moved down a shelf or so, which they're happy about because they're closer to Seal.  So I haven't ruined everyone's life, just Hrithik's.  Apparently.

I Think My Ermine Has Problems

The new ermine - who has an improbably pink nose and a first-rate tail - may have some problems.  Clearly there's an interesting backstory there, only I haven't learned what it is yet.

A lot of the time when you buy a new animal, it arrives with its whiskers taped, so it didn't faze me when I noticed that the ermine's had been taped.  But when I went to take the tape off, I discovered that the tape couldn't be removed without removing a lot of fur with it.  As I was unwilling to remove any of the ermine's fur, the whiskers are still taped.  This implies to me that someone, somewhere, has done something very nasty to the poor guy.

This impression is further borne out by a general consideration of the ermine's demeanour: he's wary and watchful and seems slightly traumatised, and he's the first animal who has taken Sleepyhead's narcolepsy completely in stride (he just seems to appreciate having someone unthreatening to cuddle with).  Possibly he'll be feeling less shell-shocked when he's less jet-lagged, and I do think he'll get along well with Cami, but I'm kind of worried about him all the same, and I'd really like to know what happened. 

All the details are currently obscure.  I'm not even sure whether something happened to him recently or whether it happened a long time ago.  Maybe he's so wary because it was very recent; maybe it was a long time ago and new situations dredge it up.  Whether the ermine's trauma has any connection to his dual citizenship is another point of mystery.  None of this is clear.

I don't think the other members of the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegation were in any way responsible; the black panther is clearly dangerous, but I don't think he had anything to do with this.  They all, including the panther, seem very protective of the ermine.  This implies that they know his story, or some of his story, but they haven't said anything about it.  Poor little fellow.

He's in very good hands at the moment, though.  Few things in life are more therapeutic than cuddling with Sleepyhead, and the ermine seems content to do that for the rest of the day.

That went well...

SIR TRISTAN IS SO HAPPY!

The Delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy Has Arrived

The long-awaited delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy is finally here!

They're kind of large, so they required two boxes, and of course Murphy's Law mandated that we were at house parties, so I had to go down to the post office to get them.  I'm rather proud that I managed to walk back with them unassisted, and even stop at the store to get milk.  The boxes weren't heavy, but they were decidedly cumbersome.

Seven delegates arrived in all.  They've yet to explain their respective positions, or (of course) reveal their names, but that will come.  Here's the list:

• An ermine.  The ermine is slightly confusing because he's labelled as belonging to the Wild Republic.  I assume this means he's a dual citizen; presumably one of his parents was from the WR and the other from the WPM, where he was raised.
• A serval.  She, of course, is Sir Tristan's much-missed girlfriend, and she's faced with the rather daunting prospect of being the only female in a sea of males.
• A lynx.  He is kind of huge; I think he's the largest animal we have so far.
• A capybara.  He's the only one we know something about: he's a doctor (being from the Amazon), and his name is Pedro.
• A snow owl.  Also rather large, but not as big as the lynx.  The penguins will be thrilled, or something.
• A white goat.  I'm glad he's medium-sized, because he's going to be living with lots of carnivores.  He's just about the only herbivore who is neither naturally armed nor known for speed.
• A black panther.  Sir Tristan's best friend from school.  He looks rather dangerous, and will need to be watched.  Murchison will be delighted to have something obvious to do.

More details to follow.  (For one thing, some of them, like Sir Tristan, probably have a title of some kind, but they haven't yet revealed them to me.)  At the moment, they're kind of jet-lagged, and also a bit confused from languishing at the post office for a few days, so I'm not introducing them to the animals in the main room until tomorrow.  (Yes, this has everything to do with Plouie.  No one should have to deal with Plouie while jet-lagged.)  They can stay in my room, where it's quieter; I'll just move Sir Tristan in here so that he can finally be reunited with his beloved.

I Know Some Really Super-Awesome People

I know some really amazingly wonderful people.

Not long ago, KH presented her LJ friends-list with a link to this insanely cute video of two baby red pandas in a box.  (Watch it.  It is the cutest thing ever.)  The video made me wish our local Wild Republic chapter had a red panda in it.  I even found one online.  But I'd just acquired a bunch of new animals, and I knew perfectly well that I should wait awhile before thinking about expanding them again.  I got my LJ friends-list to counsel me to be strong and resist temptation, and they did, and I did.

Fast forward to the second awesome house party I went to over New Year's, which is where AJD is at the moment.  He emailed me this morning to say that EHC had found me a red panda!  She had meant to give it to me before I left the party, but it had been misplaced.

Here's AJD with the red panda.  They make a very charming couple, don't they?

The red panda will make his debut with Barry Gaylord when AJD gets home in a couple of weeks.

Thank you, EHC.  I was not expecting that, and it was so lovely of you that I don't know what to say.

Coming Soon!

I just got back from two awesome house parties.  (AJD is still at one of them.)  At the first house party, there were some stray animals in need of a home.  We adopted one of them, an elephant.  He's still at the party with AJD, where he's having a marvelous time and getting extremely spoiled: he was adorned with magnetic sphere jewellery and he got to tell a story and everyone thinks he's adorable (which is true).

It will be interesting to see what happens when he comes home, because Mimsy (the mammoth) has issues with elephants.  He calls them "bald pachyderms".  I suspect he's galled by the fact that they're not extinct.  Mimsy's an adult, if a slightly immature one, so he's probably going to be polite about his prejudices, but we're not sure what else will happen.

The elephant's name is Barry Gaylord.  He's a musician, you see: he's a baritone (maybe even a bass-baritone), and he plays the bari sax and bassoon and is thinking of taking up trombone. 

Pictures to follow, once he and AJD make it back.