Feral Cat Fridays: I’m Batman!
Batman was one of Fuzzy’s children, and he inherited (or learned) his mother’s social skills early in life. He earned his name from his early interactions with us.
Most of the feral kittens followed in their parents’ footsteps and kept their distance. But Fuzzy was more relaxed around us and her litter followed suit. Batman was particularly outgoing. He would approach as we filled the dry food bowls and take a gentle swipe at the cup as we poured. Occasionally he would do the same with our hands, never using his claws, and he was christened Batman for his habit of batting at cups and hands. As you can see, he became a handsome guy who liked to pose for pictures.
As in Fuzzy’s case, Batman’s name set the theme for the rest of the litter. One brother looked similar to Batman, and he became Robin. His two sisters were indistinguishable at first and earned the names of Starsky and Hutch. The entire litter was more friendly than most of the colony and tended to stay close to home. In fact, Starsky is still with us at the age of 12 and has become very close to a domesticated cat.
By the time Batman was born we were beginning our aggressive trap, neuter, and release (TNR) program. As soon as kittens were old enough for spaying or neutering we trapped them and brought them to the vet. After the round of kittens born during Batman’s season, the only kittens we had in the colony were brought in from the wild by mother cats we had not seen before.
And for all of you who keep hearing Sheldon Cooper saying “I’m Batman!”, here you go.
I’ve never seen The Big Bang Theory, and didn’t have a clue what it’s about. I checked out the first season, and found this description of Episode 3: “Two brainy best friends could tell you anything you want to know about quantum physics, but when it comes to dealing with everyday life here on Earth, they’re lost in the cosmos.”
The title of the episode is “The Fuzzyboots Corollary.” I might watch it, since it reminded me of this wonderful photo of Einstein in his bedroom slippers.
I don’t suppose Fuzzy ever wore boots…
First, that’s a great Einstein photo.
I thought of you and your lack of TV when I made the Big Bang reference. The show is one of the very few that I actually made an effort to watch back when it was on. Like all good ensemble comedies, it was character driven and the characters developed over the years. The “I’m Batman” reference is one of the classic exemplars of the Sheldon Cooper character and I suspect how funny it is depends on the history you have with the show. Like many long-running shows The Big Bang Theory eventually began to struggle for direction and new ideas, but it had several years of exceptionally good episodes.
Without going into too much detail, the show is the only one I’m aware of that had Stephen Hawking and an astronaut (Mike Massimino) in recurring guest roles.
Clearly, the first episode I have to watch is “The Tangerine Factor,” the last episode of the first season. Why that one? It’s filled with references to Schrödinger’s cat, which presumably hasn’t been trapped, neutered, or released — although who’s to say?
Live, dead, and quantum mystery cats aside, that episode provides a good intro to the main personalities and themes of the show. At first I couldn’t put the title together with Schrodinger’s cat, but I looked at the stills of the episode and it all came back to me. Just so you’ll know, Jim Parsons (who plays Sheldon Cooper) is from Houston, and there are East Texas jokes peppered here and there throughout the multi-year run of the series.