inuudo

AKA: A Short and Simple Lesson in Marketing

There are currently two auctions, that I am aware of, on eBay that are intended to entice someone to pay to name a cat they don't know. I know you're all "I wish I'd thought of that!", and I'm right there with you. However, the object lesson here is not how you can exploit your felines to make the big bucks. It's how to do it right.

A case in point. This auction ends in just over a day from now. The bid is currently at a sad 99 cents (US though, so that's something) and has zero bids.

This auction, however, has seven days to run and is already at $96.00 (again, that's US money, greenbacks, real moola) with 22 bids. I suspect it's going to go much higher.

So what's going on here? Both cats are equally cute and have equally hard-luck tales. The first one perhaps has an edge on that count. Both have equally concerned potential owners who want to do the right thing by the cat and their own ethics.

The only reason that I can see for the second one getting so much auction action is the image story that was put together to pull potential buyers in. It gets you involved and makes you care about the cat's fate. The story told about the first cat is equally compelling, but the images, while poignant, are not as gripping as the second.

In summary, if you want to make money off your cat, be sure to learn PhotoShop first.

A couple of months ago I created a sig for myself to use on an EZboard forum about Ragdoll cats. (It's called Ragdolls R Us, if you want to join in; be warned, we go off topic. A lot.)

I wanted to have both Inu and Udo in the sig and wanted to have a tech theme to the final image. I didn't have a great photo of them together near the computer, but I did have a photo of Inu the one time she had deigned to observe my computing technique at close range. I put my Photoshop skills to a very limited test to produce this:

Deja Vu?

A short while ago, my attention was directed to The Infinite Cat Project. I have yet to submit a photo, mostly because neither of the cats are overly interested in posing nicely and are very resistant to being set in a particular position. As you can imagine they would be.

For those of you who couldn't be bothered following the link that I so labouriously hand-coded for you, the Infinite Cat Project attempts to replicate those images of something reflected in a mirror back at an image of itself. Or a photo of a person holding a photo of a person holding a photo of a person yougettheidea.

It's a fun, if headache inducing, time waster, and it makes it extra-nice that it's all about cats.

Yesterday, Mr. Inuudo was watching TV in the other room while ONE of us was gainfully employed at the computer. His fits of giggles at something he was seeing on Urban Rush were distracting, but, cat-like, I tuned him out and continued with my Very Important Work.

He hollered at me to look at Buckaroo Blog, as if I had nothing better to do as I try to eke out some semblance of a pitiful existence at the computer. My google search pointed me to this website.

I'll wait quietly here while you take a look at that. Be sure to wipe the snot off your face after you finish guffawing.

Poor Wesley, right? Well, poor Udo, too. Our first reaction was that we'd never be able to Buckaroo one of our cats. It turns out we can, and she wasn't even asleep.

The photos are from my cell phone, so forgive the lousy quality.

Udo in Full Buckaroo Mode

Udo Having Enough of It

Now, where did Inu get to?

If you've met Inu, you already know a little bit about Udo because she is a Ragdoll cat, too.

She? Udo? How did she get a boy's name? It's not that I have a cruel or self-indulgent streak a la the parents of A Boy Named Sue. Well, maybe a wee bit self-indulgent.


Udo as a kitten, about 4 months

Udo's First Name

Udo started life with us with a girly name, Hanako sometimes shortened to Hana. A great deal of thought went into choosing that name.

First, it's a Japanese name. Our ten+ years living in Japan has made us appreciative of the poetry behind the names. Hana means flower, and the suffix -ko is often appended to girls' names as a kind of diminutive like -ette, conveying the idea "sweet, little" or "child." Our new kitten would be named the Japanese version of Flower Child, which appealed to the wanna-be Hippie side of our personalities.

Second, as with all Japanese names, there is another interpretation of the word hana, depending on which kanji is used. Hana can also be read as nose. Nose Child is not as poetic as Flower Child, I grant you that, but it does point to a distinct physical trait of our new kitten.

What Seems Like a Digression

As a Ragdoll, she could be one of three main types:

• Colour Point, which is what most people think of as Siamese, with dark paws, forelegs, tail, face, and ears. Inu is a Colour Point.
• Mitted, which is a Colour Point with the white spotting gene. This gene creates white overlay on the paws and chin.
• Bi-colour, which also has the white spotting gene with more white overlay than the Mitted. The paws, forelegs, chin, and inverted V from the forehead down to the mouth are all white.

Ragdoll cats that are designated Show quality will have perfect markings in one of these three categories. Breeders who find themselves with imperfectly marked kittens might choose to raise or sell them to breed, if other qualities such as body type, head shape, or demeanor override the deficiency in the markings. Otherwise, they are sold as Pet quality, which means that they cannot be shown without the consent of the breeder and they certainly cannot be bred. (Incidentally, if you are considering the purchase of a purebred cat or dog, avoid doing business with breeders who are not concerned about preserving or improving the quality of the breed; a dead giveaway is if they are willing to sell you a Pet quality animal without requiring that you spay or neuter it. )

Udo's Markings

Udo is an imperfectly marked Mitted. She is so imperfectly marked that some people argue that she is a Bi-colour, but I will defer to my cats' breeder on that decision. Udo doesn't have mitts so much as she has evening gloves, which are more like the markings on a Bi-colour. Her chin is definitely white, but so are her cheeks, which is not allowed on a Mitted but is not enough for a Bi-colour. Udo couldn't really decide what she wanted to be when she was being baked except that, as one friend observed to my delight, "She wanted to be a pet."

Back to that business about the nose. The white overlay on her face combined with the darker colours of her nose leather and upper face reminded me of the markings on a pansy. Nose Hana Flower Hana Pansy Flower. Perfect.

Udo's Personality

Except that our sweet, little Hanako turned out to be a rambunctious, darting troublemaker. She had a disturbing tendency to dash out the open door directly up the hill into the blackberry brambles where she would cry plaintively until we managed to crash through, usually in our slippers and usually in the rain, to rescue her. Not very much of the flower child in her and definitely not an -ette.

We cast about for a new name.

Udo's Namesake

At the time I was heavily involved in triathlon training and loved cycling in particular. My bike was named Lance. One of the German pro cyclists, Udo Bolts, had recently raced in the Holy Grail of triathlon events, the Hawaii Ironman. I was a bit smitten with his gutsy effort and followed his progress afterwards (not in a scary stalkerish way, I assure you) on the pro cycling scene.

It occured to us that if we anglicized the pronunciation of Bolts we had a phrase that was very descriptive of what our kitten would do whenever the door opened. Udo bolts. We liked it. And the real Udo Bolts was a respectable hill climber on the bike, furthering the connection to our kitty's propensity for achieving the top of the near-vertical wall at the back of our yard.

That's how Udo the girl cat got a boy's name.

The word inu means dog in Japanese. My Inu is a cat.

Her name wasn't chosen merely to sound quirky or cute, although I am fairly susceptible to such motivation. Rather, her name ties together several threads of meaning and experience for me.


Inu as a kitten, about 3 months

Some Background

In Japan, my husband and I rented a house from a wonderful couple who had been transferred out of the city. They were animal lovers and owned about 20 dogs and cats. They encouraged us to keep as many pets as we wanted. Those of you battling some stuffy landlord's or neighbour's diatribe against pet ownership are probably overcome with envy at this point and will hate me with the fire of a thousand suns when I reveal that we chose not to have a pet at all.

There was solid reasoning behind the decision. We were living an ex-pat lifestyle, which meant a lot of travelling outside of Japan when we weren't working. Most of those trips were at least two weeks long, with some as long as two months. Neither of us felt it would be right to board the pet when we were gone for so long and we did not believe it was anyone else's responsibility to take care of our pets for us.

Choosing a Pet

As the time came closer for us to return to Canada, I started dreaming about what kind of pet we would get. I'm very research-oriented, so I got online, read, asked friends, and eventually decided that the perfect pet for me would be a Standard Poodle.

Yes, you read that correctly. A large dog, not a cat.

You can probably see where this is going. Landlords in Canada are generally not as receptive to pet ownership as our Japanese landlords were and I had lost sight of that fact when making my decision.

Long story made a little bit shorter, by the time we had bought our own place I had re-realized that I was a cat-person at heart (and soul). Research ensued, and I decided on getting a Ragdoll.

The Naming of Inu

The first name I had chosen for our new kitten was, to my husband's dismay, Breetvelt. Collectors of Gouda pottery will understand why. Much as I liked the idea of the name, I knew it was too clunky a moniker to give a tiny kitten. To-ing and fro-ing between name ideas brought us to a resolution.

Ragdoll cats are described as "the dog of cats" or "puppycats." They have a laid-back attitude and are very people-oriented. They will meet their owners at the door and can be trained to do tricks fairly easily. They follow their people around, just to be sociable.

Given our earlier determination to be dog owners and our later choice of a Ragdoll cat, plus our ten years as residents of Japan, Inu seemed like a great name for our cat.

Inu the Puppycat

Inu has been with us for three years now. She does meet us at the door most of the time, and she certainly follows us around the house, flopping down nearby to observe our doings dispassionately (she is a cat, after all). She is great at playing fetch and will do tricks for treats, notably kissing (nose-to-nose), sitting, lying down, and begging. She will come when called. She also walks outside on the leash, but that's a tale for another time.