Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Isn't it good Norwegian Wood

Okay, so, the cat I talked about in this post, who hissed at everyone who passed the adoption center?

I had a family who was interested in her on Saturday, her first day there.  They were willing to look past the fear and the hissing, and wanted her very much.  They filled out an application, and I gave them a recommendation in the volunteer notebook.  I assured them that they were "first in line", and then I checked the rescue website the following day, and that very same cat had twenty-five on-line applications.

Curious, I checked her site description and discovered that she had been listed as a "Norwegian Forest Cat".

Holy sh*t, marketing in action.

Honestly, I have no idea what a "Norwegian Forest Cat" IS, but evidently they are really, really popular, because this rather non-descript, long-haired, anti-social cat is the hottest cat in town right now.

Buyer beware, guys.  Rescue groups will label a cat with a breed name if the cat in question bears even a faint resemblance to the breed.  Any long-haired cat is a "Maine Coon".  Any light-colored cat with dark facial features is a "Siamese".  And people lose their ever-loving shit if we put up a "Ragdoll".

Jeezus, I mean, whatever it takes to get these cats into good homes.  I just wish sometimes that people could look past the "status" labels.  But since they seem to have a problem doing so, I thought I'd come up with designer names for some of the less-popular cats.

For a long time, rescues have been calling black cats "house panthers".  We could call orange cats "house lions", although frankly, the orange guys don't need the help.  They're the second-fastest to be snapped up, right behind the white cats.

Let's see.  Mackerel tabbies (the ones with the stripes) could be called Zebra Cats.  Cow kitties (black-and-whites) could be Mini-Moos.  Tortoiseshells could be Egyptian Tortoise Cats.   

Anybody else?  Let's think up some new breed names!


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