And then there's Tomas...

How do I put into words how different this cat is from Tybalt? Hmmmm... he's twice Tybalt's size and weight, twice his age... you can hear him thump his way from room to room as he walks the house... often on the way to the bathroom, where he can spend amazing amounts of time splashing at the water in the toilet. He has a perpetually startled expression on his face... he is virtually hopeless when it comes to hunting and stalking... birds and small mammals see him long before he's in any sort of effective range. He tends to drool prodigiously when happy, which makes petting him a very odd and often damp experience! And it's not at all unusual for him to let fly with a good fart while you're petting him as well.

For all of that, he's a sweet, funny, utterly charming fella... just in very different ways. Being still new to living with cats, it's been quite the education for me to live with two such different personalities. Where Tybalt is so quiet and small you can't actually hear his purr unless your ear is resting on him, Tomas let's out a purr that sometimes I swear can be heard in the next room (not to mention the saliva and gas!). And he does an impression of William H. Macy that is quite remarkable! Okay, I have to explain that one... remember the scene in Pleasantville where Macy's character comes home to an empty house, and walks from room to room plaintively asking "Where's my dinner? Where's my dinner?"... well, that's Tomas in the evening... or the afternoon... or sometimes in the morning. Yes, he likes his food, which is no doubt part of why he's much bigger than Tybalt. All in all a pretty wonderful cat.