Our fate sealed, we picked up the kitten at the Portland airport. Yes, he jetted 3,000 miles from Asheville, N.C. in the southeastern USA to Portland Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. After peering in his travel cage to make sure that he had survived the flight, we drove him home to Beaverton.
Tap. . .tap . .Placing his container in our utility room, I opened the door and placed my hand inside and pulled him out. Poor little thing, I thought. Here he's traveled all these miles. He must be scared to death.
But what's this! He's purring! Loudly! A three thousand mile flight, a twenty mile ride by auto, and a strange hand picking him up and an eight-week old kitten is purring so happily!
As a student of comparative religion and literature, right then and there I decided his name should be Ram, which is the name of a mythical Indian King and the subject of the Indian masterpiece, the Ramayana. Ram, who led an army of animals against a demon to rescue his queen, Sita, is also one of the many names of God on the Indian subcontinent. Purring is a kind of special sound, like a "name of god" for a cat. Some devotees meditate on the name of god. Since Ram was so centered and fearless as to purr while being held by a complete stranger after such an awesome journey, we felt that he was a special creature indeed.
Tap. . tap. . .tap. . .Indeed, he is! Now that we have survived his "kittenhood" and adolescence, our attitude toward him has mellowed somewhat as he has mellowed into "cathood."
Yay, verily, yay! With a blowing of ancient horns and beating of sacred gongs (probably from Egypt where his Cattiness was worshipped), we offer sincere thanks to all Powers and Dominions and calling all angels to witness our testimonials of gratitude for this remarkable cat, who so richly changed the lives that we thought we deserved before he came into our lives. (Whew!!!)
Tap. . .tap. . .Rambo. You see, Ram did not hold up too long-as a name, I mean. After his first broad jump from the arm of a chair with a bounce off the back of the dog to the sofa, we knew that we actually had been entrusted with "Rambo," after the Sylvester Stallone character with the superhuman muscles and reflexes.
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