Duncan's Page

This is my cat, Duncan. His vital statistics run as follows:

Name: Duncan, after the murdered Scottish King in Macbeth.
Duncan's coat is black with some scattered brown and silver stripes, and it put me in mind of a magician's or sorcerer's cloak, so some of the first names suggested for him were Merlin, Morpheus, Prospero, or Oberon. The last two names naturally led to considering Shakespearean characters, and eventually Duncan seemed to fit him best.

Breed: Random tabby; ancestry unknown.

Temperament: Duncan is a likeable cat, though he has occasional annoyed moods when he mock-bites me or disembowels my arm with his back claws. He also likes gnawing on modem cables and power cords; bad kitten!

Duncan will sometimes bite and chase Ares, but it's not clear if this represents hostility or just play-fighting, because sometimes Ares will chase Duncan instead. There's an uneasy détente between Duncan and Artemis that usually stays at the level of warning growls, occasionally escalating to batting at each other.

Weight: An astonishing 16 pounds as of his last visit to the vet; he's been switched to a lower-calorie brand of cat food.

Birth date: October 31, 1995
I don't know his exact date of birth. Duncan came into my life when the aunt of a friend of a friend found the little kitten half-frozen in her backyard; this was in the middle of a Montréal December, so it's remarkable he survived. She already had a cat and couldn't keep him. Des, the FOAF, knew that I and my girlfriend at the time were thinking of getting a cat, so we took him. The vet later estimated that Duncan was around two months old when we got him, so October is about right for his birth. Hallowe'en is a memorable day, so it was arbitrarily chosen for his birthday.

Duncan's Page

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