Thursday, 18 October 2007

Not just a clowder...

A murder of crows,
A cast of hawks,
A charm of finches,
A fleet of ships,
A pride of lions,
A leap of leopards,
A parliament of owls,
A rhyme of poets…

An enigma of cats.


Collective nouns for groups of cats. Sometimes my cats are a siren of cats, howling from the shed roof or singing a mouse’s requiem. Sometimes they are a pester of cats, one fatly pleading for food – he is famished – the other for cuddles, psychotically loving. But sometimes they have been an absence of cats, and that’s the only kind I don’t like.


I was tagged for this meme by The Ginger Darlings. I tag Kelly Herold of Big A little a, to date the only American reviewer to have read The Cat Kin.

5 comments:

Lee said...
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Lee said...

I do like enigma of cats. And everyone has cat stories, don't they? Our current tom, for example, is gender-challenged.

Leslie Hawes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leslie Hawes said...

I read this today, and can't remember where...
a condescension of cats

Kelly said...

Hi Nick:

I can't think of a single collective you haven't come up with :)

We do always say, "What's up, dog," to our dumbest cat, though. He's so dumb it's touching :)