Tintagel Truffle (aka Squeeker), our second Mau, a silver. He's the sweetheart of the bunch. He's our primary show cat, winning Best Egyptian Mau in Premiership (meaning he's 'fixed') in the 1995 International Cat Show in Chicago. He's also the first one to show some positive opinions about the music we play around here; he seems to like the Violent Femmes. Hmm. Baksheesh and Tintagel apparently like ska, too, because we were playing a new ska album and they both jumped up onto the stereo. Good taste.

This summer, Tintagel became a CFA Grand Premier, meaning he scored more than 75 Premier show points in CFA cat shows. This is a rare honor for Egyptian Maus, who usually figure out ways to get out of cat shows before they get that many points. But 'Tagel likes cat shows.

On the Starship Enterprise, Tintagel would be the Counsellor, because he's the most diplomatic of the three.

A strange Tintagel story: We recently rented the movie "Stargate" from a local video store. For those of you unfamiliar with the plot line, a stargate between Earth and a distant planet is found and made operational. An exploratory team is sent through to see what's on the other side. They find a primitive race that speaks ancient Egyptian. As we were watching this, Tintagel, sitting on a nearby table, stopped playing and locked onto the TV. We've never seen him more intent. He was listening to the ancient Egyptian dialog! As soon as the action resumed, he stopped paying attention, but he was riveted for several minutes. The movie credited an Egyptologist for dialog assistance, so the language in the movie was apparently authentic. The ability to understand a specific language isn't supposed to be genetically transmitted, even in humans. So why did our Egyptian Mau do something he's never done before: pay attention to the TV? Not just casual attention: he was oblivious to everything but the movie dialog. We're going to investigate this more. Stay tuned.

Tintagel Truffle: EM So G 5.1 Y L W C+++ I++ T+ A++ E++ H+ 
                   S+ V+ F Q+/++ P+ B PA+ PL+ (as of 3/19/2000)

Tintagel's Cat Code Revealed

Tintagel Truffle

his name, named by Catherine

EM

he's an Egyptian Mau

So

Silver, spotted (breed requirement)

G

Green eyes (breed requirement)

5.1

5 years, 1 months old (as of 3/19/2000)

Y

sex - male, neutered, no interest

L

size - I'm average cat size, just right for your lap

W

weight - I'm an average cat, not too thin and not too fat

C+++

claws - I have ten razor-sharp implements of death.

I++

inside/outside - I live indoors most of the time but will sneak out sometimes

T+

temperamant - I'm shy about meeting new people, but am affectionate with those that I know well

A++

activity level - I am always getting into, under or on top of things and am hardly ever still

E++

eating - I'm always hungry. What are you having?

H+

hunting - I chase anything that moves, but am not quite sure what to do with it if I catch it.

S+

smurgling - I sneak in an occasional smurgle

V+

vocalization - I have a small but useful vocabulary of important words like "Food!", "Play!", and "Clean the box!"

F

fetching - I'll chase it if you throw it, but forget about bringing it back

Q+/++

intelligence - I'm pretty quick-witted for a cat/I display near human reasoning sometimes, such as double takes and abstract reasoning

P+

lap affinity - I prefer laps to any other type of resting place, but they have to belong to people I like

B

belly sensitivity - Well, OK, you can rub my belly...but not too much!

PA+

purr activity - Pat me and I'll rumble

PL+

purr loudness - I'm a little louder than the average cat

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