Remember Vazra‘s lady friend (original pics here)? Well, I’ve finally decided on a name for her since she’s around all the time and I can’t keep calling her kitty and other equally vague descriptions. The poor lass undoubtedly feels slighted by now given I’ve never offered her a personal moniker. Now I have.
The unnamed dear will from this point forward be referred to as Larenti. I’ve already taken the liberty of updating all (well, hopefully all) previous posts and photos with the new name. Where did the name come from? I’m so glad you asked.
It’s yet another adulteration of a perfectly legitimate word. Or, in this case, a name.
Acca Larentia was the Italian Earth goddess. The roots of the name are of Etruscan origin. She was a protectress. She is fabled to have been the surrogate nurse for Romulus and Remus. While there are additional tales which make her the wife of Tarutius from whom she received large swathes of land after his death and later bequeathed those lands to the people of Rome (thereby giving them the very property upon which their great city would be built), it is the Romulus and Remus association, in addition to the earthen suggestion, which eventually drew me to the name.
Larenti is always around. She braves rain and wind and other unpleasant (to cats) weather so she can stop by and grab a bite to eat. She acts as though the events taking place around her are not as important as what she wants and/or needs to do. That somehow reminded me of a goddess in charge of the lands around her. But it doesn’t stop there.
As the historical wet-nurse to Romulus and Remus, I also found association in the name given Larenti’s incessant “tagging along” with other cats. First it was Vazra. Now it’s the new cat I’ve seen recently who looks like Kako. Larenti has been trailing that feline recently and will dash to the patio to sit and watch the new visitor while it eats.
Given the two-cat association compared to Romulus and Remus, and given her affinity for being in charge despite whatever nature can throw at her, Acca Larentia came to mind. From there, it was easy to mutilate the name and come up with Larenti.
You’ll now find a new entry in the sidebar for all posts related to her (here) and all photos of her (here).
Speaking of photos, I have some new ones of her and will post those a bit later, and I also grabbed some photos of Kako’s larger dopplegänger who has been coming around more and more and will also post some of those before the day is over.