Home Page |
Our Story |
Breeding Females |
Breeding Males |
Current Litters |
For Breeding or as Pets |
About Our Cats |
The Fine Print |
The name of our cattery
The name comes from the PBS children's series Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, based on the book of the same name by Amy Tan. In the TV show, Sagwa's younger sister is named Xi-Gua (pronounced "Shee-Gwa"), which means "watermelon" in Chinese. As watermelons are an important crop in Rocky Ford, Colorado, we selected that name for our cattery. However, we spell it as it would be written in Chinese Pinyin, not as it's pronounced or spelled on the PBS show. From top to bottom, the Chinese characters read "xi gua mao", which means "watermelon cats."
The names of the cats
My first cat when I was a child had the (imaginative) name of "Kitty", but ever since I was in college, getting more involved with my Scottish and Irish heritage, my cats have always had names in Scottish or Irish Gaelic I'm not fluent in either language, but can communicate in Scottish Gaelic at an intermediate level. I began with a pair of Seal Points named Miurne (a creatively misspelled form of the name usually Anglicized as "Myrna") and Morag, and a Blue Point named Alasdair. Later, while stationed in California with the U.S. Navy, I adopted an abandoned (pregnant!) Seal Point and named her Deirdre (a tragic Irish heroine), and her kittens Diarmaid and Grainne after the legendary couple in the Fenian cycle. I also had a rescued Blue Point, Fionn MacCumhail ("Finn McCool", the hero for whom the Fenian tale cycle is named), when I came back to Colorado, followed by Brendan (after St. Brendan the Navigator), Niall ("Neil", after 3rd-century Irish high king Niall of the Nine Hostages), Shannon, Maureen, and Sheila (Irish form of Cecilia). After moving to Rocky Ford I decided to begin the Xi-Gua cattery, and acquired Ryan, followed by the others that you see on the site here.
More information to be added!
Links
