Nike

After Tarquin returned to the Gifford Cat Shelter, Nike came home with us. He's an older gentleman, 11-ish, with an obvious personality. Mostly chill, but with a little cranky streak. He's low maintenance and doesn't try to escape when the door is open or jump up on tall surfaces. The beds are about as high as he'll go.

I posted this on social media.
The first comment was "he looks like a tugboat captain,"
the second was "he needs a hat and an old wooden pipe."
I think they're both right.

Once in a while he nips, but it's generally a reaction to something obvious.*

He has been declawed, I suspect that's why he tends toward biting when annoyed.

I think the problem with the biting is that his body language is rather subtle. There isn't much time between "maybe you should stop petting me soon" and "YOU HAVE BROUGHT DISHONOR UPON MY HOUSE." It took a week or two for us to read him well (and probably for him to settle in to our house).

If he were a person, we think he would be a salt-of-the-earth, stalwart companion of middling age. A strong and capable leader, but with very little sense of humor.

I loved this toy for 30 seconds, now it deeply disappoints me.

We decided "Nike" is really short for "Admiral Nike Whiskers." Note that this is not official in any way, we just have a tendency to make up alternate lives for the cats that live with us.


*Once he just walked up to where I was standing, preparing to do a workout video, and he bit me in the calf. In this case, it appears that he is offended by either workout videos or capri pants. He didn't break the skin and the situation did not escalate.