Pet Chat

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^^^ Viggo is not a Dutch name as far as I know. There is a lot of overlap in names between the Netherlands and Scandinavia, but Viggo is not one of them. There are quite a few instances of Erik, Johan, Bjorn etc. Funny thing is that most of those Germanic names have strange meanings: Alfred means Elf-counsel, Elwin/Alvin means Elf-friend, Irwin/Erwin means Boar-friend.

Dear CC, as Skilpadde might be offline right now I don't think she'll mind my replying on her behalf for the time being. She's from Norway and Viggo's quite a common name in Scandinavia as far as I know.

http://www.behindthename.com/name/viggo/comments

I have three cats. found Hazelnut under a bush at age five weeks. she was sick, so i took her home and she's been there ever since. i live first floor, ground level, so Amigo and Princessa smelled cats food and leapt in, squeezing through the bars. i feed them every day.

we have zillions of feral cats here.

Hazelnut used to sit on my shoulder when she was small, the size of an average mouse. she'd climb on my pants and shirt, sometimes made it to my head and slapped my eyes, biting the skin on my head and trying to pull it off as if trying to scalp me. she's wild even now as a grownup.

I don't know why Viggo was named Viggo. It was the name his original owner (a colleague of my mother) gave him, and I don’t know why they picked it. We kept the name, because we wanted him to have something familiar (even if he did end up with several nicknames. Collies are very loyal (well, most pets are) and his first months with us he was uneasy, clearly waiting to be picked up by his old owners. It was awful. Then it seemed he realized he was gonna stay with us and settled down quickly.
It was the same with my turtle Nikita. She too was hyper and didn't appear happy. Then she suddenly calmed down and seemed to accept me. In both cases it was as if the animal reached a conclusion and acted on it. It wasn’t a slow transition.

Viggo doesn’t appear to exist as a name outside of Scandinavia. I actually thought it had German roots, but according to Wikipedia it has two possible origins. It’s either a Latinized form of the Norse Vigge, which is a nickname for names with the name part “vig”, like Ludvig, Vigbjørn, Vigfus and Vigulv, or it’s a variant of the Icelandic name Vöggur, which derives from vöggr, which means “someone lying in a cradle, baby”.
But I’ve also heard that it means something about battle. I don’t know.
According to Statistics Norway, 1 411 men have the name Viggo in Norway.

Oh, and like Enviro said, I'm Norwegian.


QFT! I certainly didn’t want it any other way when we had Viggo. I have put furniture to have my legs on next to my bed so he would have the space he needed.
I think this one also is funny:

Our first dog Sissis was like that. When we played boardgames she wanted to lie in the middle of it. Lol

I knew Alf means elf but I had no idea about the rest. Elf friend, elf counsel, those are really cool names!



I don't mind it at all, Enviro I'm glad you answered it so she'd know sooner.


felinesaresuperior, it's great that you took on homeless animals like that!

Oh, I just thought of another pet story.....

The cat we had, when I was growing-up was SOOOOO smart----AND, she had a real attitude!! She would get angry at my mother, and turn her back on her (my mother)! ! LOL Also, are you ready for this.....

One time, she went to jump-up on the piano, and MISSED----and my mother laughed at her!! She jumped-up on the piano (made it, this time), and walked over to where my mother was sitting, placed her left paw on my mother's shoulder, and reached-around with her right paw, and smacked my mother in the mouth!! My sister and I were ROFL!! !! !! !! !! ! My mother said: "Oh, you don't seriously think she knew what she was doing?" My sister said: "Of COURSE she did!! If you don't believe it, do it again!" Sure enough----as God is my witness----my mother laughed again----and, Tabby jumped-up on the piano, walked to the end..... AND, DID IT AGAIN!! !!

OMG----I guess you had to be there----but, it was too, TOO funny!! I'm laughing all over myself, AGAIN, typing this!! LOLOLOLOL

It's a common mistake, people have confused me for being Norwegian or Danish since the countries are somewhat similar in culture. When I was in Denmark it felt as if I was still at home, but the people were speaking the same with an accent so that I couldn't understand them anymore.
Linguistically Dutch is closer to English and German than to the Scandinavian languages, though ultimately they are related and all have a common ancestral language.
Frisian is one of the languages closest to English after Scots I think.

English: Rye bread, butter and green cheese is good English and good Fries.
Frisian: Brea, bûter en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk.
(despite this similar sentence the languages are not mutually intelligible)

I'll post a cute picture of Norwegian forest cats just because they look so nice.

"Snow? What snow?"

I have two cats they are orange tabby cats and just turned 14 last year. The two of them are brothers, and we stole them as kittens from a drop off mom cat. These two are the sweetest cats ever, though one of them is very near sighted and neurotic.

We have a fluffy cat, he was dumped as a kitten into the front garden in a black sack, (a few of our past cats also mysteriously arrived as kittens onto the property, I think the locals know we will look after them!!)
He is a beaut, so friendly and keeps me company when I'm gardening.

We have another cat, arrives morning and evening for his warm milk and cat food, stays on the rooftops until the coast is clear (i.e. no dogs) and comes down for his food, he is feral and no one has ever touched him since he attacked the last person to try, over a decade ago. His presence on the roof stops birds from nesting in the gables, and he hunts any rats that come from the nearby rivers.

Until the fluffy cat arrived, I had not held a cat in a long time and I had forgotten how nice it is to sit with one purring on my lap.

OMG----I LOVE those cats----especially, the one on the left!!

If you don't mind my asking, where are you located, trollcatman?

I'm in the Netherlands in glorious Yurop.

Hi Campin_Cat

I'm like you and love that Norwegian Forest cat, I had one just like that whom I adopted when he was 5. He was so vocal especially when annoyed about something. Here is my current boy Charlie who was 19 just over a month ago, he was very poorly with kidney failure at Christmas time but I am so pleased to say with my 24 hour care giving he is almost back to full health.

How adorable, Cosmic Russ! I hope he will soon be 100% better with your caring treatment.

I've set my current cell phone ringtone to the mew of a cat. So much better than having something I can't immediately recognize as my phone ringing.

Hi, CR----haven't seen you, in awhile----so nice to see you!!

Your Charlie's BEAUTIFUL----nice 'n' fluffy!! (I used to have a guinea pig named Charlie!) I'm hoping he's 100%, TOO, real soon!!

~~~~~~~

Thanks trollcatman!!

How beautiful! Extra-fluffy. Must be nice to hold one. Are they wild cats? Their faces look rather aggressive. So I guess they are. Can they be tamed? I'd love to have one as a pet.

invaderhorizongreen and Amity, pictures?