On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, Mark A Mandel wrote: > On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, David Silberstein wrote: > > #Besides the dogs mentioned in my previous post, I remembered > #cats or kittens being mentioned somewhere. Fortunately, > #there's the booksearch: > # > # > # Jhereg, ch. 15 (referencing Aliera) > # She relaxed against the back of her bed, absently > # stroking a cat that I'd not been introduced to. > > Well done! And that reminds me of yet another argument for it. > > > Noish-pa's familiar, Ambrus, is a cat. > > < But we're talking about pets, not familiars! > > > But Ambrus is described as a *cat*, not a wildcat, a lynx, "a small > dzurlike creature", or any other variation on a wild felid. If we can > trust the translation at all -- and Brust isn't shy about using > Dragaeran names for unEarthly animals -- Ambrus is a _felis domesticus_, > the felid species that arose from domestication. I'm not impressed re Aliera - she's an iconoclast. She probably has a cat so that she can dice people who mock her about her Eastern affectation. I hope Ambrus is a Maine Coon or whatever, but N-P's Eastern. I am somewhat convinced by Buddy, but on the other H'atchoo has reason to want a guard dog. Teldra's pet metaphors seem better evidence to me, but she has a strongly Eastern background and audience at the time. I resist the pet idea for Ds - imagine getting a dog knowing it would live not 8 years but say 8/40 years = five months.