Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Millbrooker Towers' "Guess Who" Competition

Yesterday Millbrooker Towers became the new permanent residence of two young brothers, fresh from their foster lodgings after being left by their previous servants.

They used to be called Max and Merlin. Now they're called, without the slightest pretension or Lynda Snellery (just remember what she called her llamas), Vladimir and Estragon.
As all avid, and some non-avid, Sam Beckett fans will know Vladimir and Estragon are the principal characters in Waiting for Godot; between themselves they know each other as Didi and Gogo - and that's pretty much how the small black boys of the household are now known, too.

The biggest headache is working out which is which. They're both black all over except for a few individual white hairs in the bib area; they're both pretty much of a size; they've both got the same green eyes. The only way we've worked out who's who is by looking at their tails - Gogo's is a moderately bushy affair and Didi's is an eensy bit longer and a bit sleeker (and he sometimes holds it in a sort of "S" shape).

Another minor identification pointer is that Didi really needed to give himself a bit of a wash - smelly bottom syndrome - I can only hope he's managed to wrap his tongue around those difficult to reach places before it's sitting on laps time this evening.

Of course, being cats, it doesn't actually matter what they're called - they won't come when you call them and they'll probably just end up being known as "thicket" or "dumbo" anyway.

To help in identification, here's a shot of each that I know for certain is of the named animal.

Estragon / Gogo by the old wind-up gramophone:
and Vladimir / Didi on the sofa:

2 comments:

Judith said...

Ha! An Archers reference, and thanks to BBC iPlayer, I got it!

The Millbrooker said...

Where would we be without the Archers? Civilization would collapse without a regular dose of Ambridge.