In an earlier post (See: A New Cat) I mentioned that I had a new cat whose name I planned to change. This is how things have evolved:

My previous cat, Gypsy passed away about a month ago. She was well over 17 years old and had no health problems before so she had a long and, I think, happy life.

I didn’t know whether or not I wanted to get another cat, but then I saw a post in a Facebook group. It seems that the person posting had once worked with someone who had passed away. She went to the memorial service and spoke to the deceased’s two sisters. It turned out that the deceased had left behind six Maine Coon cats. I’ve always loved Maine Coons and had always wanted to have one and I couldn’t resist. I contacted one of the sisters who invited me to come over, take a look at the cats and pick one that I liked. So off I went. I chose a cat and the sisters told me her name was Sophie, a name I didn’t much care for. I took the pictures and shared them with friends and family. Nobody thought she looked like a Sophie, which as it turned out she wasn’t. The sisters had got their cats mixed up and the one I chose was actually called Ramona, another name I didn’t really like.

I asked for suggestions and people referred to her as powerful; exotic, regal; mystical; ancient goddess A couple of people suggested Isis. I’ve been fascinated by ancient Egypt since I was a child. I love Egypt and I’ve been there several times. Then I read that Isis was known as the goddess of the moon. As goddess of life and magic, she protected women and children – so a UNICEF connection. But then it occurred to me (and a couple of other people) that Isis might be confused with a certain Islamist militant jihadist group of the same name rather than the ancient Egyptian goddess.

I did a bit more research on the goddess, Isis and found this:

“The English pronunciation used, /ˈaɪ.sɪs/), comes from the pronunciation of the Greek name, Ίσις, which changed the Egyptian name by adding a final “-s” because of the grammatical requirements of Greek noun endings.The Egyptian name was recorded as ỉs.t or ȝs.t. It meant ‘(She of the Throne)’. However, the true Egyptian pronunciation is not known because their writing system left out vowels. Based on recent studies, the reconstructed pronunciation of her name is *ʔŪsat (ooh-saht). Later, the name in Coptic dialects was “Ēse” or “Ēsi”.To make it easier to say, Egyptologists choose to say the word as “ee-set”. Sometimes they may also say “ee-sa”. This is because the last “t” in her name was a feminine (female) suffix which is known to have been dropped in speech in the last stages of the Egyptian language.” (From the oracle Wikipedia).

So I’ve decided to call her ‘Isa’

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Sony FE 28-75 f3.5-5.6 OSS.