ULYSSE & TIIPUQ

Ulysse (Ulysses in English) is my older cat. He traveled all the way from France to Alaska with me in 2008. I had another beautiful kitty at the time who also came with me, Virgule, but she got run over by a car last year when I was out of town.... I cried all my tears out, and I visit the little grave I made for her every once in a while.

Ulysse is 7 years old and only understands French, even though I think he knows English after 2 years in the US. My parents found him in Southern France when he was only a couple of months old. As I was leaving Paris to go study in Eastern France, my mom had an excuse to adopt him and he was my gift and companion for living so far from my family. I have traveled everywhere with him ever since.

He loves everybody and all cats he has ever met. My little nephew grabbed him by the tail one day and carried him like that until I rescued Ulysse, who looked at me with confused eyes crying for help; he never fought to escape that little evil human! Ulysse has a soundless purr, which is pretty cool when you try to fall asleep next to him. His favorite thing is to jump on people's backs and be all cuddly from up there. It can be surprising at first, but it is a nice trick that my friends always like.

He mothered Virgule the second I brought her home when she was only 2 weeks old, and was really depressed when she died. So 6 months later, I went to the pet rescue in Fairbanks and adopted my grey kitty Tiipuq, who was 8 weeks old at the time. He’d carry her by the neck everywhere he'd go, lick her for hours and give her love.

Tiipuq means "Bering Cisco" in Inupiat. It is a perfect name for her as she looks like a little grey fish when she rolls happily on the ground. Her nickname is "Puq" or Puqpuq" and believe me I can sound pretty ridiculous saying that, but she loves it and starts purring every time I baby talk to her. She is almost 1 year old. She is a bilingual kitty! Unlike Ulysse, her purr is extremely loud. She sounds like a little machine that never stops and I have to kick her out of the bed so I can sleep, even if it is heartbreaking. She is the nicest and cutest cat and gives lots of love all the time. Ulysse is like her dad/brother/lover, I am not sure. She also likes dogs, but labs only. When it comes to other people though, she sometimes will act mean and just hiss, but she will tolerate some people, like Steve Hastings. Totally random, I do not quite understand that.—Faustine Mercer