Recently, Jenny’s sister Joyce and her husband Tomi purchased Virtute and I the most thoughtful gift, the critically acclaimed book How to Make Your Cat an Internet Celebrity: A Guide to Financial Freedom. We’ve been reading the book together and picking up some important strategies for improving our blog. Virtute has complained ad nauseum about some of the cheeky “cute cat” strategies that he calls “base and crass,” but we’ve both been able to agree on one piece of great advice from the book – we need a “year in review” post.
Since this month marks the one year anniversary of Diaries of a Cat Named Virtute, we thought this week is as good a time as any to do one. I asked Virtute if he could talk about some of the more profound moments for this year: the good times, the bad times, the music that touched him, the memories he made. He’s been pacing around the house all day and I wasn’t sure that this would actually come out before year end, but then he finally sat at the foot of my bed and began:
“I think I’ll remember 2014 as a year of intellectual and emotional development, one where I started to reflect upon home & belonging, about what it means to live in Toronto and all the small things that make this city so perplexing. It’s been a year where we’ve spent a long time talking about the meaning of friendship, community, family, and our responsibilities to each other.”
I asked him if he could reflect on some of the challenges he’s faced this year. “Well, it’s been a year full of them, hasn’t it?” he replied. “There was the deep pipe freeze in January, the famous battle against the hated Lunchbox, the time when Gumption went missing, my bladder obstruction, but there was nothing more challenging than the day that Jenny played Coldplay. I think we’ve mostly come out pretty good this year though.”
When prompted about his favourite music of 2014, he noted “I did take a peak at the Pitchfork Top 50 of 2014 and frankly I was disappointed that Taylor Swift’s 1989 did not rank #1. I mean #31 is still respectable, but only Pitchfork could dig up 30 albums that could possibly have made my booty shake less than T.Swizzle.” Then without prompting, he acknowledged that he already had a best album of 2015. I asked how that could be possible? He said, “Well if Drake keeps his promise and drops Views from the 6, then I can’t see any album being as incredible. It might be the album of the century!” Virtute is loyal to a fault.
Finally, I asked him what it was like to have such an open persona online. The mood turned a bit more serious and he flicked his tail in the air cautiously before imparting, “It’s definitely intimidating – I mean everyone now asks me about my love of etymology, they chastise me about my relationship with Gumption, and mostly I’m reminded of my responsibilities to my adoring fans.” He smiled and then asked, “Do you think we’ve completed the 5 major steps to achieve media dominance in this post?” before quickly replying, “you’re not going to include that last part are you?”
Onwards to 2015! Year of the Cat.
diaries of a cat named virtute 