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Grimalkin

Grimalkin joined our family on September 23, 2006, at the tender age of six weeks. He was the largest of his litter and very social - was giving me kisses within minutes of when we arrived at his original owner's house. His mother was a calico and his father pure black - Grimalkin is a grey tabby and he seemed to fit exactly the name Grimalkin (or Greymalkin, as it's sometimes spelled). Read an explanation of the name below from Wikipedia.
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Grimalkin with Jay, 09-23-06

Click on photo for larger view

Grimalkin was the name of the witches' cat in Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Grimalkin is also Heathcliffe's cat in Wuthering Heights - read here:

"Nothing was stirring except a brindled, grey cat, which crept from the ashes, and saluted me with a querulous mew. Two benches, shaped in sections of a circle, nearly enclosed the hearth; on one of these I stretched myself, and Grimalkin mounted the other. "

A grimalkin is defined as an old or evil-looking she-cat. The term stems from gray (the color) plus malkin, an archaic word for cat. Scottish legend makes reference to the grimalkin as a faery cat which dwells in the highlands.

During the Middle ages, the name grimalkin - and cats in general - became associated with the devil and witchcraft. Women tried as witches in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were often accused of having a familiar, frequently a grimalkin.

The name has been re-used for various other things including a racing yacht which was a casualty in the 1979 Fastnet race storm.

 
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