Tonkinese and Tongans
November 7th 2007 21:16
My workmates absolutely hate cats and love to tease me about them. Not surprisingly, they are completely in the dark when it comes to cats so one day one of them was looking at the cat pictures I keep at my desk and asked, “What breed are these?”
“Tonkinese,” I said.
“Tonk…what?” Jeff asked.
“Tonkinese.”
“Tonk…Tongans?” he said and cracked up laughing.
Another time, we were discussing a documentary about the brutal murder of Sydney beauty queen, Anita Cobby. This happened back in 1986 when I was 14 and my workmates were 2 and 6 and since they had missed the documentary, they naturally had no idea what I was talking about, although the murder was in the news for weeks and is still considered one of Australia’s most sadistic murders.
“What’s a cobby anyway?” asked one of my workmates. (They know I want to be a writer so they are often quizzing me about the meanings of words.)
“It’s a term to describe a particular cat build,” I said. “As in cobby cat.”
“Oh, you mean a copycat.”
“No, a cobby cat.”
“Copycat.”
“Cobby cat,” I insisted.
“What’s a cobby cat?”
“It’s a type of cat that has short, stumpy legs.”
“Like a Siamese?”
“No! They have long, thin legs. Cobby cats are like this one,” I said, showing him a picture of a Persian Cat.
“If you don’t believe me, Google it,” I challenged him which is what I always say whenever he and his mate think I’m making stuff up. This always shuts them up.
“Tonkinese,” I said.
“Tonk…what?” Jeff asked.
“Tonkinese.”
“Tonk…Tongans?” he said and cracked up laughing.
Another time, we were discussing a documentary about the brutal murder of Sydney beauty queen, Anita Cobby. This happened back in 1986 when I was 14 and my workmates were 2 and 6 and since they had missed the documentary, they naturally had no idea what I was talking about, although the murder was in the news for weeks and is still considered one of Australia’s most sadistic murders.
“What’s a cobby anyway?” asked one of my workmates. (They know I want to be a writer so they are often quizzing me about the meanings of words.)
“It’s a term to describe a particular cat build,” I said. “As in cobby cat.”
“Oh, you mean a copycat.”
“No, a cobby cat.”
“Copycat.”
“Cobby cat,” I insisted.
“What’s a cobby cat?”
“It’s a type of cat that has short, stumpy legs.”
“Like a Siamese?”
“No! They have long, thin legs. Cobby cats are like this one,” I said, showing him a picture of a Persian Cat.
“If you don’t believe me, Google it,” I challenged him which is what I always say whenever he and his mate think I’m making stuff up. This always shuts them up.
Photo by Klarissae. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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Comment by AmyHuang
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But even so I also don't know much about cats, picked mine up by the side of the road when she was abandoned...
It's funny tho! Cobby Cat, copycat
Ahem, sorry I'll stop.