Category Archives: Pi

Today, March 14th or 3/14, is Pi Day for people who celebrate the wonderful constant that specifies the relationship between the circumference and the diameter of a perfect circle. But on Mud Bay, at least at my house, I’m honoring the Mud Cat (see photo) instead. His real name is also Pi.

Pi, the number, has an infinite number of digits without any repeating pattern. The most significant ones are 3.14, although a few million more have been calculated. Pi, the cat, cannot be reduced to a number, but he does provide an infinite amount of playfulness, companionship, and trouble in a pattern that tends to repeat itself.

So what did Pi do on his special day? He went out before dawn, got wet in the early morning rain, returned for breakfast, napped in the late morning, “helped” me clean the garage, and went on a second, longer patrol in the afternoon. Pretty much the usual. He’s in for the night now. Tomorrow will be another Pi Day too.

My cat has an Oscar connection. Last night, Life of Pi, adapted from a novel by Yann Martel, picked up four wins at the 85th Academy Awards ceremony. My cat is named for one of the characters in the novel.
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Pi, my 9-year-old Bengal (aka the Mud Cat), doesn’t have kitty health insurance. After last week’s illness, my credit card balance reflects that. Fortunately, he’s better now, but I’m left wondering if I can cover him under the insurance changes mandated by the Affordable Health Care Act. There should be a Medicat option.
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The Mud Cat (see photo) doesn’t have any Mexican heritage, but Cinco de Mayo is an important day for him—or at least his owner thinks it’s important. Today is his ninth birthday. For his age he’s still playful, curious, affectionate (sometimes), noisy, handsome, and, most important, healthy. He doesn’t stay outside as late as he did a few years ago, but to me that’s a good thing. In between naps he hasn’t slacked off a bit on his main job—patrolling the Mud Bay shoreline. Retirement is a few years off.

Before I did an Internet search on converting cat years to human years, I had always gone by the “multiply by 7” rule. That ratio would make us the same age when I have a birthday later this year. But the formula is more complicated as I learned on a number of web sites. Cats age 15 human years in their first year, 9 in their second, and 4 for each year after that. That makes him 52—the same age as a friend of mine who was also born on May 5th. He’s got me by a decade and it shows.