The past month that passed has been too eventful for me to keep up with each event the day it happened, so I figured I would describe it all now, now that things have calmed down.
Its mid-June now, TomCat (I've grown used to his stage name by now) decided the circus' name should be the Nočna Mačke, which is actually Slovenian for "night cats". He decided (with the help of me) that a nickname for the circus would also be the Night Cats of Connecticut, which isn't too much of a drastic change to the name, just translated to English and given a few extra words. This was decided around late April.
In the very early days of May, TomCat put up ads advertising the circus and calling for performers... This is when the whole affair started.
At first, the circus didn't get any attention, as any advertisement starts off as; just a boring old everyday ad. But then a week later we got our first customer, or rather, customers.
These two people were actually young children, looking for a paying job to support their family. They were about ten years old, and their names were Jeremy and Samantha. The two kids both showed special talent with the tightrope and trapeze, so, TomCat hired them, gave them both a stage name, a costume, and told them to work with the janitors for the time being while TomCat hired others... I do admit, it was quite humorous seeing them look at the ringmaster in awe and disappointment when he told them to clean instead of practice.
However, I chimed in when they were about to start their chores and told them to practice after they were done. They asked me what my stage name was and, since I don't have one even right now, I answered accordingly. They told me theirs' were Kitten and Mitten. Samantha being Kitten and Jeremy being Mitten.
The next recruit was much older; a man by the name of Jerold Smith. He's a big man, not so much as in "overweight", but more in muscle mass. I was surprised to see he actually surpassed TomCat by a few inches; however, I was even more intrigued to see TomCat actually looked scared in the man's presence.
Jerold didn't seem talented at any activity TomCat suggested, so, when things seemed to be looking bleak for the poor fellow, he announced that he could work as the strongman but also do other tasks like work behind the scenes. He practically begged for a spot because he needed the money and I honestly felt bad for the poor man.
The ringmaster seemed touched by Mr Smith's insistence and decided to let him stay primarily because we needed as many people as we could get and he felt bad for Mr Smith.
The funniest part of this day was when Tom was trying to come up with a suitable nickname for the strongman. Whilst Tom was stammering over the words "big", "strong", and "cat, Mr Smith suddenly blurted out, "You know... if it helps, I can just be called FatCat,"- as if he were inspired by the young ringmaster's stage name. TomCat accepted the man's name and continued on with the same process as the twins: the signing of the contracts, the giving of the costume, and the instructions for maintenance. However, Mr Smith was told to keep the rides' mechanics in check, rather than clean. Mr Smith, newly dubbed "FatCat" was more than eager to oblige.
One day in the same week as FatCat, an entire unemployed group of friends interested in music showed up at the door. All I can say is, TomCat was more than overjoyed when I came into his office saying he had an entire band at his doorstep.
The friends played a few concertos for our small group as an audition and I could tell even by the first song, Tom had decided their stage names based on the styles they preferred to play, and only one with a name based on the instrument he played.
Their names are RagtimeCat, BluesCat, HonkeyTonkCat, ClassicCat, TangoCat, SalsaCat, HurdyGurdyCat, WaltzCat, StreetCat, and BallroomCat. I've been noticing lately a consistent pattern with TomCat's naming. It's making me wonder when he'll give someone a name without the word "cat" in it.
After the band played for us and were assigned names, they were actually permitted to choose their own costumes from home and have that as their costume. I was surprised to see that each friend had a similar outfit to their name. I was honestly impressed, to the point where I've started hanging around them more than the others in order to learn about them. Hurdy Gurdy and I are now good friends and Classic is even teaching me a few notes on the clarinet.
Near the middle of the month is where I like to call, "The Tamers' Craze." One Tuesday morning I awoke to a knock at the door and found that a woman was there with a lion.
She offered to be a lion tamer and said she was from another more "boring" circus. She claimed that TomCat's ad looked like a place she might enjoy staying at, even wording it, "This place has potential, so I'll take my chances." I concluded from this that she was a real cat person.
It was obvious TomCat took a really big liking to her; once she was dubbed BeastCat for her odd, wild connection she has with her lion, Hercules (Cliche' name, I think), TomCat seemed to be more protective of her than me. He seemed to be more friendly with her than anyone else in our small, yet growing circus.
But then again, if I were him, I would probably like her the way he does too. I mean, she has lustrous brown curls and large, green, doe eyes. She has a round face and a small chin; a perky nose and plush lips. This woman had a bodice more exquisite than her cat's mane. She was basically the equivalent of an angel from another realm in my eyes, but something much more in TomCat's. And even though I'm only eight and barely growing into my adolescent face; every time I look at BeastCat, I feel ashamed of myself for not being as beautiful as her and become jealous that she has Tom's attention and not me.
However, what makes me even more dismayed... or jealous (I don't know which); is that BeastCat flirts with TomCat as well, constantly complimenting his outfit, or telling him he's going to be a success with just his looks and personality alone, even sneaking a few teasing "views" for him by "accidentally" dropping her whip or other object and bending over in front of him to pick it up... of course, knowing TomCat, he stares eagerly.
The next four tamers came as a group of siblings, plus one friend. Their names became Cheetah, Jaguar, Lion, and BearCat. The tamers with the names of wild cats are the siblings, BearCat was the interested friend who came along just to see what things were like.
The siblings were named after a trait they displayed while auditioning. Cheetah was obviously very quick and precise with his movements; Jaguar was smooth, graceful, and more gentle with her movements, and Lion was aggressive and displayed leadership over the lion that he tamed. BearCat was similar to BeastCat, except he owned a bear, and decided to partner up with Jaguar to help train their quartet of bears. Unfortunately, Cheetah is among the group of maintenance men for now... there are no animals for him to train yet.
The last tamer, who ended The Tamers' Craze, was a horse trainer named Rachel Suarez, she's a simple horse owner who moved from Spain to America to look for a new opportunity when she saw the ad for the circus she remembered a talented stallion she had on her farm and decided to sign up. Because of her need to wander around the circus and explore (plus her long trip from Spain), her stage name is AdventureCat, and she was allowed ten well-trained horses on the circus.
TomCat actually had to search for unemployed men willing to take the position of a clown. Nobody on the streets wanted to be a circus clown (who would?), but after a few days of tiresome searching, TomCat eventually found a few desperate men who were down in the dumps and willing to do anything for money.
The ringmaster couldn't think of any clever clown names for the men, so he just kept them as their first name: Jerry, Terry, Mark, and Tim. At the moment right now in June, they're learning how to do their makeup from BeastCat and (on their own) perfecting their comedy, learning fun magic tricks, and working on other clown-y things.
This is all the performers May has brought the Nočna Mačke for right now, although I know there will be more in the near future. TomCat is proud of his accomplishments at the moment, and I'm proud of him, but I still have to remember that the circus hasn't even opened yet, and when it does, the success depends on how many people approve of it and come back.