Pardus Cum Hedo Accubabit*

 When we were thinking up names for M, I suggested Agnes.  I don't really like the name Agnes.  It is somehow (completely without reason, as far as I know) bound up in my mind with egg whites.  And I don't want to name my daughter after anything that reminds me of egg whites.  Which is why Meringue didn't get out of the gate.  But there was one compelling reason that Agnes seemed like a really good idea.  If Leo and she were to lie down in the same place, they would create an allegorical tableau based on the Latin translations of their names.

Accuracy, however, leads me to admit that in our current state, the actual quotation suits the situation somewhat better, allowing for a slight shift in meaning.  The passage from Isaiah under discussion actually says that the wolf and the lamb will live together (which sounds not only impractical but possibly immoral) and that the leopard will lie down with the kid.**

Which was precisely what happened last night.

 

I begin to think that Puck has decided to tolerate M.  I'm not leaving them alone together anytime soon, but he has stopped fleeing the room when he notices she's there, and has occasionally sniffed the top of her head. 

* See Isaiah 11:6.  Accubabit not only means "lie down with" but also "recline at table," a particularly frightening, though possibly apt meaning, given our particular application of the text.

** M is not, just to be clear, a goat.