Pet Sounds #77: The Truth About Thrill Jockey Publicity Director Mike Boyd’s Cats And Dogs
The eminently likable Mike Boyd isn’t just the Director of Publicity at arguably Chicago’s strongest indie-rock label, Thrill Jockey, founded in 1992. Nor is he only the vocalist/guitarist for heavy trio Stander. He also plays guitar at live performances by experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Oh, and he two cats and a dog to boot.
Drilling into the nuts and bolts, Nikola is a gray and white tabby, whereas Mugen is an orange tabby.
“They’re brothers, and they’ll be turning 14 this year,” Boyd told The Bad Penny. “My dog, Saoirse, is a pit bull, and I am unsure about her actual age. But. based on the estimates from when I rescued her, I would guess she’s about 9 years old.
Without further ado, let’s take a gander at Boyd’s three adorable amigos.
While I try to avoid asking about the origin of pet names, “Mugen” is such a cool handle, I’m obligated to ask how you landed on it. (And Saoirse must be inspired by actor Saoirse Ronan, no?)
Oh, I’m happy to talk origins on any of them! Mugen was named after one of the main characters in one of my all-time favorite shows, Samurai Champloo (directed by Shinichirō Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame). One of the rare anime dubs I enjoy even more than the sub, especially because Steve Blum voices Mugen (who also voices Spike in Bebop).
Technically, when I got Mugen, I named him Mugen Django (the latter part after Django Reinhardt, and Nikola Jin [pronounced “jeen”]), after Nikola Tesla. This was before I knew about Musk and that bullshit. Jin is the other main character in Samurai Champloo. Their duality as cats really fit the vibe of those duality of characters, and my roommate at the time and I struggled to figured out which name should go where, so we did first and middle names!
Saoirse is not named after Saoirse Ronan per se, but because my partner and I at the time of her adoption both have Irish heritage. We were struggling with finding a name that would fit until we stumbled on the Irish name Saoirse which means freedom, and felt very fitting for a rescue pup so full of life despite coming from very rough circumstances. I still have to spell it and pronounce it multiple times for every vet and new person that meets her. It’s worth it, though!
Do you chalk up your cats’ longevity to their genetics, diet, exercise or a combination of one or more of those elements?
I honestly think I’m very lucky in their genetics being really good. I have had a number of tragic pet circumstances in my lifetime, and Nikky and Mu have been the most blessed fellas their whole life, just solid most of the way through. I only just started feeding them some more special food to help curb any symptoms of urinary issues, which very commonly show up in male cats, especially as they age.
But they’ve eaten pretty much the same boring dry food and done all the same things for most of their lives! Nikola had a cold when I first got him, so we had to take extra care and clear out his sinuses regularly by keeping him in the bathroom while we ran hot showers. But he got over that just fine. He’s slightly more runt-y than Mugen, perhaps because of that cold, but otherwise they’re fine!
Obviously this is not to imply that folks with sick pets aren’t doing their darndest for them, of course, but I do think just general quality of life and attention/socialization make a big impact. My cats have always grown up in really friendly, social environments.
When I got these two, I already had two cats (long story), and always had friends and roommates around, so they got very accustomed to being friendly with people and other cats. I make a point to give them a fair amount of attention and build specific bonds with them, and I think that’s why one of my previous cats, William, lived as long as 19.
In your estimation, do sibling cats – or cats of the same age – roughhouse more or less than unrelated cats or ones who differ significantly in age?
Hmm, sort of a mixed bag! I think it depends on how they’re bonded. As mentioned previously, I had two cats already when I got Nikola and Mugen. I had gotten William (brown tabby) and Elliot (black Bombay) together in 2010 with some roommates, and despite them being 8 and 1.5 years old respectively, they developed a very playful and then cuddly rapport. They were such different cats when I adopted them, but they really latched onto each other.
That lasted after Nikola and Mugen entered the picture, as well as when my now-ex-partner moved in with me with her two cats, Leo and Wolfie. All three pairs of those cats definitely had their strongest bond in their pair, but they had some cross-pollination for sure. But I would say Nikola and Mugen pestered William and Elliot more than they played with them on the same level.
What are the inter-species (?) dynamics like between two cats and a dog? Do Nikola and Mugen tease or try to get a rise out of Saoirse? How does she react?
If anything, it’s actually the opposite! Mugen used to be really scared of dogs, which was funny because he always postured as some alpha with the cats when it came to trying to get food, but he’s gotten used to them and Saoirse. They both sleep on my bed with me every night, Saoirse by my feet and Mugen on one of my pillows. Saoirse gets really excited and tries to play with them sometimes, and Mugen has zero tolerance for that, but Nikola will just look at her and not budge. It’s funny, he’s maybe one-eighth her size, if that, and he just doesn’t budge sometimes and will swat her away. Thankfully, she’s very deferential to other animals and people, so she takes the hint and backs off.
Which one loves you more? Or, if that’s too uncomfortable a question, which pet is more affectionate or needy or loving?
I guess I could say they all love me in very different ways. Mugen is transactional sometimes in that he is mostly looking for someone warm to cuddle with/on top of, and maybe to get some pets. I always say if you sit still for more than 10 minutes in my house, Mugen will find you. But he needs to choose it, he doesn’t like being picked up or plunked anywhere.
Nikola is very doting in his own way while being coy about it. He will come up and demand pets, but he likes them a certain way, and when he’s had his fill, he’s off to explore. He occasionally cuddles too, but that feels rarer. I have noticed though, whenever someone in the house is upset, crying or hurt, he shows up. Even when Saoirse is panicking about fireworks, it seems like Nikola shows up to check in on her.
Saoirse is definitely pretty obsessed with me. She follows me most places I go to in the house, particularly if I’m going to be in a new room for longer than a minute. She only avoids the basement sometimes because she’s had some trouble with her legs (a good number of surgeries) so she doesn’t love going up and down stairs, and also she doesn’t like being too near when I play guitar or drums. Otherwise, she’s following me, and if I let her, she will lick my face until my skin starts to wear red.
What’s the most amusing anecdote you can recall involving at least one of the pets?
Hard to feel like one stands above the rest! I once taught Mugen how to play fetch with my hair ties and milk jug rings, which he still might do on occasion with enough coaxing. I think the pet story I have that fits both this and the below best is when my old cat William escaped, ran away from home when my friend was house sitting over Christmas. She was mortified and I spent weeks looking for him, setting traps outside, etc. This was obviously just the start of winter but thankfully a very very mild one. Still I worried and mourned William lost for good.
One day the following June, my old roommate Joe who had picked William at the Animal Care and Control when we initially got him was in town visiting and recording with me. We went out for dinner after a day of recording and as we pulled up to the end of my block, Joe points to the corner and says, “That’s William.” I threw the car in park and we ran out to see if we could catch him. We had him for a moment and then he slipped through our fingers. It was heart-wrenching but I knew he was alive and OK at least.
The building we had spotted him outside of often had cats milling about their property, and they left out big troughs of cat food in their yard and on the sidewalk. So I decided to leave his missing poster in their mailbox. The next day I got a call from a strange number and it was the people in that house who said they thought they had William in their house. It was a miracle! They refused to let me into the house to get him, but handed him to me at the front door. However, this time I held on with every ounce of strength I could (without hurting the poor fella).
We got him home and cleaned up and then were stunned thinking about how, in the time he’d been gone, we adopted Nikola and Mugen as kittens, and now we just had four cats. As a bonus, I later found out those people wouldn’t let me into their building because they were hoarders and they had a colony of cats living in and around their house, an estimated 30 to 40 cats at some point. Their house was condemned and demolished a few years after that. I’m grateful they were there when they were, in a way. William and I had nearly 10 more solid years together before he passed. (This was the aforementioned “long story” I mentioned, hah.)
What was the scariest or most nerve-racking anecdote you can recall involving at least one of the pets?
Thankfully not too many with the cats. I think their only close calls as indoor cats were times they almost got out of the house, and would inevitably been horribly lost and impossible to find. They get very scared when they get outside.
However, this past autumn, Saoirse had a big health scare where we discovered she seemed to have developed a gastrointestinal condition called protein-losing enteropathy. She lost a lot of weight and muscle mass. and I thought it was maybe the end. But thanks to some great doctors and effective medication, she has recovered a great deal and is back to acting like her normal self. I wouldn’t wish this stress on my worst enemy.
Do they all sleep in the same area together, most likely to keep warm?
As mentioned above, two-thirds of them sleep with me. Occasionally Nikola joins us on the bed, but usually at the edge/corner, and then he’s off somewhere else. He’ll sleep on me for warmth here and there when I’m hanging around the living room or when the bed is less crowded.
If a genie granted you one wish – that one of your pets could respond to a question of yours – which pet would it, what question would you pose and how would you hope they respond?
Hmm … I think it would be Nikola! He’s the most endlessly curious, and I think I would just ask him what he wants to know most. I can’t say how I’d hope for him to respond, but I would love to help feed or sate his curiosity even more if I could!
Do all dogs go to heaven? How about cats?
I’d say they all belong in there if I believed in any strict kind of heaven. I don’t! But I’d like to think there’s something about the positive forces of the cosmos holding space for them when they cross that ol’ rainbow bridge.
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