We decided she must have been lost, and started calling her “Perdita” in the assumption that this is Italian for “lost”. In fact, it's the Italian for “loss” (“lost” is (in the feminine) “perduta”). Yvonne didn't like that, nor the French “perdue”, so we decided that if Lilac could be named after her coat, so could this cat, and we called her “Fluffy”.
I'm not very experienced with long-haired cats. If you recognize what breed this cat might be, please contact me.
Note the implicit advertisements for AUUG in these photos.
Fluffy died on 29 November 2006, probably of an allergic reaction to a bee sting or similar. There's no reason to believe that a snake or spider was involved.