Names for cats, dogs, fish, iguanas, whatever

[Frannie]

I was reading Whammo's thread about his cat, Maxwell, but thought it inappropriate to go off on a tangent there. (I'll continue to send the best vibes I can muster for Maxwell.)

As I mentioned in Whammo's thread, I held my 16 year old cat, Bert as he was put to sleep a little over three years ago after he had become very ill and had only a few days to live. This post isn't about his death though; it's about his name. (Anyway, I focus on his life, cuz it was a great 16 years. :)) A couple of years after adopting Bert, we bought a lovely Siamese and named him Ernie. (Yep, it was a Sesame Street theme.) When Bert left us, Ernie just wasn't himself. A month or two later, we bought another Siamese.

Well, we had to come up with a name for our new kitten. The family wanted to stick with the Sesame Street theme, but I had other ideas, namely that I wanted to name him after an artist. Then it came to me!!! Oscar!!! That satisfied the goofball family and they had no idea -- until I filled them in a week or two later -- that Oscar was named after Oscar Claude Monet and not after Oscar the Grouch. I'm brilliant. ;)

So, does anyone else have any pet-naming tales? (HEY! I made a pun and didn't even realize it until after previewing my reply! I really am brilliant!)

[Jack Batty]

My dog's name is Daisy-Bob.
When we decided to get a dog, I was heart-set on getting a male dog just so I could name him Bob. I was hoping for a bull-dog. I just thought that was too cool. A bull-dog named Bob.
Then we found her. That little angelic shaggy drooling face begging us to take her home.
We came up with her name in the car on the way back from the pound in something akin to an epiphony(sp?).
"How about Daisy?"
"Perfect!"
"But, what about 'Bob'?"
The perfect solution - Bob can be her middle name.
Voila - the (symbolic) birth of Daisy-Bob.

[That Girl]

I think George W Bush's dog is named Dog so he won't forget it.

I had two turtles once, and a bunny, but they didn't get names. We were never close.

Cats though. I had a calico named Quilt, because some of the spots were squarish.

[silent_rob]

When we got our dog from the shelter, I had a heck of a time naming him. I went through all of the stereotypical names, and then was trying to get creative. However, nothing was coming, so I sat down to watch some T.V. Playing was a show called Doghouse. It was about a person whose mind got switched with a dog's right before he died. Thus the dog (uncle) was now living with his family in his dog form. He used to be a cop, so he got the family into some crazy trouble. Anyway, the dog in the show was a St. Bernard. Well we had gotten an Akita, but by some weird coincidence it had the exact same colouring as the St. Bernard on the show. Hence he was named "Digby." Which was apparently very apt, because he loves to dig up gardens, flower beds, etc.

[Silver Fire]

I used to have a cat named Skidders. (All white cat except brown on her tail. Party with drunk fellows, skid marks, blah blah.) The last cat I had (::sniff:: I still haven't found her) was named Kitty because I couldn't think of an appropriate name for her.

[Revedge]

When I got my first dog, he was just a tiny puppy. He would baarely fit in the palm of my hand. (I was in the fourth grade!) I was haveing a terrible time coming up with a name until one day we were playing and he started barking. This tiny little squeeky bark, but he wasbeing soooooo fierce. I got to laughing and told my dad that "He's so fierce, we need to call him Fang!" It stuck. And of course he grew up to be forty pounds of very muscled dog. His bark grew up too! But, he was the gentlest of dogs. I was the only person he ever bit and that was when we would play and wrestle. If a stranger came on to our yard he would bark like the devil until they got close then he would try to lick them to death. He was everybody's friend.

The nicest of dogs with the meanest of names.

I was always a little weird.

[BjorkBoy]

My friend Megan named her cat the most brilliant name for a cat that I'd ever heard: Airport.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "What kind of name is that for a cat?" Just keep repeating it to yourself. It'll come. Try saying things you would normally say to a cat, but callling the hypothetical cat Airport. Pretty soon you'll realize how amazingly feline airport is, and how damn cool.

They also have a goldfish named "Pharmacy." They're visual artists; mabye that explains it. ;)

[FreakFreely]

I once had a rat named Gumbah and a rat named Munch. Recently my brother got a cat, and couldn't think of a name. So I named him instead: Moot!

[The Asbestos Mango]

I'm mostly a bird person.
My theory is, the smaller the pet, the larger and more grandiose the name should be.

I've had a parakeet named Jones the Rock and Roll Parakeet, one named Sparks Powderflash. The last parakeet I had, which I had to give away before I moved to Vegas, was named Grand Moff Tarkin, Governor of Imperial Outlands. My cockatiel is Parker Charles Yardbird.

[Anniz]

My dogs name, Jack,
is after Jack Kerouac.

[ricepad]

Our current dog, a German Shepherd/Doberman mix (we think), is Annie, as in Little Orphan. We found her when she was about 6-7 weeks old, and she'd been crying and howling up a storm. Another orphan we took in was Heidi, who is now living with my cousin.

[Chronos]

Hmm... "Get off the couch, Airport"... "Don't shred the curtains, Airport"... "You take that dead sparrow right back outside and eat it yourself, Airport"... I'm not seeing it, BjorkBoy.

The cats currently cohabiting with my Mom are Spunky (born with deformed hind legs, but still does everything the other cats do, better, and would rather hunt than be fed), Diamond Li'l (grey with a diamond-shaped white mark on her face), Origami (nobody's sure why, but we just call her "baby" anyway), and Oliver (after Twist; he begs). The dog is named Arfur T. Bowser, or just Bowser for short.

[irish_bill]

Some folks down the road from me had a beeeg black tom cat when I was younger, they called him Snowball. That f****r was pretty mean.
There's a lot of dogs here called Freeway, after the tv show (Hart to Hart).
The next dog that I get will have a proper christian name, like Roger or perhaps Derek.

like the song says:
Airport, whooo, ooooo.

[SkinnyGuy]

About ten years ago my parents were given a Pekinese. The dog had been male once (neutered when he was very young), and as if that hadn't been enough was given the name Daisy. My brother and I took offense at this great injustice, and decided to name him Wodan (Germanised name for Odin) to make up for the insults. Turned out that, given the dog's disposition and attitude, we should have named him Satan. No Rottweiler or Saint Bernard was safe when Wodan roamed the streets. Still miss the little guy.
Some years later my parents got a dog that kind of resembled a King Charles Spaniel. She also looked like a Gremlin. So we named her Gizmo.

My sister had a couple cats named Big Mac and Happy Meal. She also had a 400-pound pig she named after her sister-in-law. Of the two the pig was the looker.

[irish_bill]

Originally posted by SkinnyGuy
She also had a 400-pound pig she named after her sister-in-law. Of the two the pig was the looker.


Hey Skinny,
You dont have a picture of the pig, do you?

Welcome to the board.

[Frannie]

Originally posted by SkinnyGuy
She also had a 400-pound pig she named after her sister-in-law. Of the two the pig was the looker.

That truly is much too funny! It makes me wanna get a pet pig. I wouldn't name it after any of my sisters-in-law, but I'm sure I could find an appropriate namesake.

I don't get the "Airport" thing. Huh? "Look, Airport -- I cleaned your litter! Does Airport want his tummy rubbed? Awwwwwwww What a loud purr, Airport! Hey, Airport? Get down off the counter before I get the squirtgun! Keep your claws off those speakers, Airport! Airport? I see a spider; will you kindly get over here and eat it? Airport! Get outta my bedroom, you hairy thing!"

I'll have you know that Oscar and Ernie are giving me the strangest looks at the moment. They're probably thinking, "Mom really is nuts! Why is she talking to an invisible cat named Airport?

Oh, and welcome to the board, Skinny Guy.

[Athena]

I have an orange tabby I got when I was in college. I was desparate to have a Russian Blue, but such hi-falutin' cats were waaay out of reach to a poor college student. So I got the tabby from the pound, and gave him a good Russian name - Arkady. 'Course, by now, everyone just calls him Ardy.

I've had several goldfish named "Purina".

When my ex and I got a puppy, he thought that she looked like a dog sled dog, you know, like the mushers have. He suggested naming her "Mush." I said "That's a stupid name for a dog!" He said, "Well, we can go with the Russian theme you started with Ardy, and call her Mushka." I said, "That's even stupider." We called her Mushka until 5 years later, my ex managed to allow her to play in the middle of a highway and she was no more...

[Phobos]

Originally posted by agisofia
parakeet named...Sparks Powderflash

brilliant!

[hflathead]

Lucky to be Alive. This cat was born in the winter in Ohio and the mother(a stray) died the day after Lucky was born. Had to send my then 7 year old daughter under the cabin to pull out the 2 kittens. Runt, the smallest, died within the week, but Lucky hung on. For the last 10 years, Lucky has used up more than her share of 9 lives, living up to her name.
later, Tom

[Tally-Ho]

Our first cat, Oreo, was named for his coloring. He's a tuxedo cat so he's mostly black with a wide white stripe running from his nose all the way down his belly. That's his "cream filling". Before his month long "adventure" (he disappeared) we had been calling him "Double-stuffed" since he was getting plump. Since his return, that nickname doesn't fit anymore since he lost 3 lbs.

Our kitten, Taz, is also a tuxedo but he was named for his temperment. His favorite toys are these puffballs of rabbit fur. He goes psycho over these things and growls menacingly if you try to take in away from him. One night, before he'd been named, I was trying to get one of the toys away from him and called him a little devil. My husband, huge Loony Tunes fan, suddenly blurted out "especially rabbits". When I asked what he meant he reminded me of the cartoon where Bugs is reading a list of what Tazmanian Devils like to eat and rabbit was the last item on the list. Since the kitten was so psycho over rabbit fur toys, he was dubbed Taz that very night.

[Tymp]

Once upon a time, there was a Persian named Buttercup. This is an exceptionally silly name for a cat. When I adopted it, though, it had been living with that name for too long and I did not feel justified in renaming it. For more than two years, I would not address the cat by name because I couldn’t bring myself to say it without sneering.

This cat was a happy cat that grew to ridiculous proportions in very short order. As she got bigger (more than 24lbs!!!), I was able to call her by name. Well, not exactly. I took to calling her Butterball on occasion, which seemed to amuse the neighborhood kids. After a while, this morphed into Butter, which is a great name for a cat. However, that name did not stick (ha!), and so, she became Buttercat. This is the first time I’ve tried to explain that poor cat’s name. In the past, I’ve always just ignored the confused looks from people when I would call to her.

When I was a kid, I had a pair of gerbils named Yin and Yang. After nearly three years of living in harmony, Yin murdered Yang, consumed his feet and bowels and left the rest of his remains strewn about the bloody cage. Such is the relationship of my Yin and Yang. Sad.

There’ve been many pets in my life. Most of them have had really cool names (like the iguana named Shrapnel, but there are few good stories about the naming process.

[Edwardina]

I have a friend who breeds Rottweilers, and I just love some of the names he's come up with. His biggest breeding male is named Ninja, and he is often bred with a sweet-tempered female named Geisha. They produced a son who became the breeder's personal pet and favorite: Gypsy.

Another friend adopted a huge white dog that was believed to be part wolf. She, being the romantic she is, named him Dragon. After a while though, the family gave him a nickname which unfortunately stuck and became his full-time sobriquet: Barf. It was what he did whenever they put him in the car.

In our family, we have had many, many, many cats. Some of the names we've used over the years: Ophelia, Amelia, Soot, Bubba, Hamlet (who became known as Hammy Hambone), Sweet Alice, Galoot, Tomfoolery, Scarlett (as in O'Hara, and boy, did she play the part), and Lady Violet Grayfoot. We've also had a fish named Cool Fish (well, he was), and dogs named Oliver, Palomine (Pal O'Mine), and Little Feat (after the band), whom my grandfather would get upset with and stomp around the yard yelling, "Foot! Damn it, Foot! Get back here!" whenever he dug up the garden, which was a lot. My grandfather comes from the Fido-Spot-Rover school of naming dogs and couldn't quite come to grips with my mother's Bohemian dog-naming habits.

Last, but not least, my dad once had a cat named Rasputin. He's something of a legend when it comes to naming things. The story is when I was born, they waited ten days past the legal limit before registering my name because my dad got to pick it and, as he said, "you've got to get to know a critter before you can name it." Pretty cool, eh?

[Michi]

My cat Annie is named after Little Orphan Annie. She was the first kitten I ever raised from a newborn. Someone found her abandoned in some grass, her unbilical cord still attached, and she was covered in ant bites. I had never even seen a kitten that small before, but the second I saw her, I was in love. She is still a very small cat but she rules the house and all the larger cats run from her.

I have another cat named Angel. He came into my life shortly after my cat Sunshine died. I was still feeling very depressed over the loss of my baby, when a lady came into the hospital with a cat she found squashed on the road. He had head trauma and one of his rear legs was out of its socket, but we couldn't bring ourselves to put him to sleep. He was bloody and underweight, but we could tell he was a beautiful cat (long, silky white fur, big blue eyes, pink nose). We were able to nurse him back to health with minimal care. And he was so sweet...he never complained the whole time we were treating him. He was so affectionate and loved to be petted. Although his face was swollen and distorted, he would purr and purr and make bread with his feet. I would sit near his cage and hold him, and I thought, "This cat is as sweet as an angel." And he was able to make me smile despite the fact that I was still mourning over Sunshine. So...I ended up taking my sweet Angel home and now he is healthy and robust and absolutely gorgeous.

Then there is Happy...Happy came to me after my cat Domino died. When I first met Happy, he was a scrawny, ugly little kitten cowering in the back of his carrier. But as soon as I got him home and opened the carrier, Angel walked over to him and took him under his wing. They bonded immediately and instead of a terrifed kitten I had a happy, playful ball of energy. Of course I had to name him Happy after that. Now Happy is 13 pounds and a little more sedate than he was when he was a baby, but he still loves Angel very much.

Hootie was left at my clinic by a client who did not want to be responsible for her care. She was already named Kufta, but once we took ownership of her we changed her name to Hootie because she looks exactly like an owl.

Last is Cherokee, who's name I pulled out of left field and has no meaning behind it what so ever.

And those are my kitty babies. :)

[DVous Means]

I remember seeing a lifestyle show on TV a few years ago, where the celebrity guest spot was given over to a huge lump of slobbering, sweet-natured dog called Fugly.

When the somewhat naive reporter asked as to the origin of the name, the dog's owner replied, "Isn't it obvious?"

Suffice to say, the dog was never going to win any beauty contests.

[JimmyNipples]

Our latest cat is named Snickers

Cats I've named in the past:

Sydney

Norm From the Planet Dave

Fran

My favorite cat of all time Stanton Van Horn

I was a security guard 20 yrs ago. I met this mentally ill fellow in the City's Park. Giant marshmellow men were trying to eat his brain, Sunflowers new his most secret thoughts, his pants could track KGB agents....that kind of thing. I spent several hours talking with this man.


I named my cat after him.

[blokeychap]

The first pet my family ever got was a cat that we lured to us from the wild with a bowl of milk. We never formally named this cat but after it had kittens we named her 'Mammy Cat'.
Eventually these kittens had kittens and Mammy Cat became 'Granny Cat'. Before we could name her 'Great-granny Cat' she disappeared. I miss that cat.
We never named all our cats (we had 24 at one stage - they just would not stop breeding) but names I do remember are Oscar (it was a wild cat - get it?) and the intellectual Fluffy

[lunapark]

Originally posted by Tymp

When I was a kid, I had a pair of gerbils named Yin and Yang. After nearly three years of living in harmony, Yin murdered Yang, consumed his feet and bowels and left the rest of his remains strewn about the bloody cage. Such is the relationship of my Yin and Yang. Sad.

LMAO. Eeeewwwww gross.

I named my first cat Ivy, so when i got a second cat, i wanted to keep with a theme. So she is named Cypress. Some people think that's a wierd name, but i think it's cute. It fits her well as she is a very feminine, ladylike cat.

[tomndebb]

My wife's earliest cat was Lacey after a great-aunt.
Her next cat was Orrin ('cause my wife liked the name.) I protested that Orrin was not a good name for a female cat. My wife, the farmer, assured me Orrin was male.

We kept two of Orrin's kittens, naming the one that looked like a Sealpoint Himalayan Smudge for the "smudge" of coloring on his nose when he was a kitten and the other (a buff tabby like his mother) Skitter because he skittered away from anything new. (I identified the sex of the kittens and we gave away the females.)

After Orrin had died, when my wife insisted on bringing home a little orange tabby Manx kitten, it was quite fierce around the three older cats, and so was named Keegan, which is reportedly Celtic for "small and fierce."
(Smudge actually "adopted" Keegan as Keegan grew up and would play with Keegan and teach him to hunt.)

After Smudge disappeared, the barn where my wife rides had a "kitten clean-out" and we wound up with two calicoes--Frances and Eleanor. Francis developed a stomach disease and died, so at the next barn-cat cleaning, we wound up with two more gray tabbies, Samson and Otis. Otis ran away and was adopted by a family down the street, so we now have the mammoth Keegan (whose size and demeanor are no longer small and fierce), Eleanor, and Samson.

Meanwhile, we have had a Bearded Dragon who was named Chrysophylax after a Tolkien story, a pair of Geckoes named Fatima[b] and [b]Scheherezade because they come from the Arab/Persian part of the world, a Royal (or Ball) Python named Shango after a king in the part of Africa where his ancestors lived, a Kenyan Sand Boa named Thika, and a mean, virulent, nasty, misanthropic, irritable, irascible Green Iguana named Lioth from the Anne McCaffrey novel because my wife was still in "dragon naming" mode when she brought the evil critter home.

Our first Boxer was named Emma which comes from the Germanic for "nurse"--and she made an excellent nurse and child-watcher. Our current Boxer came with the name Chloe which we did not bother to change.

The two tree frogs, two anoles, assorted fish, feeder mice, and feeder crickets do not have names. The current horse is named Reggae for reasons I have not discovered.

[MamaHen]

Just this week my husband and I adopted a 6 month old cat from an animal shelter. We've been thinking about it for months since we have kids we wanted to make sure they were ready for a pet first. I've been running names through my head trying to find the cutest name for a cat and could think of nothing at all. Well, I go in, pick out this homely clumsy little black cat and come out to my husband who is waiting with the kids in the car. And right out of the blue I said "This is Miss Cleopatra Kitty". We're calling her Miss Cleo for short.
In the past I've had cats with the names Fat Cat, Spawn From Hell, Thelma, Louise, Nicodemus, Nona and Gypsy. Our dogs names included Bookie, Harvey and Binkie, Binkie was originally named Jynx but she responded better to being baby talked and Binkie came off calling her Jynkie.

[Tymp]

Originally posted by tomndebb
. . .a mean, virulent, nasty, misanthropic, irritable, irascible Green Iguana. . .
As if there were some other kind of Green Iguana. Really, Tom, I think “Iguana” implies every adjective that you have selected, along with a few others.

How was Chrysophylax? Would you ever recommend that someone else take in a Beardy? I’ve been giving it some thought.

[idiotboy]

We named our cats after artists, as well, Frannie!

My fiancee's cat is a large orange tabby named Pablo Picasso and my cat is a black half-siamese named Gustav Klimt (Pico n' Gus for short) :D

[Tymp]

idiotboy,

The second “_______” in your sig is a wee bit long and causes the need for horizontal scrolling. Could you shorten that by just a bit?

[Jack Batty]

Other Pet Name Stories from the Files of Jack Batty . . .

I've had two cats named Kitty. The first one got the name because my roommate and I were a couple of stoners and too lazy to actually think of a name. But the second Kitty was already named Kitty when I got her. I got her at a shelter. She came in with another cat, they were Kitty the First, and Kitty the Second, respectively. And offically. So Kitty it was, with out the title. At least it was easy to remember.

In college I had two hamsters, originally I believe their names were Laverne and Shirley. But they got evicted from the dorms and my mother agreed to take care of them for me. Laverne, should have been called Steve McQueen because the little bastard would execute a great escape every night. At one point, my mother told me, "If that little f**ker gets out again, I swear to God, it's lunchmeat." Of course it did get out again, so keeping my mother to her word, she was re-named Lunchmeat. Like Tymp's gerbils, these hamsters seemed to be particularly bent on canabalism as well. But Lunchmeat did the eating.

[El Infidel]

had a lizard named algernon, i luved watchng him down crickets. but he's dead now...:(
a black named zahin (sa - EEN) which means black in i forget what language...my mom named him. he brought us dead birds all the time and beat up other cats. he was sweet...
a turtle named woka woka, but my uncle stepped on him. i saw the corpse, it was grotesque, still gives me chills to think about it.
and a lorikeet named tiki bird, he was beautiful, but i couldn't give him the attention he needed, so i gave him away to a bird enthusiast. they're very intelligent and need loads of attention and playtime.
i want a killy cat now, but my roomates dog (dahdi) is such a pain in the ass. i'm thinking siouxsie sue will be my next killy's name...

[idiotboy]

D'oh! Sorry about that...I'm oblivious to horizontal scrolling due to my 21 inch monitor! :D Is it better now?

[FairyChatMom]

There was rarely any logic in our pet naming:
Great Dane named Herschel
Himalayan named Wendell
A pair of kittens named Daryl and Daryl
Terrier named Freeway
Dalmatian named Pixel
Border collie named Bernie

I wanted to call the dalmatian Rorschach, but I didn't want to spend all my time explaining it... bad enough I have to explain "Pixel" to people

[tomndebb]

Chrys was great. In warm weather he had the run of the house (we'd close off the bedrooms and basement so that he wouldn't go hole up somewhere) and he'd sit in an eastern window in the morning and move to a western window in the afternoon (crawling down to do his lizardcicle imitation in some nook or cranny if the nights got cool).

In the cool months he stayed in his tank with the heater.

For being a rather small reptile, with few facial muscles, he had a lot of personality. When he wanted to be fed, he would greet us in full "display" mode with his beard a dark black. On summer weekends, we'd put him outside on a lizard leash while we did yard work. He would hang out and bask unless he saw a bumble bee. He loved to snatch them out of the air (apparently without being stung). I came home one day when he had been out without being fed for a while to find him up on his back legs with his nose pressed against the cricket cage.

My wife is the animal lover, but I have been tmpted to pick up another dragon, myself.
He was a bit lazy when hunting. We'd pull the basking rock and water out of his tank and thrown in some crickets. He would sit in the middle of the tank as the crickets paraded around the perimeter, snatching any that got too close to him (and ignoring the ones that climbed up on his head or tail). He did hunt them down when he was really hungry and I don't know whether his "lazy" approach was typical of dragons or peculiar to him.

The closest he came to "creating" a problem was when we brought the iguana home. We did not know that they were incompatible (where would an Australian desert lizard and a Central American jungle lizard develop any antipathy?), so we had a couple of instances where 18 inch Chrys chased 37 inch Lioth out of a room with much hissing and hurt feelings. We soon learned to keep them in separate areas, because Chrys would seek out Lioth to assault her. (No physical attacks, just a lot of threats and inflation.) I also don't know whether Lioth would run now that she has been in the house over a year and has reached 48 inches.

I have seen dragons caged with other lizards, but I guess you ought to figure out which ones are compatible, first.

Unfortunately, when Emma died we initially wound up with two rescued boxers. The older one was pretty aggressive in her play and I think she smashed him with her paw. Chrys died of an internal infection of "unknown origin."

[filthy]

I keep several snakes. Probably the best and most aptly named one is a Canebrake Rattlesnake called 'Pipe Bomb'.

Other snake names: Short Fuse, Copenhagen, Sweet Lucky, Big Nose Kate, Trebuchet, Society Red, and I have a new one that hasn't told me who she is yet.

Also, I'm afflicted with a cat named, you guessed it: 'Cat' (sometimes followed by: 'Damnit!').

[matt_mcl]

Ok, gather round. When I was a mere sprout (may even have been before I was born, I'm not sure) my family had a cat named Bert (a female, incidentally). Bert died, and was succeeded by Garbanzo, who later ran away and was succeeded by Rosie.

Rosie (with her nicknames, Rosarita and Ree-ree) was so named because Mom didn't like the name she had borne previously, Rascal. I unilaterally decided that Rosie's full name was Rosarita Dolores la Reina de los Gatos. She is an immense and ancient grey-and-white longhaired cat, who is, according to my calculations, slightly older than my brother Theo.

In the other pets department, I later had a string of fish, whose names I forget except that two of them were named Talbot and Melissa, after Bert's goldfish on Sesame Street.

I also had a succession of budgies. The first one, a green one, was sitting in my room right after we'd got him home, and I referred to him in code as Harold, so that Theo wouldn't know whom I was talking about. The name stuck.

After my dad left the cage door open and Harold met an unfortunate end as a Rosie-hors-d'oeuvre, we continued the English monarchy theme with Victoria, a blue and white budgie who died of eggbinding; William and Mary, blue and yellow the latter of whom died of unknown causes, and was replaced by Elizabeth, who after just one day freaked out, bent the cage bars and escaped, meeting the same fate as Harold. William accompanied us all the way to Montreal, but died shortly afterwards. We got another two budgies named Ferdinand and Miranda, but decided we didn't want them in the kitchen and returned them.

Back in Winnipeg, in Grade Seven I did an experiment with rats in a maze (how original); the test subjects were named Clarinda and Vanessa, for "control" and "variable". Vanessa had apparently been pregnant when we bought her, and a few weeks into the experiment, we ended up with five new rats: Maurice and Garfield (named in a fit of irony), and California, Malta, and Australia (named after the markings on their backs). Advice: Rats can make lovely pets, provided they're female. Maurice and Garfield hit puberty and began to stink, and Malta and Australia died, so the rats went back to the pet store.

Sometime in this, my brother had a large, nocturnal, unfriendly hamster, whose name I forget. It was dead for about a week before we realized it.

Anyway, I'm currently sharing my living space with a kitten named Zazou, which is the French word for "hepcat," specifically a subculture of disaffected youth in the 1940s who frequented jazz bars in Paris and wore zoot suits. It was a close race for this name between Zazou, Cassandra (after the frustrated priestess of Troy), and Schrödinger (which ought not to need further explanation).

*calls Zazou over, talks in syrupy voice* Yeeeeeees! Who's an evil little monster demon kitty? Is it youuuuuuu? Is it youuuuuuu? Yeees it iiiiiis! Nummanummanumma!

[Tymp]

Thanks, Tom. That’s the kind of first hand herp review I was looking for. I’ve heard good things about beardies, but mostly from rabid lizard lovers who can’t be trusted to give unbiased information. Although you might be one of those rabid lizard lovers, you seem to be pretty well balanced and sensible so I respect your opinion a lot.

He would hang out and bask unless he saw a bumblebee. He loved to snatch them out of the air (apparently without being stung).
Actually, he probably was stung. Beardies are immune to most insect venom. Supposedly, funnel web spiders are part of their regular diet in Australia. In comparison, your average bee sting isn’t much for a beardy to worry about.

idiotboy, that’s much better. Thanks for looking out for us laptop users.

[Lowellster]

I have a damnation... err, dalmatian... that I wanted to name "Spot", but a good friend of mine said she wouldn't allow it unless it was short for "G-Spot". I assigned her the task of coming up with a better name, and he came to be known as "Cirrhosis" because he is spotty and liver (official dalmatian jargan for "brown") in color. If I'd known how dense he was going to grow up to be, I would have named him "Einstein" (cool dog, just not the brightest bulb on the tree).

Used to have two cats cleverly named "Rosencrantz" and "Guildenstern". I always thought these were great names, but it seems that not all that many people (at least the ones I know) remember the servants from Hamlet.

Last, but certainly not least, if I ever have a lizard of any sort I will definitely name it "Drain". Or maybe "Lope". Having these names stored up and waiting to be used makes me want to invest in some lizards....

Hasta.

[rocking chair]

winkin the wonderful, an all black cat. she had an eye infection when she was a kitten; one eye was stuck shut, she was winkin'.

nod the naughty, a black and white cat. she was discovered 6 months after winkin. we had to keep the theme going.

[Qwisp]

Originally posted by Tymp

When I was a kid, I had a pair of gerbils named Yin and Yang. After nearly three years of living in harmony, Yin murdered Yang, consumed his feet and bowels and left the rest of his remains strewn about the bloody cage. Such is the relationship of my Yin and Yang. Sad.



That's the exact thing that happened to my hamsters Pete and Repeat.Didn't exactally want much to do with Pete afterwards.

I have a greyhound named Denali.Mostly I just call him Beast.

[Vestal Blue]

I briefly had a pup I picked up out of the middle of the road. He was such a mess I named him Hesperus.


Our current crop of critters are two Golden retrievers, Abby and Lacey, 3 cats, Morgan, Pretty Girl and George. 6 gerbils, only one of which whos' name I recall; Galadriel.

[idiotboy]

idiotboy, that’s much better. Thanks for looking out for us laptop users.

S'all good :)

I now have a very large (70 gallon, I believe) aquarium and seeing as my birthday is coming up on Wednesday, my fiancee has decided to throw a party for me and have each person bring a fish & an accessory (gravel, rocks, plants, little diver dude that goes up and down, etc.)...soooo, we wanna continue with the artist motif, and name all the fish artist names...

Time for me to do a bit of research, I s'pose... :D

[KimKatt]

One of my cats is named Bud. It's short for Budweiser. I bought him at a pet shop, and requested a box to bring him home in. The kid working went into the back of the store, and came out with a Budweiser case. It was inevitable. I don't wish to know why there was a case of Bud in the back of the store.

Another kitty, which I no longer have, was named Jezebel. She was an absolutely beautiful girl, very, very friendly, and incredibly stupid. We named her Jezebel, after the cat house in Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale." She wandered off one day, and never found her way back home, unfortunately. I still miss her :(

Yet another cat was named Fang. Remember those Reach toothbrush commercials, with the cartoon guy who had the flip-top head? I swear that cat's head would turn almost inside out when he yawned. One of my room mates nick named him Fang because of that, and it just stuck. I don't even remember what we called him before that.

[Persephone]

My first pet as a kid was a toy poodle. Her name was Suzie, full name Suzanne Cherie. She died at the ripe old age of 14, after having survived the canine equivalent of breast cancer and a radical mastectomy.

Our second dog was Lance. How he got his name is interesting. My mom and I were at a mall, waiting in line to get autographs from two Detroit Tigers, Lance Parrish and Alan Trammel. This little kid came by, pushung a shopping cart with puppies in it. He was trying to give them away. Now, Suzie had just died a few weeks before, so needless to say, we were weak, and these puppies were just entirely too cute. So, we got a puppy and named him Lance Alan. The security guard at the store where the ballplayers were signing autographs was very kind, and let us take him in. We told Lance Parrish & Alan Trammel that we'd named our new puppy after them. They thought it was cool. :D

I went for a long petless stretch. Then three years ago, a stray cat adopted us. My husband wanted to name it. He named it Joaquin, after a guitar player named Joaquin Murphy. Turns out the cat was female, but the name stayed. Then another stray adopted us. Hubby named that one too. His name was Sovtek, because he was black & white, like my husband's Sovtek amp head.

Joaquin lost a fight with a dog, and Sovtek just died this past Father's Day. We got a new kitten a few days after Sovtek's passing. I named this one, and in keeping with my husband's musical theme, our kitten's name is Telecatster, a play on Telecaster. We call him Tele. I want to get another kitten and name him Stratocatster, just because I like the way that works.

We also have a dog, a Shi-Tzu named Teddy. He was my grandmother's dog. My grandma died last fall, and when my great-grandmother moved in to an assisted-living facility this past February, she couldn't take the dog with her. Teddy is a small dog, and very good with kids. He needed a home. My uncle took him, but it just didn't work out. He couldn't give Teddy the attention he needed. So my mom called me. Since my husband & kids are home all day, Teddy would get the care & love he needed. So we took him. He's a good little dog, and taking him was definitely not a mistake. He's not given us one lick of trouble. He even tolerates the kitten, who gives him no end of grief.

[Gunslinger]

A friend of my dad once had a dog named Dog (pronounced dee-oh-JEE)

My evil black & tan dachshund is named Bandit.

[Tymp]

Qwisp,

I understand that it’s kinda common for rodents to do that to each other. What’s highly uncommon is when their actions cause you to re-evaluate your understanding of eastern philosophies.

Lowellster,

Your lizards themselves should not require an investment at all. There are plenty of rescue shelters from which you can adopt a herptile. Your expense will come in building a suitable home for the little buggars. My one bit of advice is that you not adopt a Green Iguana unless you’re totally prepared for a 20 – 30 year commitment to a 1.2 meter, 8 kilogram monster of ill temper.


September 9th, 2000 is National Iguana Awareness Day (http://www.niad.org)

[Munch]

Originally posted by irish_bill
There's a lot of dogs here called Freeway, after the tv show (Hart to Hart).

Um, where is "here"? 1987?

[Baker]

I have two cats. One is Tobermory, because I always wanted to name a cat after the H.H. Munro(Saki) story of a cat who was taught to talk. My younger cat is the Road Warrior. About three months ago a coworker arrived at work. It was a terrible morning, thunder lightening, rain, wind etc. and she had driven in from the country almost 25 miles away. When she got out of the car she heard a weak "Mew" and found one of their farm kittens had been hanging on under the car all the way to work. We all went up to look at it. It was about six weeks old and sooooo cuuute. I fell in love, and as my coworker had said her husband would not thank her for bringing it back I offered to take it. I couldn't tell if it was male or female(hey, they ARE pretty undeveloped at that age!)so I decided it would be Tina(Turner) if it was a girl, and Road Warrior if it was a boy. Max, as in Mad, was already taken in our family. So I have one cat name for it's superior attitude and another named for a wild ride it took.

[Padeye]

I had a tabby who I found a a skinny orphan kitten on a street in Montana. Since he was a skinny stray cat I named him Slim Jim Phantom. After he was netured he ballooned up a lot so his monkier was changd to Jaime Gordo. He passed away after a skin condition that couldn't be treated. Jim loved eating potato chips with me on the couch.

My next orphan kitten was a calico from a next of feral cats that was exposed by some construction when I was at Biosphere 2. A friend suggested "punky" because her markings made it look like she had hapazard black lipstick and eye liner but I went with Murphy Brown. The Murphinator was somewhat affectionate but kept her distance. She was content to let me scratch her head as she snoozed in the kitty condo next to my desk but hated to be held. That animal could turn from a powder puff to a knot of piano wire and razors in an instant. Her passing was a total mystery. She seemed normal but subdued one evening but not in distress. She curled up to sleep on a shelf and was stiff as a board in the morning.

<mega-sigh> I miss both of them now.

[andygirl]

My brother has a very special gift for finding cats in shrubbery. Several years ago he was walking and heard a sound from underneath a bush. Chester Moses came into our lives then.

Last summer he was working at a pool and was opening the gate to said pool, and a cat fell out of the tree next to him. He'd obviously been abandoned. I eventually gave Wolfgang to my girlfriend, and it was a sad, sad day when he was run over.

Our other two cats besides Chester are Murphy and Robin. The dog is Rainey.

I have three hermit crabs- Hardcore, Angua, and Clea.

One of my favorite cats belongs to my cousin. It's name is Meow Tse-Dong.

andygirl

[Danalan]

Two dog names:

A young co-worker adopted a puppy. Unfortunately, she lived in a no-pet apartment (I didn't say she was intelligent). She ended up bringing it to work every day. I teased her that the dog should be called "Myrtle", she called it 'Goldie'. Guess what kind of dog. . . Anyway, the boss finally caught her bringing in the dog, and she had to get rid of it. I took it off her hands, and promptly renamed it Myrtle.

We adopted another dog from the pound, a Shih-Tzu. She was a real cutie. I told the family that since I found her, I got to name her. Knowing my predelictions, they demanded to choose between three names. I gave them Fang, Spike and Butch. Butch was with us until last year.

[chique]

My current cat - the one I bought the catnip mice for - is named Dammit. As in "Dammit, get of the counter!" or "Dammit, get off the window screen!"

My parents recently got an English Springer Spaniel. Sire is Beau, dam is Buttons.....so the puppy is Buckles - also after the comic strip.

[Frannie]

Originally posted by JimmyNipples
Cats I've named in the past:

[b]Sydney

Norm From the Planet Dave

Fran


Cool! A cat named Fran! I've known of two dogs named Frannie, but... well, I don't think that's such a good thing.

[Frannie]

Originally posted by tomndebb
After Smudge disappeared, the barn where my wife rides had a "kitten clean-out" and we wound up with two calicoes--Frances and Eleanor. Francis developed a stomach disease and died

Another Frannie-like name! Um, but was it "Frances" or "Francis? And s/he died? I'm sorry.

(I think I'll go take some Tums or something.)

[Frannie]

No, I'm not padding my post count; it's just that I have a tiny attention problem. :( Anyway, after arriving home from setting up my classroom for the new school year today, I decided that we need a classroom pet. I ran right out and bought two goldfish and promptly named them Bruce and Bob after two of my favorite musicians (Springsteen and Dylan, that is).

[Geek Mecha]

filthy, is your snake Trebuchet named after the [geek warning!] typeface Trebuchet? Just wondering... what? Don't look at me like that...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who almost says "damnation" when I mean "dalmatian"... And I had no idea hamsters were cannibals! :eek:

I adopted a family of stray cats who lived near my grandma's apartment. There were three of them- the Mommy-cat, her son Tabby, and the bitchy younger half-sister who didn't stick around long enough to get a name.

I did have a Siamese fighting fish I named Harry after my uncle. He remided me a lot of my uncle. Don't ask why.

[drewbert]

Originally posted by sandyr
My current cat - the one I bought the catnip mice for - is named Dammit. As in "Dammit, get of the counter!" or "Dammit, get off the window screen!"

My parents recently got an English Springer Spaniel. Sire is Beau, dam is Buttons.....so the puppy is Buckles - also after the comic strip.

We inherited a cat from my gradparents which they named "Damya" for the same reason.

Other cats I have known:

Miss Dinah Prunella (a.k.a. "Pruney")
Filthy J. MacNasty (who was thought to be gray when he was found as a stray, but after a bath, turned out to be white)
Mr. Skunk
Tallapoosa (named after a town in Georgia)
Bud Tinklepaw
Furnando
Weldon
Trigger (named for the saddle-shaped spot on his back)
Gracie
Murphy
Gabby

[percypercy]

Well, I'll stick with the animals we've got 'round here now or this post would be unreadably long.
Cats

Horatia(named by my sister who was in a big Lord Nelson kick so she's Horatia after Nelson's daughter or so she claims)

Elroy(well, mostly because it's a cool name but also because it rhymes with his nickname kitten boy)

Cotton(named by the people who gave her to us. They claimed she looked like a dirty cotton ball. ewww!)

Monty(in honor of the family's general great love of Monty Python)

Juan Carlos Eduardo Wesley aka Wes(ah, poor cat... My mom and sister insisted that he be named Juan Carlos for some reason that simply can't be understood. Then of course we had to tell my dad(Ed) that we had named the cat after him so that he'd be convinced that we should definitely have six cats. Wesley comes from one of my favorite singers, John Wesley Harding. )

Lucy(named by my 4 year old niece, definitely an improvement over her last cat name, meow-meow)

Dogs

Grady(originally my sister's dog who was at that time in the habit of naming dogs after hospitals she had worked at so he's named after Grady hospital in Atlanta)

Zelda(after Zelda Fitzgerald, she's definitely lived up to her name)

Scout(Zelda's brother, so in that vein, he's F. Scout officially)

Percy(just like my screenname, named after Percy Percy from Black Adder)

Zoe(still not sure about this one, my sister's idea)

Eimer(Irish word for Princess)

[enilorac]

well u all have really cute pet stories i've also had my share of pets. when i was a kid i always wanted a pet, a puppy to be more specific, i use to fawn over every puppy i saw but since we lived with my grandparents and it was their house my parents thought it best to let the pet issue go. then one day my grandparents had this brilliant idea! my grandfather, then a mason, had a friend who knew this old lady, who owned this chihuahua-terrier; i guess she couldn't take care of the poor dog anymore and was looking for someone to take her in so they figured they could shut me up by brining this dog home. and thus my first dog was this psychotic, neurotic freak of a dog named maile. she hated being carried, she hated taking baths, she hated everyone, and she liked to bite people. i detested this dog. a couple of years later this female cat decided to give birth under out extension and she had three kittens, blackie, stripe and another one whose name i cannot remember; at the same time i also came home with a chick taken from the honolulu zoo. my father swears on his bunyon that taking the chick from the zoo was my idea but i don't ever remember saying "daddy i want a chicke" i still think it was his idea and that he was hoping it would be a hen who would lay eggs for us. i named this chick "cheepee" because that's what he sounded like to me ( i was never one to be very original with names) so the chick grew into a rooster, actually worse than that he grew into an untamed fighting chicken! he attacked everyone! did his wake-up call at 4am, and lived to the ripe old age of 9. maile died after about 5 years and the cats went off on their own. i'm sorry i just realized that this thread was for pet names and not the life stories of your pets. i apologize but wait i still have one more pet. he's my aunt's dog, we've had him for about 8 years and he's a poodle named rocky, but i prefer to call him un-chan or unchi, he's blind in both eyes now, and we figure he's around 14, still pretty frisky and definately not your best guard dog as he makes friends with everyone.

[Catrandom]

The most perfectly named cat I had when growing up was Humphrey, a tiny, imperious and very affectionate longhaired white cat. He'd go on "love tours" around the house, allowing everyone in turn to pay him homage -- and you felt like he was doing you a favor. I never met a cat whose name suited him better.

I presently have a black and white girl named Enid, after the best and most virtuous of Guinevere's ladies in the King Arthur stories. The name doesn't really suit the cat -- Enid is a tough cookie -- so she's often called The Nid, Niddy Kitty or, sometimes, Oklahoma.

Catrandom

[Frannie]

Originally posted by percypercy
Juan Carlos Eduardo Wesley aka Wes(ah, poor cat... My mom and sister insisted that he be named Juan Carlos for some reason that simply can't be understood. Then of course we had to tell my dad(Ed) that we had named the cat after him so that he'd be convinced that we should definitely have six cats. Wesley comes from one of my favorite singers, John Wesley Harding. )

It's a Dylan theme. :)

[Queen Freddie]

First Post! Woo Hoo!

Currently have a lab named Scully. Wonderful dog. Loves her swimming pool, belly scratches, and ice cubes. Also have a huge lab/rott mix named Russ. Folks who had him before I adopted him called him Rusty because he's red. (Can't stand the name Rusty...reminds me of the National Lampoons Vacation movies.) Shoulda named him 'Bullet' or 'Colt' or 'Pellet' or something in reference to a gun because some idiot shot him with a BB gun. :mad: He had this huge pus pocket on his side. (Gross, I know. Sorry.) All I know is that I WAS NOT going to name him Mulder.

Had two fish named Wallace and Grommit.

Had a neurotic cat named Fort Augustus...Auggie for short. And a cat called Daisi. (Her real name was the French word for disillusioned - because she was. Can't remember that word now, tho'.)

Baby-sat for a lady who had a cat named 'Coucher'. She had a three year old son who pronounced it "Kowt-cer". Cute kid. Cute cat.

[Frannie]

Originally posted by Queen Freddie
Had a neurotic cat named Fort Augustus...Auggie for short. And a cat called Daisi. (Her real name was the French word for disillusioned - because she was. Can't remember that word now, tho'.)

I looked up "disillusioned" in the English to French dictionary and came up with "désillusionné."

Congratulations on your very first post, btw. Um, I think you're now supposed to have a post count party or something. ;)

[Rog668]

As any self-respecting Minnesotan should, I have taken the vow to name every pet I shall ever own and my firstborn "Kirby."

[filthy]

AudreyK

filthy, is your snake Trebuchet named after the [geek warning!] typeface Trebuchet? Just wondering... what? Don't look at me like that...
----------------------------------------------

Hi, Audrey,

Trebuchet, a Great Basin Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis lutosus), is named after the siege engine that could toss a dead horse over castle walls and still be out of bow range. I named her that due to the way her head comes flying out of her hide box at the mice I give her.

(he-he) I also keep an African Puff Adder (Bitis arietans) named Emphysema.

What's in a name, huh?

luck

[TroubleAgain]

Cats:

Trouble. Well, kinda obvious, I guess, but his sister's name was Mischief...

Punkin'. I didn't name him. The lady who's son rescued the litter did. He's an orange tabby...hence, pumpkin colored.

Molly. Punkin's sister. Calico cat>>>motley colored>>>Molly.

Dog:

Ladybug. Didn't name her either. We inherited her. She mostly gets called Bug, or Bugster.

[TroubleAgain]

Oh, Loweller (hope I spelled that right...)

I remember Rosencrantz and Guildenstern...they're dead, right? ;)

[Olentzero]

I grew up in a house that almost always had cats and dogs in it. Didn't have much to do in the way of naming most of them, but let's see what I can remember.

Dogs

Basenji: Basil
OE Sheepdog: Winston
Corgi: Ralph
Whippet: Mitzi (ancient when we adopted her from some friends moving out of state)
Mutt: Honey (renamed from Hobo when my sister adopted her)

Cats

Tiger, Okeefenokee ('Swamp' for short), Haarlem (all-black cat), Rusty, Tabby, Snicker (so named because my father couldn't stop laughing at how quickly Mamma O. adopted him from his litter), B.K. (for Baby Kat), and Maxwell (named for a cat in a sci-fi book I was reading at the time; cat had identical markings and was just as keen to cause trouble).

Rodents
Gerbils: names long forgotten except for Jane
Chinchilla: Rocky

Hermit Crabs
in order of quick succession - Orville, Wilbur, Dumbhead

A special mention here for the one dog, a Boston Terrier, I bought myself and owned before I went to Georgetown, when she went to live with Mamma O:

Pluggy.

When she was a puppy only a few weeks old, she had the round face, flat nose, and bent-over ears of the old Fisher-Price dog that came with the playsets. You all know the ones I'm talking about :D We used to call them "plug people" and when I first saw her I said "She looks like a plug dog!" Hence Pluggy, which eventually expanded to 'Plugfester Q. McPuppyDoggue' for the usual "baby-talk-at-your-pets" reason.