Aww…these are such cute stories!
Our current pets include:
Rumpleteazer–named for the cat-burglar char from ALW’s “CATS”.She is a big orange and white DSH tabby who loves to steal things.Currently missing are some earrings and my wedding ring.I’m sure I’ll find them eventually.
Buttercup–we had decided to adopt her and were waiting for a nasty case of facial fungus to clear up(the HS wouldn’t let us take her home until it did…about a week later)and couldn’t decide on a name.Finally,after arguing about it for over an hour,I turned to CG and said “Her name is Buttercup,like the snotty princess in the Princess Bride.” and it stuck.Alternate names include Butterbutt(because she weighs close to 20 lbs),Stinkybutt and Berrybutt(because she often has dingleberries clinging to the semi-longish hair on her toosh).
Nicodemus–named for the wise old rat in The Rats of Nimh
Past pets included:
**Precious[/]–we found her under a bush when she was only about 4 weeks old when CG and I were first married.We called her that because we got to the vet’s office and they asked for a name and it was the only thing we could think of at the time.She was a vicious little ball of solid black fur…Satan would’ve been a better name for this kitty.She hated everyone except for me for some odd reason.We had to put her to sleep on Oct 22,2001,because she became insane and started attacking everyone and eveyrthing for no reason whatsoever.The vet said it was territorial aggression(which she’d never exhibited to this degree before)and we would have to either put her down or spend a ton of $$$ on a therapist. CG said we couldn’t afford the therapist,so we put her down.Saddest day of my life.
Justin–also named after a char in The Rats of Nimh,he was acquired on the same day as Nicodemus.We had him for a good two years before we had to put him down because he got old and got renal failure and was too ill to survive.
Sugarbutt–hamster my mom gave me for my tenth birthday,so named because she was bright orange with a solid white toosh.I named her that because I thought she looked like somebody had wet her bottom and dipped it in the sugarbowl.Inventive,no?
Zippo the Amazing–another hamster,this one brown with black stripes and a bit of white…so named because she had the amazing ability to get out of her cage,no matter what I did to try and keep her in it.
Hammyanna–brown and white hamster acquired when I was 13,shortly after the death of Sugarbutt.
IDBB
OOPS! Echo forgot his old dog Natasha (named when we got her at the Humane Society)–her name was shortened to Tash…hungry dog, ALWAYS hungry.
He also forgot the kittens who enriched our lives for a short time.
Alexander the Great and Ivan the Terrible .
We had them for a short time while I was pregnant with our eldest child. They never really settled in and Ivan was truly terrible. My arms still have scars from him scratching. When we moved we donated them to a nice ranch family who needed pest control.
In my life before Echo, I also was part of a family with
Andorra the Cat, Annie the Dog, Kriska the Husky dog, Duke the German Shephard, Sasha the German Shephard, King the St. Bernard, Pig the Cat, Herman the Cat, Kizzie the cat (her litter mate was missing a tail–remember “Roots” the movie?–and she was pitch black), Heidi the dog, Fat Cat the cat, Diamond the German Shephard and numerous other cats that may have had names or not.
I also had Daisy the Guinea Pig, my sister had Nutmeg the Gerbil, and my brothers had Ben and Willard the rats.
Whew! That’s a lot of animal feed!
My husband and I were given a male cat named Timmy.
Oops! Timmy is a female…so she became Miss Timmy…shortened to Mistimi.
Now she is just Misty. Her full name is Miss Misty Meow. (she is very vocal)
My shepherd mix is named Rory after Rory Calhoun. Not for love of the actor, but rather the Simpsons episode One Dozen and One Greyhounds, where Mr. Burns steals the puppies and takes delight in the puppy that stands on his hind legs.
“Awww. Look at him standing there, just like a little Rory Calhoun.”
We then found out he was a she. No matter, she is still Rory, and Rory Calhoun when she is in trouble. She is learning to stand on her hind legs. (“you know, like that actor. The one who is always standing and walking.”), and when she is in trouble, she gives you the look, and you have to go “awww. Look at her standing there, just like a little Rory Calhoun.”
I have 2 kittens Timmie, and George.
Timmie is a black and white tuxedo girl. When we got her we had no clue what to call her we tried all sorts of names. I am big fan of South Park and Timmie just stuck.
George is a calico girl mostly white with just some orange and black spots around the face and a couple on the back. She is the cutest thing I have ever seen and soooo sweet. We were always holding her and squeezing her. So, she was named after Bugs Bunny sort of. There is a cartoon where the abominable snowman captures Bugs and is holding him in a death grip and says “I am going to love you, and squeeze you and name you George.” So that is where we got her name. 
One early a.m. my mom said, “I think I’ll get a cat in May.” Because we were looking to get a new pet. Because it was mid April and we were going on vacation for the last two weeks, it would be easier if we got it after the vacation.
I was quite tired and I heard “I think I’ll get a cat named May.”
That’s how that cat got named.
And Stu, the dog, he got his name from an old nickname of mine. Anytime anyone asks me to name something (pet, car whatever…) I say Stu… so to pass that nickname off of me and onto the other thing. It worked, I am rarely called Stu, but I now have to yell “NO STU! GET OFF THE MAILMAN’S LEG!”
Great thread, Echo!
The first cat I ever had was a stray that adopted us. She was solid white from head to toe, so I called her Rainbow. I was a wierd kid.
Next up is Jezabel, who is a tortoiseshell taken in from a feral kitty-family on a farm. She never did quite take to people, and when I was younger all my friends were scared to death of her. She can be a sweetie, though. When she feels like it. She’ll be sixteen this year.
Let’s see…then there’s Tibet. She was an adorable, lovey orange and cream calico, and the biggest splotch of orange on her back was shaped like Tibet. (Guess who was in geography that semester?) When she was nine months old I took her in to have her spayed, and she died under anesthetic. I don’t like talking about that.
Then there was Tobermory, who was the bestest most beautifullest (and when describing Toby those are words, people ;)) kitty that ever was. I named her out of a book I was reading at the time, “A Tale of Two Cats”. My mom was at my house one night, drunk and fighting with everyone and slamming doors, and let Toby get out. She’d never really been out before, and we never found her. I was devastated, but I like to think a nice family with nice kids took her in. We used to eat ice cream from the same spoon. Poor kitty.
I guess next is Sugar, my first dog. My S.O. and I got her from the pound. She’s really just a mutt, but she’s such a cutie. We named her for her brown sugar coloring. She’s six now, but she doesn’t act like it. She’s just a big baby. A big swears-she’s-a-lap-dog baby.
And now, we have (drumroll please) the fattest, sassiest black-and-white cat ever, the princess of all things feline, Dibben! The S.O. and I got her from the pound when we realized Toby really wasn’t coming home. She got her name from the “Redwall” series by Brian Jacques. She’s Dibby for short, of course, and she’s almost three. She has a perfect bow-tie shaped black mustache in the white fur around her nose.
From Toby on, all my animals have earned middle names when they’re in trouble. Toby became Tobermory Victoria while knocking over cups to see what was in them, Sugar is Sugar Marie while snacking from the litter box, and Dibben is Dibby Jane pretty much all the time because she’s a naughty kitty.
Now I miss my babies. I want to go home and cuddle them right now! 
My Himalayan-Persian kitty Susie-Q got her name from my favorite Creedence tune. (Before them some Screamin’ somebody did it back in the early 60’s)
Q
We used to have a black and white cat named Puus, from a talking computer program that my dad had. He typed in “puss” and the computer said “Pew-us,” so that was her name.
She lived to be twenty-something, and we had to put her down when I was about six. My mom and I got a couple of kittens from the pound after she died, and I had their names picked out waaaay before we even got them: Misty and Looker. Misty because I just liked the name and Looker from my uncle’s cat.
Misty ended up being a long haired tortie, and Looker was a black tabby Maine Coon sort of cat. Eventually, his named evolved into Booker. Misty was evil and only liked my mother, and Booker loved everyone. We’d push him around in a stroller and he’d ride in the wagon with me and my friends. He was hit by a car when I was about 11.
After Booker died, we got a kitten from the vet’s office. He was a tiny tan kitten, and my brother (he was about 4) looked at him and said, “His name is Dodget.” And it was. We call him Boodjie usually, though.
I got my cat Eric’s name from a Monty Python bit, The Fish License Sketch.
Chance, The Noble Weimaraner, was rescued from a hellish shelter in New Jersey, shortly following the death of my beloved Friday, The Golden Retriever. His full name is Second Chance and applies more to us than to him. He may think that we saved his life but, the truth is, he really saved ours.
Chancey, for the rest of your days, you will be loved, be warm and be cared for, in the way you deserve. I promise this with all my heart.
The Mom
My cat’s named Zazou after the Pet Shop Boys song “In the Night.” A zazou was a zoot-suited jazz-loving draft-dodging kid in 1940s France.