Name your pet and give me the story! Or not.

In My Humble Opinion
1

In responding to a thread posted in another forum here, I decided to add the name of my cat to add that extra touch of realism to my post (I’m actively working on improving my posts around here).

Anyrate, after posting my cats name and those of my neighbors, I got to wondering- Why are my neighbors cats named Pete and Meg? Hmmm. Beats me. I’ll have to ask them when they get back in town.

Then I recalled the countless times I’ve had to not only correct people’s pronunciation of my cat, ‘Z’, but also why on earth I named her that.

A typical conversation goes something like this-

Them: “Ahhh. What a cute cat. What’s its name?”

Me: “Her name is ‘Z’”.

Them: “Haahhh?”

Me: “You know, ‘Z’. As in the letter ‘Z’.”

Them: ::Beginning to look at me like I’m nuts:: “‘Z’?”.

Me: “Yep. ‘Z’.”

Them: ::Long pause:: “What an odd name. What were you thinking?”

Now, here’s where the conversation can take off in different tangents depending upon my mood. I’ll either make up weird shit or tell them the truth. Most of the time I simply say it just felt right at the time.

But, joy of joys, I’ll explain it here and now for one and all.

When I moved into my apartment about a year ago, besides the normal and tedious rent and utility questions you normally must ask, I asked the two questions that I was most interested in- “What about mice?” and “What about bugs?”. The answers were “Never seen 'em around here.” to both. “Great. When can I move in?”

Soon after moving my crap in, maybe a month, while watching ‘Cirque de Sole’ (sp?) on T.V., and lounging on my couch, I saw a mouse scamper across the floor. Dammit! I chased the evil little bastard all over the apartment. Thankfully, I never got close enough to it that I would have to decide what to do next. I quickly packed up an evening bag and left for a friends place.

The next day I talked to my caretaker and neighbor across the hall. Both gleefully told me there must be an outbreak and they can’t understand why, after all these years, there would be a problem now- “Go figure!”. Great.

A few days with my friend convinced me I had to return to my place and face the problem head on post haste. “The exterminators have been called, Chris. They’ll take care of it. I mean, they took care of the bats!”. “The bats? Don’t even tell me about it.”

O.K… A long story a tad bit longer.

Despite my allergies to cats and the fact I really don’t like them that much to begin with, I decide to get one short term so I can return to my abode.

::Ding Ding:: My sister has two cats, maybe she’ll let me borrow one until the infestation subsides. Sure enough, she’ll let me borrow ‘Burt’ for a few weeks because… well… she felt sorry for her older brother who is afraid of mice.

Burt shows up and immediately makes a bee-line underneath my bed. O.K… Typical cat.

A few days pass, and a similar few sighting of Burt, leave me thinking he’s not looking well. “Sis. Burt looks kinda… I donna know… Sick”. “Like how?”. “I don’t know. Sick.” That evening she stops by and picks him up.

The next evening I get a teary call from her. “I took him to the vet and he was pretty ill.”. Why is she saying all this in past tense? “We had to decide whether or not to put him on dialysis (?) or not.”. “Umm Hmm. And… what’s wrong with him?”. “His kidneys have given out. I guess it’s fairly common with cats.”. “Uh hmmm. So what did you do?”. “Well, we decided to put him down. It was just too expensive to try and not know whether he’ll survive or not.”. “Oh God. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. What can I do?”.

Well, I paid for an autopsy (So I could prove it wasn’t my fault) and the vet visit and the cremation and the cost to inject him and… well, you get the point.

So, I still have mice. I kill my sisters cat trying to get rid of them. I’m worse off than a week ago. I have to do something, and I’m not about to borrow her other cat.

I plead my sorry case to my family. My Aunt, who lives in farm-loving Wisconsin, says she might have someone who can help. The next day she calls and says a friend of hers husband is all over her case for having too many cats- One’s gotta go. “Are you interested?”. “You bet!! When can I stop out?”. “Come right over and we’ll set it up.”.

I head over there and look around the barn for a cat that strikes… well… something in me. I spot it. A calico cat that seems to be following us around a lot. “Well. How about that cat over there?”. Personally, I look at the cat as being the one the least likely to gouge my eyes out in my sleep. “Ohh. Elizabeth. Yeah, she’s my favorite.”. “Well, she looks friendly. I’ll take her.”

After a tearful goodbye and a hug from her human mother, (Yep. I killed one cat and am ripping the other away from a loving relationship) she hands over the cat and I stuff her in a carry-all crate.

I get home, and surrounded with a few close friends, unveil the cat. “Hey, cool cat. What’s its name?”. “Elizabeth.”. ::Snort:: “Elizabeth! Good luck Chris!”.

You know what? They’re right. Elizabeth is a wimpy name for a guy’s cat. Hmmm. I poll my friends and family. I can’t run around the apartment yelling “Elizabeth! Stop that! Get outta there!!”

Someone mentions ‘Z’. Hmmm. Kinda different. Keeps her original name somewhat intact. I’m being somewhat ‘true’ to her distraught human mother over in Wisconnie. “Ya. ‘Z’. I like it!!”

So. There you have it people. My cats name is ‘Z’. It’s been almost a year. She hasn’t gouged my eyes out and is still living. I’m on a role.

What’s your pets name?

2

My last two cats (who died a year ago at 19 and 18 years) were Mouse and Spike.

Mouse, when I got her was no bigger than a handful, all grey with a long tail. My boyfriend at the time (then husband, then ex), named her “you were so cute and little when we first got you, we had to name you Mouse” gag.

After having Mouse for a year, he realized she wasn’t a “lap cat”. He wanted a “lap cat”, so we went and picked out a tiger kitten with white paws and chin. He had really large balls (or so it seemed to the SO/husband/ex), so he decided to give him a macho name “Spike”.

Currently in our house, we still have 3 cats. These were in the house when I moved in with SO. He never named them, since “they didn’t tell me their names”. He refers to them as “black cat, yellow cat and mom cat”. He used to have two additional cats, who were referred to as “older black cat” and “black kittie”. (older one died of natural causes, younger one hit by a car)

3

We had some old, old cats also. My dad’s oldest cat Bootsie, died at age 21 in his sleep.

Currently at my house there are five cats, a dog and a turtle.

The dog is named Nickels Freckles Pickles after my childhood dog who looked like this dog. We call him Nick. Norman, Pork and Beans are littermates. Norman is named after Stormin’ Norman of Desert Storm. Pepper is an abused cat that was given to us. Hitomi is my youngest daughter’s kitten, named after an anime character.

The turtle was originally named Killer by the little girl who gave her to us. I renamed her Tasha after that little girl.

4

Well, as I have mentioned in other threads, I have a 4-yr-old male Sheltie. His name is Apache Blaze. This was the first “papered” dog I had ever owned, and his mother’s name was (is?) Cherokee Blaze, so we just kind of stuck with the theme. He has the “standard” coloring like a miniature Lassie. I got him for my birthday present (Honey, if we can have this puppy I don’t need anything else for my birthday. Yeah, right!) He is just the sweetest thing. A big wuss though. If we ever have a burglar he might lick them to death!

5

Our current feline is called Snickers. She’s nuts and is filled with a creamy nougat.
I usually give my pets human names. There has been a: Stanton, Norm from the planet Dave, Sydney, Fran, Penelope, Pavel, (kids cat…died within hours of bringing him home) and Duke…or Dip. Dippy was a wonderful cat. Pure tom cat…as a matter of fact, Dip did time in Attica.

6

One of my cats is named Budweiser.

I rescued him from a pet store in a mall, where he had been looking like a pretty despondent little kitten for four weeks. No kitty should be stuck in a place like that for that long. There were two of them in the cage, a little grey and white one, and a beige one.

The beige guy was just adorable, and of a shade that I had never seen before on a cat - beige with white stripes. I asked to see him, and he was brought out. I picked him up and cuddled him to my shoulder, where he instantly proceeded to sink all 18 of his little cat claws into my skin, and started yowling into my ear.

Back in the cage with you, let’s see the other guy.

Grey and white kitty is then brought out, again I picked him up and cuddled him to my shoulder. He nuzzled his head into my neck, started purring, and licked my ear. Sold.

At this time I realized that I didn’t have any adequate means of conveying my new kitty home. I didn’t have a car, so he needed to be reasonably contained during the walk back to my apartment. So I asked whether they had any boxes I could have. The stock guy wanders into the back and comes out about 15 minutes later with an empty Budweiser 24 case.

How could I name him anything else?

7

I named my turtle Studebaker. After the car. It’s like this , I remember back in the '50s they(the car company) made a car that looked the same from the front or the rear, thus the name “turtle car” Made sense to me. A little advise, if you call your turtle to come to you, have plenty of time to spare.MTS

8

I have Lillian and Dorothy, the Gish cats. Lillian Gish (the real one, not the cat) was a friend of mine and I asked if I could name my new kittens after her and her sister when I got them in '89. Lillian kept a photo of them on her living room table, which tickled me no end. Always wondered if that photo went up for sale at her estate auction . . . Turns out my cats HATE each other. I should have named them after Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine.

Had they been Persian cats, I would have named them Eva and Zsa Zsa; and of course if they were Siamese, they’d have been Daisy and Violet (warning: another of Eve’s indecipherable early 20th-century pop culture jokes!).

9

Tipzy: aka Dogzilla, Tip, Tipper and Tipper Gore. The breeder named her and I had nothing to do with it. I suspect she got “Tipzy” because the tip of her ear has a white smudge on it (NOT the breed standard!).

Tribble: AKA Bitch Kitty. Pure white cat with yellow eyes. I went through about 50 different names before I settled on this: she sounds just like a tribble from the first Star Trek series. She makes that purring/trilling noise thing that some cats to. She also bites for no apparent reason and is a walking allergen. I’m allergic to my own cat!

Got Milk?: AKA Mr. Man. He’s a very funny black and white. A stray that my friend tossed in my car window just before she shouted, “Drive!” I drove. He immediately curled up in my lap for the drive home, so by the time I got there, I decided he could stay. Mostly, his face is black, but he’s got a little white Hitler mustache, like those milk ads in magazines. Since I thought “Herr Hitler” would be an inappropriate name, I decided Got Milk? was perfect for a cat! I also call him Mr. Man because he is the only male of any species in my house. The nickname is also a nod to Kathy Bates in Misery.

BooKitty: Now dead, she was the mascot for the ladies working at the animal shelter. One of them was a friend of mine and she gave me Taboo, because I was moving and going to live alone for the first time. My friend decided I would need some furry company. Taboo didn’t roll off the tongue well, so I racked my brain trying to think of black cat names. The name of the black cat in Poe’s The Black Cat, was cheesy, but then I had a brain storm and thought of Shirley Feeny… Thus, Boo Boo Kitty was re-named and I was able to preserve part of her original name. She was mauled to death by stray dogs about three years later. Poor BooKitty. We miss her. :frowning:

10

My friend John’s cat had five kittens. I was promised one of them. I named my selection, a tabby-and-white male, Buster, just because I thought it was a simple, sturdy cat’s name. As it turned out, he grew to be the biggest of the litter (15 pounds) so the name seems appropriate in retrospect.

The calico in the litter went to another friend, who had a naming party for her at which marijuana was smoked. The calico played with the spent bong on the floor, and consequently was named Piper. As you might guess, this friend didn’t take good care of Piper, so John retrieved her and gave her to me. Yay! She’s the most timid and insecure of my three cats, so she gets the most love.

Did I say three? That’s right, about a year later John moved away. He had kept one kitten from the litter, an all-tabby male, and named him Jack after Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Ernest. His new apartment didn’t accept pets, so Jack came to live with his sibs and me.

So I have three-fifths of the litter, but I only named one of them.

Someday I’ll get a dog. I want to get either

a) a beagle, which I’ll name Darwin, or
b) a Rhodesian Ridgeback, which I’ll name Zimbab Wayans. But I’ll fence in my back yard first.

11

When I was a kid, we had four cats called Nelson, Blessed, Dudley and Tigger.

Nelson had a black patch of fur that looked like an eyepatch. Apart from that he bore no resemblance to the distinguished admiral.

Blessed was originally “that blessed cat!”. I think my mum would have called it “that bloody cat,” or “that bastard cat,” but she didn’t want to swear in front of me.

Dudley was found as a stray kitten outside a nightclub called “Dudley’s Brewhouse”.

Tigger is er, a popular cat name.

I’m going to call my first two cats Derek and Clive.

12

My dog was named Pepper (she was black). We resuced her from some neighbors who were going to put her asleep when she was about 1 1/2 years old because she wasn’t little anymore and they wanted a cute little puppy. She was a labrador-schnauzer mutt. She had this big old lab body with a teeny schnauzer head and we thought she was the ugliest dog we had ever seen! So we entered her in an “Ugly Dog” contest, but a dog with TWO NOSES won. After that we thought she was cute.

My cousins had two cats, both black, and wanted cute matching names, so we suggested “Black” and “Decker”, which they liked–but instead of calling the one cat “Black”, they called him “Blacken”. I guess they thought it was “Blacken Decker”, not Black and Decker. Later they got a dog which they wanted to also have a cute matching name with the cats. The dog was also black, so they named her “Dark”. Only “Dark” didn’t go with the cat’s names, so now they call the dog “Darken”. The dog turned out to be really stupid, so we call it “Dorken” behind their backs.

13

Eve:

Not indecipherable, Eve. Give us Dopers a little credit! I’m sure quite a few of us have seen both Freaks and Chained for Life.

14

Iguana [eldest son’s pet] is called Yoshi Godzilla. Said owner is a 13 year old which explains it all.

Chip n Dale [daughter’s] midget hamsters.

Black and Tan dachshund is called Sugarladysweetcakes. We had a hard time deciding which name to pick. Youngest son who is destined to be a diplomat said we call her all the names…nicknamed sugarbugar

Tricolored Piebald dachshund is called Kerwin’s [legal requirement in breeder’s purchase contract] Honeybunnysweetiepie. Matches other dachshund’s name, we live in the south, long name for a long dog. nicknamed honeybunny

15

We have two cats. One is named Purrl, giving a nod both to his very loud purr and his pearl grey color. His brother, who has solid black fur, is named Spot. (He doesn’t have spots, he is one; get it? The kids don’t think it’s funny, either. Oh, well.)

16

Easy ones first.

Cockatiels:[ul][li]Lucy after a sweet bare-eyed cockatoo that was stolen from a local pet store, and also after my grandmother. We later figured out that Lucy is really a male, but we still refer to “her” as female. What’s the difference, really. It’s a bird.[/li][li]Oliver after Oliver Hardy. (Someday we will have a Stanley.)[/ul][/li]Cats:[ul][li]Littermates (born 5/98) Loomis, Grimmy, and Phil: After the three bank robbers in the Bill Murray movie Quick Change. Geena Davis played “Phyllis,” but we had three boys, so #3 became Phil instead. This was also shortly after Phil Hartman died, so it seemed fitting. Unfortunately, our Phil also died at 3 months – we found him in the road. He was my favorite, and I was no cat person. Damn.[/li][li]Littermates (born 10/98) Lenny, Wolfman, and Guy: After three of the band members in the movie That Thing You Do!. Guy went AWOL last fall.[/li][li]Mamacat: mother of these two litters. Also the mother of Itty Kitty (born before LGP) and Andy Kitty (LWG’s sister), who went to live with a friend of ours.[/li][li]Tommy Boy: Showed up one morning this spring all beat to hell, clawed up by a tomcat in the neighborhood. At first we thought he was Guy. But Guy was fixed, and this cat had a little too much under his tail. We doctored and then neutered him; when the vet asked his name, Tom (for tomcat) seemed the obvious choice, and also after the Chris Farley character, who, like the actor, we found stupid and annoying. Tommy Boy is now our most friendly cat and is always underfoot. Figures.[/ul][/li]Dogs:[ul][li]Buster: Used beagle. We got him from my cousin, who got him from somebody else and couldn’t keep him; the name was included. We tried making him a house dog, but after he pooped in my cow slippers and peed in Mr. Scarlett’s shoe on two successive days, out he went. He lives in the yard now.[/li][li]Scout: Shepherd/lab mix. Named for Jean Louise “Scout” Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird because when we first brought her home, she tried but could not keep up running with the older dogs. Now, of course, she can cross three counties in about ten seconds. Nicknamed “the Monster.”[/li][li]Miss Emily Kimberly: Purebred English springer spaniel. Best dog we ever had. Mr. Scarlett bought her for his niece, but she ignored the puppy – but not before saddling her with the (we thought) dumb name of Emily. When we took Emily, we rechristened her after the soap character played by Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. It fit, because she was a fine “character actress,” just like Miss Kimberly. Emily died and broke our hearts just before Christmas last year. Next spring we hope that the breeder we got her from will have a puppy from her mother’s line that we can name Miss Dorothy Michaels (“Dottie”) after the “actress” played by Hoffman in the same movie.[/li][li]Miss Phyllis Potter: Purebred English springer spaniel and Emily’s successor. Named after the Geena Davis character from Quick Change mentioned above, and also in honor of our two lost Phils. If she had had more ticking (spots) she would have been Dottie, but since she doesn’t, we’re saving that name for Emily’s as-yet-unborn relative. We are finding that dainty-sounding, “frilly” names work well for our female springers, for the delightful contrast when they dig in the garbage or show up with a dead rat.[/ul][/li]So much for the current pets. Are you sorry you asked?

17

Well, I have three bunnies(whoduthunkit :smiley: ).
Bugs is my husbands(ha) rabbit. She’s bugs because the previous owners were totally uncreative. She was full grown when they gave her to us, so we didn’t want to confuse her by changing her name.
Mopsy is my rabbit, and incidentally the handsomest, sweetest, toughest ball of bunny whupass in the world. He was named ‘Mopsy’ because I always felt like Mopsy was the underappreciated bunny. Oh, you’ll always hear people talk about Peter Rabbit did this or Flopsy did that, but poor little Mopsy never gets any recognition.
Nooey(pronounced like gooey) is the offspring of the two other buns. At one time I gave him to a little(14) girl down the street from me, but when she moved out she brought him back. She tried to explain to me that his name was french for ‘night’. I suspect she is waaaay off on that pronunciation but again, I didn’t want to confuse him so he’s Nooey still.

Oh yeah, and we also have a guinea pig named Daisy but called Wiggly-Pig. And a blue tongued skink named Charmander. At one time I had a betta named Lazarus because I know I accidentally killed him 4 or 5 times(forgot the drops for the water) but he just kept coming back.

18

I’ve got one cat. Her name is Wiley.

The first few days after bringing her home, she would scamper about and then run full force into the walls, occasionally bouncing off at just the right moment, but sometimes just about knocking herself out.

She reminded me of Wile E. Coyote of cartoon fame.

19

Our dog is named Charlie, which causes a little confusion among people who meet her because she’s a girl. We named her after Charleston, because we’re living here in South Carolina but hopefully not for long. She’s sort of our “souvenir”…a really good symbol of our time here.

I used to have a dog named Brewer. Since my roommate worked in a microbrewery and we both drank an excessive amount of beer, everyone always assumed that that was the reason for the name. In fact, the dog was already named when we got him…after snowboarder Andy Brewer. The guy who gave Brewer to us had received the puppy as a gift from his girlfriend, but he didn’t have the room or time for him. He gave him to us. My roommate took custody of him when we went our separate ways, which was good because he was more dog than I could handle…about 90 pounds of pure muscle.

20

Jupiter - hamster, froze to death when power went out
Ravage - rat, we thought we would try something a little more robust than hamsters but he didn’t like me so we found a more loving home for him(I was also a teenager which may explain both the lousy name and why he didn’t like me).
Kittles - cat, our first cat and worst name for any of our pets. Kittles had brighter horizons than us, she ran away.
Malinka - cat, means little girl in Russian(I think, it was moms cat). The best cat we ever had, unfortunately the most heartbreaking because she was run over.
Shaku - cat, searching for name found shakuhachi, a Japanese flute, sounded good? She ran away also.
Denali - dog, Our first dog, an Alaskan Malamute. Incredibly smart , fun, beautiful, AND willfully disobedient. At least he always came back when he ran away, one time he managed to drag back half an elk carcass from somewhere! We miss him, he walks with Dog Jesus now.
Skiina, Tuck, Susitna - dogs More Alaskan Malamutes. Denali’s replacements, or mine? I had moved out at this point so mom had to have some “kids” around.
GT, dog Very unique Chow/Dachshund mix. GT is the dog that sold me on smaller dogs, I used to think that a dog wasn’t a “real” dog unless he weighed in at least 50 lbs. GT taught me how very manageable 25 lbs is and now unless I had a HUGE place out in the country I would not get a dog over 50 lbs. Honestly GT means Gran Turismo, he belongs to my roommate, the car freak.
Blue, dog Very sweet Cardigan Corgi. My first pet that I can truly call my own. I did a ton of research before buying him because I wanted a purebred dog with predictable behavior. I wanted about GTs’ size, well behaved, and a thick coat so he could stay outside all winter (if no one is home the dogs are outside, period). Corgi was definitely the solution, I just had to decide between Cardigan and Pembroke. Cardigan won because they have more variety in coat colors, and they do not have their tails bobbed off. Blue has the blue merle coat color and blue eyes so he is absolutely weird and gorgeous at the same time. I definitely got the obedient part in spades, it is entirely unnecessary to use a leash when walking him. But he is very shy and doesn’t explore very much when in a new area. Which in its way is nice because when I take him over to a friends house he just sleeps at my feet. In retrospect I should have named him something like Radar because of the huge ears, gizmo because he looks like one of the cute furry gremlins, or best I think would be a hobbit name like Frodo because I think of corgis as the dog version of hobbits (short, mellow, friendly, and a little odd looking). Bilbo doesn’t work because it sounds to close to dildo.