Not the names you give your human loved ones, but naming actual pets…I don’t get it. It was tough for me to name all 67 pets that have come and gone in my life (yes, I named individual fish, I’m that lame compassionate). But sometimes I wonder about people when they name their pets, specifically their cats. I don’t know how to talk to people who name their cats things like Muffy, Mr. Fluffybottoms or Kat. I feel like I should treat them with kid gloves and try not to make them cry. Especially if they’re guys. On the flip are the people who name their cats human names. That would be all of my friends who have cats. Except for Crunchy (Crunchie?) and Mojo. Those are pets names and Chef S. should be proud of giving her cats real cat names. Activist S. had Ghost and Snack, good solid cat names, then she got a boy kitty she named him Charlotte Sophia, but calls him Charlie. Oddly enough, Charlie is quite the popular cat name among my friends. Spanning this globe, off the top of my head, I can think of almost 30 people I know who have a cat named Charlie.
It’s funny but when Activist S. moved from our courtyard, we all mentioned how it so quiet without her daily 3pm calls of “Charlie! Snack! Ghost!” and that whistle we all tried to imitate. Imagine my surprise when I moved to my new place and wound up with a neighbor, let’s call her Rosy B., who calls her kitties the same way. Actually, for the first 4 months we lived here, it was her husband who did the nighttime cat wrangling. Some time in April or May, she took over. He just whistled for the cats. She calls them with her cute accent, “Rooo-bee! (Ruby) ber-GEEN-ya! (Virginia) Mariaelena! Kitty-kitty! Kitty-kitty!”. I always laugh at the names because I have friends with the same names and if they knew each other, they’d be the best of friends. Anyway, Rosy B. calls the cats 3 – 5 times between 6pm and 11pm. The cats, if they’re not shitting on my front yard, or kicking it in my backyard, they’re are usually on the roof of her porch looking down at her.
I think they want real cat names.
faboo mama 
We have a cat named Clawed (incidentally he was de-clawed when we got him!)
When we lived in North Dakota there was a lady on base whose dog was named—-STUD—-!!!!!!!!!!
She would step out onto the back porch and yell, “Stud!!!!” And half the wives in the neighborhood would tell their husbands not to flatter themselves!!!!!!!!
Got to you through Ruth’s blog. Can I add you to my blogroll?
Dee
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My favorite cat names were my god-daughter’s kittens: Skinny and Bob.
Am I on your “possibly imbalanced, tread lightly” list because we call our cat “Kitty”? C’mon. He’s named after a monster.
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Dee, feel free to blogroll me, no need to ask. I like the “Stud” name. I can just imagine hearing that yelled in the neighborhood.
Kat: Yep. Completely off-kilter you are. ;P
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My favorite cat was ‘analog-as-opposed-to-digital’ but most folk just called her annie.
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Our current cats are Sprite and Aries. The kids named them. When my brother & I were little, he named his cat Yo-yo and I named mine Ia (pronounced eye-ya).
Our family tradition is to let the pets name themselves, based on something we see them do or how they act. Thus a dog named Samson (big, strong, about as smart as a doorknob). We had an orange cat with white feet that Mrs. Fetched named Socks, but I thought he should have been Elvis because he was fat and laid back.
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