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24 August 2005
What's a good name for a cat?→[More:]By the way, Pat Robertson sure is a dick.
With dogs, short names work well, since they learn to respond to their name being called (Sit, rover, sit!)
For cats, any length of name is fine, since they won't respond anyway. Not to their name -- maybe to the tone of your voice, but "Fucking shit!" is as effective as "Mr. Bogart!" for getting the cat's ass out of your soup.
--agreeing with Hugh here, cats won't respond to a name, so it's really a moot point, call it whatever you like. After all, as far as the cat's concerned, your name is "can opener".
Dogs can learn to recognize words, not just their names. For instance, my mom has a dog that freaks out when you start talking about cats, or will go and get the ball if you ask him where the ball is.
I had a cat named Andy Warhol when I lived in New York. I took him to the St. Marks Veterinary Hospital and I wish I had framed the bill like I wanted, because it said: Treated Andy Warhol for fleas.
I like naming cats after poets. Basho. Issa. Ryuki.
will go and get the ball if you ask him where the ball is.
See, I'm sure they use a certain tone of voice when they ask him where his ball is. Try saying in a perfectly flat monotone, "Where is your ball. Where is it." I bet he won't be running for the ball.
agropyron, they totally understand English; I've tried the monotone thing too. Sure, they can get a lot from your tone of voice, but no doubt about it, they know certian words. You don't even have to be talking to the dog and he'll pick out words in your conversation to get excited about, like Faulkner the dog who loved cows. You'd say anything, like "Hey Mom, I know we have goat's milk, but do we have any cow's milk?" and Faulkner would start looking around for those damn cows.
I always thought Artie Fufkin (for you Spinal Tap fans) would be a good name for a cat. Mine are named Lars and Rupert (Rupert Giles Bennett). My late cats were Mel and Matilda (Matilda J. Underfoot, also known as Matilda J. Underfoot-Pearce, or Matilda J. Underboot-Fierce). My cats growing up were Mia and Spooky. My pal croctommy used to know a cat named Throg. My pal pointyp has a cat named Sweet Pea but they just call him "Kid."
The two cats in the house here are "Ford Prefect". Usually just "Ford". He's a boy, very large and sleek, too cool and aloof for his own good, and all black - and named before the H2G2 movie.
and
"The Contessa" She's a tiny little mini-cat tortoise shell calico with 'nano fur'* friendly but high strung and a total prim weirdo. But always Tessa for short, unless she's in trouble.
*Nano fur is super ultra fine fur in a wide variety of lengths up to about 3 inches long. It's very soft, but you find it in very strange places, and it's impossible to pick up. Sometimes it's straight, sometimes curly, sometimes kinky, but always so thin and fine you can't even tell it's there until one lands on your face and you can't get it off.
Cats I have known:
Mouse (very small grey kitty)
Greyfax (mighty hunter cat in the woods, grey with light yellow eyes)
Figg (25 pound piece of tortiseshell lurve)
Oscar and Henry (inseparable brothers)
Chaplin (had the moustache and eyebrows)
Joe (sweetest cat I've ever met, would drool on you)
Pricilla aka Silly (headbutts 'till it hurts)
Cat (my dad was never really into it)
Is nanofur that stuff that gets tangled in your eyelashes and you can feel it but can't get rid of it?
I call one of my cats Bunnymouse. I don't know why. Yes, I do. She has bright eyes like a bunny and a little nose like a mouse. She pweshus. Don't tell anyone I said that.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
