I’ve found, over the years, that sometimes it is easy to name a cat or kitten and other times it is a challenge to find just the right name. I include a chapter in Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats featuring how we choose names for our cats. There are some interesting and fun vignettes. For example, Wally got his name because he was discovered stuck with his dead littermates inside the wall of a house that was under construction. My friend, Sue, named her kitten Tober because she arrived on her doorstep in October. Here’s how we handled the difficult (turned fun) naming process with one kitten we adopted. (This is one of many stories published in Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats.)
PomPom chose her name. We rescued her from the animal shelter when she was a wee kitten. When it came to naming her, my three small daughters and I couldn’t agree.
“Tizz,” said Terri. “No Sally,” said Penny. “Nonny,” piped up Marti, the youngest. Names flew around the house for days and none of them stuck. Finally, I suggested that we let the kitten name herself. The girls were fascinated by this idea.
Together we thought of several possible names and I wrote them on small pieces of paper. The girls wadded up the little pieces of paper, we gathered around the kitten and we threw the wads across the floor in hopes that she would chase one of them. Instead, she just sat there looking at us with no interest in the wads of paper.
“I have an idea,” I said. “We’ll give them flavor.” I soaked the pieces of paper in some gravy left over from dinner the night before. We tossed the wads of paper again. This time, the kitten grabbed one and, before I could get it from her, she ate it! I said, “Well, she has a name, but we don’t know what it is because she ate it!” The girls laughed and laughed.
We gathered up the gravy-soaked wads of paper quckly, so she wouldn’t eat the rest of her names and I threw them across the slick floor one more time. The curious kitten ran toward one of the wads, but before she could pounce on it and swallow it, I grabbed it. I announced to the girls–“Okay, now do you want to know what this kitten’s name is?”
The three of them sat wide-eyed and waited. “Yes. What is it?” Marti asked.
“It’s PomPom,” I laughed, as I read the gravy-stained piece of paper. And that’s the story of how one cat named herself.
To read this and many other stories about cats, order your copy of Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats at http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html
