This was briefly mentioned in Nano’s “My Cat is So Weird part 6” thread, and it’s an important enough topic that I thought it deserved a thread all its own
I was hoping for more stories about Cat Appellations-- you know, not the cat’s given name but the titles and nicknames that develop after getting to know the cat better (ex. Nano’s The Green Cat).
Here’s ours–
I was taking a class in Portuguese when I got my first kitten, who was solid black. I named her “Onça” which is the word for a panther (they have a spotted form and also a pure-black form). She soon became “Onça Preta” (black panther) and, when she developed the habit of climbing up into my plant stands and sprawling out in the middle of the epiphytic jungle cacti, she was “Onça da Floresta”. When I started learning about Brazilian names she was dubbed “Onça Maria Gimarães Da Silva Preto”. Later as she got older she was “Onça da Bahiga Grande”. (panther of the big belly).
My husband’s cat was a pale, indistinct shade of cloudy gray and dusty beige. Her given name was Elizabeth but she became “Fuzzybeth” and “Woozerbeth” (woozers are what my family calls those dusty things that gather under the bed).
They both seemed to like their titles, and would smile serenely when they heard them.
Sammy Moonbeam (black with a little white moon on his belly) and Harold the Pooh (orange tabby - brothers rescued from an industrial complex as kittens) became “Frick and Frack” (comedy duo, well earned, and which made it easier to remember which cat was which because Frack was black), then Frack became ‘Big Black’, due to the arrival of ‘Little Black’ who was actually 'Night Thing (because he was one), and then Harold/Frick became “Orange”, because he was, and then “Old One” because he is.
Appollo (huge black and white long hair) became :Squidge" because I like it, and then “Eagle bait”, which we never say in his hearing, because it was a very traumatic experience! )
“Gabriel”, a gold tabby who liked canoeing and eating ants, for his propensity to sound off loudly and ceaselessly, and who left us far too soon… may his heavenly horn have led him home.
“Seamus”, for his red hair, and who acts amazingly like a reincarnation of Gabriel, with the interesting addition of a ‘wagging’ tail, also known as “Pull Tail Fall Down” for reasons well explained in the name, but mostly “Shameless”…
“Lace” whose name may reflect her decorative attributes, but most assuredly not her attitude, unless you autmatically equate Lace with Asenic… also known as ‘the badness’, ‘the horror’, ‘the tease’, ‘piss and vindegar’, and any number of rude words that are earned by wicked bites and the beginning of faint scarring.
Many more, but I’m barely functioning due to sleep deprivation…
My cats both go by their names (Eddie and Toby) when called, but when I’m actually talking to them, I’m afraid to admit that one of them is “Big Guy” and the other is “Little Dude.”
My all-time favorite cat’s actual name (the pet of a local writer) is Bob Valdez.
The very old lady is “purry girly” or “pudding”. The baby (9 months old), is"little un" or “serengeti”, as she likes to be carried along your arm, with 2 legs either side, like a lion snoozing up a tree in the Serengeti. Mum and dads’ cat (ginger long haired) gets “fluffy keks” (keks = slang in the UK for trousers), or “lady boy”, as he’s way too pretty to be a boy!
Cass.
Ps. Our two say a big “Mmeeaowww” to their feline friends on the forum. (…“little un” is very good at “helping” me to use the computer keyboard!..she suggested saying “hi”).
…they both call me “the tall one with the tin-opener”
…I called the “little un” a few choice words last weekend. She steals things. (She gets called “klepto” a lot). She stashes everything in a corner behind the washing machine, and the other day, after finding LOADS of really big flies in the kitchen, we pulled out the washing machine to see what was there. 9 cat toys, 7 balls, 3 table napkins, a small towel, a piece of bread, my watch and 3 half eaten pouches of cat food (which she’d stolen out of the cupboard when I wasn’t looking)…and loads of flies in various stages of development. Yeuch!!! She always has more than enough fresh food put down for her, so I can’t understand why she does it. This is the second time. Think it’s time for a lock on the cupboard!
She is well fed, and spoilt rotten. She’s stolen stuff since she was tiny. Earrings, socks, watches, mobile phone chargers, pens…
We used to have a grey tortoise-shell calico named Morgan. For some reason unkown to me, my wife often called her Pfeffernüsse. Given the translation, it always seemed like an odd nickname for a female cat…
I have Green Bird or Blue-headed Green Bird (real name is Fergie - a blue-crowned conure)
White Bird or Big Chicken (real name is Ariel - an umbrella cockatoo)
Squeaky (real name is Squeaky - the only animal I ever named right on the first try)
Unlike cats who can’t speak English, the birds can. Fergie calls me Tickle Beak. Ariel calls me Bi*ch, but ever so sweetly whispered in my ear. I did not teach her that.
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