Dolittler

Related Blog Entries

On the lighter side: Gratuitous Guinea pig blogging (May 5, 2008)
Transgender pets: he-she confusion in vet medicine (November 13, 2007)
The “parent” trap: talking guardianship, parenthood and ownership in veterinary medicine (October 19, 2007)

Comments

I'm not entirely convinced about the cat thing. LOL

One of my cats, Toole (he was named after the street he was found one by one of my vet's techs) hears his name all the time. "Toole! Leave Oreo alone!" "Toole! Get your tail away from Pepper's cage. He's going to bite you!" Toole! Get out of Taz's crate! He wants to go to bed and you're in the way!" "Toole! Get your face out of the spaghetti bowl!"

I love him dearly, but he is a massive pain in the butt sometimes. He was brought up with dogs and acts just like one. Just this morning he was kind enough to express his anal glands all over himself. Blech! Cats are not fond of having their rear ends wiped, but I'm not a fan of having anal gland stuff all over my bed either.

Going back to the name game, my chinchilla's name is Shakespeare and my Russian Tortoise is named Mozart. Shakespeare's only interest in paper is chewing it and Mozart would prefer to bite than compose anything musical.

I only use my pets real names when they are in trouble for something. If somebody were to listen in on the daily conversations around here, they would be lead to believe I had more animals than I actually do. Where I leave off, one of my blue front amazons fills in the voids or blanks.

The blue front that talks is named Pepper. The other who doesn't talk is Oscar. Since Oscar's nickname is "Fat Bird", Pepper can often be heard telling Oscar to be quiet by means of yelling "Shut Up Fat Bird!!" Oscar doesn't listen. He just looks around the room as if to say "Who is he yelling at?" and proceeds to do his seagull impression, a really large, fat seagull.

# Posted By Stacy | 1/10/07 1:41 PM

My dog's name is "Bella", but she also answers to "Hellbeast" -- a holdover from when we'd just gotten her from the shelter and she was about as much trouble as you'd expect from an unsocialized beagle mix.

The cats are Tovy, Madeleine, Sam, and Violet. Tovy has a slightly vulgar nickname related to his obesity; he's been on a diet for 2 years now but we think he's perfected photosynthesis because he's lost almost no weight. His littermate Madeleine used to be called "Battleship Madeleine", but she did fine on her diet....

Sam's name has become a verb: "He's samming under the bed." "Sam's samming on top of the cabinet again."

Violet has no name-related amusement to report. She's also the only one we didn't name ourselves -- that's the name the shelter gave her, and it seemed to suit, so we kept it.

# Posted By Laura V | 1/10/07 1:57 PM

In my household the cat's names tend to migrate to simpler forms-Bruno to Boo, Monday(no relation to the day he was actually found) to Munz.

But I still don't understand how Rastus ended up being called Tookie-Belle......

# Posted By heather | 1/10/07 2:21 PM

I thought I was being so clever naming the youngest retriever "McKenzie." But then my brother -- a high school teacher -- told me he knew at least SIX teenage girls with the same name. Apparently it's very "in" right now.

"Woody" came named. Apparently in Sweden (were he was born) they have no idea that calling a young male dog "Woody" is a bit of a problem.

# Posted By Gina | 1/10/07 2:26 PM

Actually I don't have a Pyewacket. :)

The current cats are Spider, Sassy Fat Cat, Tom, and Pepe. The dogs are Kenya and Rascal. I named two of them. The rest were names they came to us called. I've had Colin & George (which I did not name!), Rascal the cat, Stasia, Rags, and Princess, Ghost, and Horatio. (Ghost and Horatio were budgies). I've threatened to name our next basset Hoover, for the vacuum.

Kenya was named when I volunteered at the shelter. I was constantly in her cage hand feeding her, soothing her, etc, urging, "Can ya eat another bite? Can ya make it through another day?" And when we took her home, it's Can ya get off the couch... We just spell it Kenya instead. Usually we just call her Dog, because for the longest time she was the only dog in a house of cats. Rascal has all sorts of nicknames, my favorite being Stinkybutt.

Pepe came to us with the name of Sydney, but when we said the name, he ran for it. About the same time, my sweetie's great-aunt died. She always had one cat, and she Always called it Pepe. We tried to get Pepe -- it was the only thing we wanted of hers, but the family refused and down right lied to us about the existence of the current Pepe. We agreed to always keep a Pepe in her memory. We had a cat that didn't like his name, so he became our Pepe. And he has bloomed under the new name.

I've named a lot of shelter cats- our shelter did not usually keep the names they came in under. I've met several Evil the Cats, and a couple of really crude names for surrenders or names an adopter wants to change it to. I do remember one week at the shelter naming all of the new cats pasta names, when I ran out of fresh ideas... Lasagna, Rigitoni, Vermicelli...

# Posted By Georg | 1/10/07 3:04 PM

Spider is Spider because she came to me as a wee kitten, eyes still shut, ears still down, umbilical cord still dried up on her tummy- she looked like a little black spider, with her legs splayed out like that!

CB is actually Cueball- I was going out to a poolhall to hang out with some people that night and just needed a name for her ;) Heh.

Then I have cats named after my WoW characters- and my husband's as well!

My dogs... My eldest came named. My second was named Asher since it meant 'blessed, happy'. My youngest is Luca because she is the sister to Lucas, who passed away from an intestinal blockage.

I enjoy naming my critters. Sometimes, we go for normal names- sometimes fun names. My Angora rabbit was named Velcro- because everything STUCK to his fur!

# Posted By Trish | 1/10/07 6:05 PM

The most amusing name I've heard a retired, RVing, snowbird couple give their squiggly little shih tzu pup : Wheel chock.

# Posted By Nancy Campbell RVT | 1/10/07 8:27 PM

Bijou Belle Yzabeau Blondine. That is the name of my AKC registered bichon frise. My goal was to take up all the boxes on the AKC form and I did!

Each name has a meaning; jewel, beautiful, of God, and blonde, respectively, but she goes by Bijou, Bij, Boo-Boo, or Boo.

You vets do an incredible job and you are appreciated!

Lily

# Posted By Lily | 1/10/07 8:58 PM

I have a cat with the misnomer of a name, Serenity. She knows her name but is not at all serene. My sister had a rabbit named Fencassa (not sure on the exact spelling). In Maltese, this means rabbit stew. She was a generous rabbit when she was getting her way but an utter b**ch when not. I was learning Maltese at the time, hence the name. Our mother thought it was horried but we enjoyed it.

# Posted By MeriGray | 1/10/07 9:05 PM

My husband name our cocker Vino. He said that way when he called "Vino" he'd either get his dog, or a glass of wine...or both!! When I take him to the nursing home for therapy visits, they call him anything but..."Dino", "Beano", etc.

My standard poodle is Norman...didn't want a foo-foo name for a stereotypical foo-foo dog.

Isn't it funny how we all have to tell you what we've named our pets...like you really care :)

# Posted By Kim Hanson | 1/10/07 9:08 PM

Even though my animals were given "normal" names to begin with, over time these have been corrupted into odd nicknames. Sadie is a cuddle-bug, and this eventually shortened to Bug. Short,chubby Gracie looked like a grizzly bear in spring and fall when she was shedding, and now will answer to either Grizz or Bear. My huge ragdoll cat loves to take showers, so became Aqua-cat or sometimes Furball. And my very active Christmas-tree climbing tripod kitten Lucy has evolved into Lucifer, or sometimes just "the Hellion". My now-deceased rabbits also had nicknames--Gertie became Hosenpfeffer (also "rabbit stew" in German), and the other never did get an official name but became Tibbar (rabbit spelled backwards). My Shepherd Dusty eventually became Gutter (where I found her as an emaciated pup) and Omar the Afghan was also known as Marbles (the only thing I think he had between his ears in place of brains). But I have loved each of them with all my heart regardless of their odd names.

# Posted By Shellie | 1/10/07 11:49 PM

One of my cats is named..."Accident"! I believe that name was mentioned in a previous post. He was a little feral kitten with the most asymmetrical black and white markings you've ever seen...and he has a habit of finding himself in the most precarious of positions, so his name suits him.

# Posted By anna | 1/11/07 1:06 AM

My 2 Huskies have Inuit inspired names-- Suka (fast) & Nanook (bear). I recently lost my first Sibe boy- Timber named because he looked like a timber wolf. With my dogs I always like to relate back to something breed specific.

Our cats are Salem, Kazi and O'Malley. Salem to relate back to witches (she is black), Kama Kazi because she is FEARLESS that one, and O'Malley after O'Malley the alley cat (I found all 3 w/mom half starved)

# Posted By Amanda | 1/11/07 2:36 AM

Amanda,
As I've said in a previous post, Suka also means something else in Polish... Its the equivilent to a female dog...(B*%#h).
Also, I find it funny when a young couple gets a dog and they name it their favorite name, and then comes the first born and they give it the same name and then try and change the dog's name. I know quite a few like that. One being my Brother..Poor dog is now called Bella while their daughter is Isabella... confusing not only for me at times but can you imagine being the dog or the toddler?? HA!

# Posted By Shelly | 1/11/07 8:40 AM

My dog's name was KashKaroo but when I got him I changed it to Kash but we end up calling him all sorts of things like Kashipoo, Kashy, Kasher, and of course cuddly pup, and baby, and I call him Cachito because of a song that goes Cachito, cachito, cachito mio, pedaso del cielo que Dios me dio. He's my piece of heaven, what can I say!

# Posted By Ana | 1/11/07 9:18 AM

I should have mentioned--names are nothing compared to nicknames. If you ask the average person to list the number of nicknames they have for their pets they'd probably number five or more. I was present at one memorable berievement group meeting in vet school where everyone was asked to list their dearly departed pets' nicknames and terms d'amour. We were all crying by the time the entire circle had completed their recitations. Nicknames mean everything...

# Posted By Dr. Patty Khuly | 1/11/07 9:58 AM

My darling, yet brattish beagle is Ben AKA Benben AKA Hoodlum Puppy of Doom AKA BeagleBoy. My old man cat is Fizgig, named after the little monster character in Dark Crystal. We were driving home from getting him and trying to come up with the name and he was *screaming*. Since the little pet monster Fizgig in the movie always screams, the name stuck. He's also been called Old Man, Fiz, Kittyboy, and once, to his great displeasure, Fizzygiggles. My younger cat was a pound rescue and was on his last day before they put him down. Shortly before then my Australian friend told me the story of a Capt. Buckley. Apparently Capt. Buckley led his troops into the Australian desert with just enough food and water to get to an outpost in the center. Unfortunately, by the time they got there, the outpost had been attacked and everyone was dead and all the supplies were gone. There he was, stuck in the middle of the desert without enough food/water to go forward or back. According to my friend, if you're in a bad situation it's said "You've got Buckley's chance."
Therefore, I named my new kitty Buckley. He's also been called Buckbuck, Tubby, Buckley-boo, and Fata**.

# Posted By Teleri | 1/11/07 10:34 AM

My poor puppy, Boomer, got his name because all he did was poo on the carpet when we first got him from the SPCA. He left little boom-booms all over the place. (then we got a crate!) He has more nicknames then I can probably name at one time, but to name a few: Boom, Booms, Boomskers, Boo, Boomie, and Boom-boom. I learned that dogs don't so much "know" their names as much as they recognize your tone of voice.

# Posted By Kara | 1/11/07 11:16 AM

I name my pets after literary characters whose characteristics I would like them to adopt. This has never been a problem until we got my first ferret and had to name her Pantalaimon...Pan for short. Well, whenever anyone asks her name (vets, new acquaitances, etc) my husband insists on giving her full name and then the person always looks at us funny. It's like they're thinking, "Oh God, these are the type of people who are going to name their children something really stupid and embarrassing someday." No, I use such creativity on my animals for a reason. Plus, no one can spell it. Meanwhile, my mother cannot understand why we picked the name Meryl for our cat, and continually pronounces it like 'Merle'.

# Posted By Becky | 1/11/07 11:25 AM

hmmmmm. Our dogs' names are nothing unusual (they all came pre-named), but we had 7 cats at one time and their names were:

Java, Zip (he of the extra toes), Cobalt, Toast, Marmite, Pod, Mo

No particular theme- except for toast and marmite (we couldn't resist) who were a feisty couple of barn kittens adopted after a particularly wine-filled Christmas party - we walked home with them tucked into our coats, and had to bathe them to see what colour they really were....

Sadly, they are all long gone now to permanent homes - chronic asthma and cats do not mix, apparently.

# Posted By Erika | 1/11/07 2:09 PM

Here's a few names from my menageries past and present:
A cat named L because that's what his bellowing meows sound like.
A cat named Tumbleweed because he has trouble walking. I know it may sound mean, but it fits him well.
A cat named Generic.
A cat named Lucifer. My mom named her, but it fit.
A bonded pair of rabbits, Muscles and The Spokesman. The Spokesman is the brains and talker. Muscles, is obviously the muscles of the pair.
A cavy named Mongo because that boy ain't bright.
Another cavy named Gossamer because he's all orange like the monster in Bugs Bunny cartoons.
A cavy called Rochester based on the Jack Benny shows.
And President William Howard Taft (the bunny rabbit)

# Posted By cheshire | 1/11/07 10:17 PM

All of my dogs and cats were rescue, and when I was able to name them I did, but most of the time they already came with names. I kept them because it was easier on them.

The current dog is a black Standard Poodle named Roxie. She has a variety of nicknames, Roxiedog and The Roxinator being the ones most commonly used. At the vet, she's known as 'That Dietary Indescretion Dog' . . . she's 13 months old! As in, 'That Dietary Indescretion Dog is back!' I also call her 'little girl' as a term of endearment, because she's only 22 inches high at the shoulder and 36 pounds, which is little for SP's. Roxie suits her down to a T, and I kept it because she really has a Roxie-type attitude, confident, happy, etc.

The previous standard poodle was named Dweezil. We didn't name him -- he came that way as a completely untrained 9 month old who weighed 70 pounds. When I, as a teenager, told my father about the dog over the phone -- 'Dad, dad, we're getting another dog!' he naturally wanted to know the dog's name. I said, "Dweezil". Dad said, in a horrified tone, "Weasel?!" Dweez was known as the goat dog, because he ate literally anything (I suspect he had the canine version of PICA) and was never affected in the slightest. Memorable 'food' included scrunchies, chocolate cakes, and lipsticks. And yes, his original owners were fans of the Zappas.

I named my cat Spot after Data's cat on Star Trek. And I rescued a beautiful cinnamon-and-white striped tabby kitten whom I at first named Scarlett, then, once I figured out he was a he, changed the name to Red. Scarlett was a DIVA and I wish he had been female, the name really fit.

# Posted By Whitewater | 1/12/07 4:08 AM

My dogs is Thomas.
Three Cats ; Sebastion, George and Samantha
Four rats: Maxine, Gladys, Mutt and Odie
Two Birds (I did NOT name): Willie and Peanut (I inherited these from a very sick friend, a Quaker and a Cockatiel - very nasty dispositions.)

# Posted By Surgeon in my Dreams | 1/12/07 1:07 PM

Our current cats are Harlequin, Figaro, and Balthazar.

We've had former cats named Pyewacket, Belphoebe, and Grendel.

We like literary names, preferably with three syllables -- but Grendel's name really fit him!

# Posted By Susan | 1/13/07 1:06 PM

Our first cat was seven months old when we adoped her. Though a still a kitten, she was beginning to look like a cat, and so we called her LittleKat. It was to be only a temporary name, but it ultimately felt like just the right name for her.

A few months later, we adopted a five-month-old kitten, and we were DETERMINED to be more creative in naming her. She was smaller than LittleKat, so that would make her a ... BabyKat. That also was to be a temporary name, and that, too stuck.

My favorite nickname is one of LittleKat's ... Fluffshanks!

# Posted By Maria | 1/17/07 5:34 PM

My standard poodle is Agadore Spartacus, named for the shoeless houseboy in the movie "the Birdcage". Neither my dog nor I are gay, I just loved the character.

My rescued pitbull is Beaner, named after Carlos Mencia's comedy schtick. No reason, except that Mencia's comedy and this dog are someone connected.... you'd have to experience DaBean to appreciate him.....

# Posted By Agadore's momma | 3/24/07 1:35 AM

hmm.. see, I've always liked giving people names to my pets. When I lived at home, we had a LARGE amount of cats, thanks to my parents bringing many home. Odd that I only brought two of the 7 cats we had home. lol Now, I tend to give people names, but people names that are given to cartoon characters.

The cats we had at that time, I named them all...

Sylvester (after the cartoon cat)
Todd (after the little fox in the movie the Fox & the Hound)
Roscoe P. (named after a cartoon dog and from the Dukes of hazzard)
Shannon (I just liked the name)
Sabrina (just like the name)
Kiara (from the lion king)
Nip Sue (named after one of the cats in Lady & the Tramp)

My husband and I still have Sylvester (who is now almost 18 years old!), Todd and Nip. The other's ended up being given to new, happy homes when my father passed away. I know Roscoe P., who was my baby, went to a VERY loving home where he couldn't be happier.

My husband and I also have two dogs. It's a running joke with our friends that we name pets after either cartoon characters or bands. The dogs got band names. Our male Shiba Inu is named Moxy Fruvous, after a Canadian band we both enjoy. Our new little 15 week old Welsh Corgi we call PJ, although... her full name is Pearl Jam. Did I mention we live in Seattle? LOL

# Posted By SK | 6/17/07 1:35 AM

I had a Pantalaimon ferret too, my little Pan--he passed away from juvenile lymphoma in Jan. 2006 but he was a really special little guy while we had him. It's an excellent name for a ferret. My ferrets get pasta nicknames and his was Pan Fried Noodle.

# Posted By Regina | 6/26/07 11:56 AM

Luxie - my first Bengal cat is named Luxury, because when I bought him from his breeder I was about 17 years old and at $500, he was my first "luxury item". he now goes by Luxie, Luxemburgers, and PeePee! (when he doesnt get his way he will pee on something important).

Diddles -my second Bengal, a female, started out with the pompous name "Pandora" because I bought her to breed with (yes, i was TICA and TIBCS-registered) and I loved the Greek legend of Pandora opening the box that released all the horrors of the world... Bengal kittens are monsters, but hilarious, adorable monsters. Pandora turned into Little Miss, MISStress Bunnyfur, and finally, Diddles. I would tell her all the time that she's a Diddle cause she's a Diddle Miss, and she would fall over and drag herself on the carpet in absolute joy. She was an odd one.

Bearly - was the cutest little black kitten that loved to sit on black clothing, black backpacks, in the shadows, and pop up and grab you when you walked by. he looked like a little bear cub anyway, so he was Bear at first, then became Bearly--cause he was barely-there.

Schmalls - "you're killing me, smalls!" okay, actually, she was called Woofdog for a long time as a kitten from Diddles' first litter. this was because if you startled her or left her alone, she'd make this horrible yipping sound. but for some reason, I decided she looked like a marshmallow (she's a very oddly-colored Bengal--classified as a Sepia-Mink) and if you take apart Marshmallow-- Shmallow = Schmalls. I dont know why I put a "C" in there.

Jitterbug - one of the cutesiest names we ever came up with when i was a kid, we got this name while watching Wizard of Oz on Ice. The Jitterbug is one of the songs from the original stage production, I believe. She was a mean little brat and belonged to my sister more than me.

# Posted By charity | 11/14/07 9:46 PM

My rattie boys have had fun names over the years.

Frick and Frack
Zig and Zag
Niles and Frasier
Tag, Play, Fetch, and Skyy
Wiley
Martini
Peanut
Face
Boogie
Gizmo

I'm about to get two new babies and I'm thinking of the names Nip and Tuck.

I love my ratties!

< :3 )~~~~~~~~~

# Posted By Brattus Rattus | 2/7/08 7:18 PM

I have 2 cats, named Neko and Priya. Neko (pronounced neck-o, not knee-ko!) is Japanese for cat. We picked out that name before we even got her, as we didn't know if we were getting a male or female, and the name suits both. My boyfriend just shortens it to NO!! when she does something bad. Priya means loved one in Hindi, and we thought it was fitting, since her previous owner loved her to bits. They both know their names, and answer when called. Our hamster is named Boris, just because he's a Russian hamster.

# Posted By Mitsu | 7/8/08 4:22 PM

[Add Comment]