The naming of cats is a difficult matter

[lydy]

So, the little kittens are named Ninja and Nuit. But, of course, that's not what we call them. Or, not the only things that we call them. They are also called The Black Kitten of Death and the Starry Kitten of the Night, Brother Death and Sister Space, Death Boy and Space Girl, Brother Boy and Sister Girl, and of course the very traditional Get Down From There and Don't Do That.

I bought Ninja a new toy on a stick. He was ecstatic with it and promptly dragged it all through the house, and tried to jump up on DDB's desk still carrying it. I also got a new dangle to go on one of the other stick toys, since they'd pretty much chewed the entire mylar tassel off. So, he is dragging that one around, too.

All in all, they are still happy and healthy and terribly active. The big kittens (who have considerably fewer nick names, continue to be amiable interspersed with annoyed with the little kittens.

Comments

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I forgot two nick names: Ninny and Little Meeper. Both are highly descriptive.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

"Meeper girl". Or just "Meeper". Do you use "little" in that? I don't.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Grin. I do admire the variety of names the kittens bear. "The Black Kitten of Death and the Starry Kitten of the Night," especially.

Tillie's picked up the name "Pudgepot" after turning from a svelte, small, almost-always-outdoors mom cat into a bruiser who primarily lives indoors and could easily claim the leading role as a spherical cat of uniform density.

I must remember to tell you what Tillie does with catnip-stuffed mice the next time we talk. And hear more kitten stories, too.

[fgherman.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to visit them again.

[pameladean]

I do my best with the big kittens! Arwen is Little Teddy Bear Face and Naomi is Nomi, Nomers, and McNomerkins (the last courtesy of David).

Miss Saffron is already River Cat and Miss Sandstone. But Ari had the most nicknames.

P.

[carbonel]

I hope to hear more soon about Miss Saffron.

[pameladean]

I was hoping to have a photo, but I think I'll just do a quick LJ entry.

P.

[laurel]

I love hearing about them.

I have an awful time naming cats, but then I tried naming Inky "Phouka" and it didn't stick so then he was Incarnadine (known usually as Inky). I was reluctant to name a black cat such an obvious thing as "Inky" so I suppose Incarnadine was my way around it, kinda sorta. (I think the Humane Society had dubbed him "Bigfoot" because he was polydactyl.) And ages ago I'd thought "Marlowe" would be a good name for a cat and so when I adopted Marlowe (known at the Humane Society as "Frankie" because of his blue eyes), I went that route, though I'm not so sure he looked like a Marlowe should, it stuck.

With my current cat posse I just kept the names they had since I figured they were old enough they might know them. It seems that many breeders of dogs and cats refer to their litters by letter so their first litter is an "A" and the second "B Litter" and so on, often then they'll use names that start with those letters. Some will use themes instead (I've spied a "Buffy" litter where all cats had names of Buffy characters and so on). So that's how I have so many cats whose names start with I! And since they're Norwegian Forest Cats, naturally the names are Norwegian. So. I guess the only question came when we rescued Inalise & Ibsen, who had been called "Lena" and "Sven" for the year they were in the care of someone else but since that was a bad year and they were reunited with their siblings, we reverted to their original names. Though sometimes I'll call Inalise "Ina" making it rhyme with "Lena" for short and to see if she responds better. I don't think I ever really tried "Sven" and "Lena" on them much, I figured it might be best to move on.

When I still had Inky and Marlowe, we'd use "Black cat" and "white cat" as their rather obvious code names that we thought they didn't understand, but eventually we may have used them enough that they caught on.

I suppose we do refer to Ivarr as "Scaredy Cat" and "Skulky Cat" and nowadays "Ninja Cat" or "Curtain Cat" for obvious reasons. I tell Inalise she's a "pretty girl" often enough it may almost be a nickname. Likewise "brave girl". I think Isbjorn is mostly simply Isbjorn and Ibsen is Ibsen.