The Venerable Neels goes all over the place with pet names-from the sublime to the ridiculous. Nary a novel goes by without at least one cat, a dog or two, an old lame donkey and possibly a horse or pony - all with names. Younger siblings may or may not have a name, but pets...always.
Here is a small sampling of pet names used by The Venerable Neels:
- Dog names: The best of the best is William and Mary - two bouviers belonging to a Hunky Dutch Doctor - the next best: Robinson and Friday. Other dog names: Jack, Prince, Daisy, Beauty, Jake, Henry, Benjy, Rough, Nero, Charlie, Solly, Tips, Butch, Bess, Caesar, Basset.
- Cat names: Brimble, Dickens, Waterloo, Neptune, Charles, Nibbles and Kiki.
- Donkey names: Joe and Josephine, Prince, Queenie.
- Horse: Cobber
Betty Magdalen shared her cat names with us last week (see Henrietta's Own Castle - Discussion Thread - comments). Polly and Linus Pauling. Genius. I didn't realize quite how genius until I read an article about Linus Pauling. Did you know that Linus Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon (where Betty Keira currently resides)? He graduated, with a degree in chemistry, from what later became known as Oregon State University (Betty Debbie was born in Corvallis while the Hanna Betty's parents were both students at OSU).
My, my. Fate is Remarkable.
Unfortunately for Betty Keira, our family had it's greatest pet moments before she was born. I literally grew up with our dog, Sam. My parents adopted him when I was just a wee little Dutch boy(that's what my haircut made me look like), and he passed away around the year Betty Keira was born...when I was 17. I have no idea where he got his name - our family (including grandparents) were not known for whimsicality in pet names.
When I was around 11 or 12 we got a duckling. Why a duckling? I have no idea. Ou
r home, back in those days, was just outside of "town", farm country just waiting to be overtaken by subdivisions. We had plenty of space for a duck, I'm just not sure why we had one. We named the duck "Ping", which was pretty much the height of creativity in pet names for us.
In my teen years we had a cat which was to become mother to several litters of kittens...we called her...wait for it....Momma Cat. I wish I could say that it was a play on the words "Momma Cass", but sadly, I don't think so. I totally appreciated the name of the cat in A Gentle Awakening. Mother Cat. Because that's what she was.
What are your favorite pet names? (You don't have to currently have a pet residing with you...I certainly don't) Do you lean towards "cute" names (Mr. Nibbles, Ruff, Diddums), descriptive (Fluffy, Blacky, Stinky), or people names (Charlie, Sam, Jack...)?
Cats: Sunny, Paden (from Silverado!), and Foxie (none were named by me)
ReplyDeleteDogs: Max (I was REALLY young when he died), Rocky (my sister's dog), Luna (was named Willow when we adopted her, but I renamed her... then she died a year later from a kidney infection), and IVAN, who I did name and miss dearly
Hamsters: Batman and Oprah :)
Cats: Tibby and Opus
ReplyDeleteDogs: Boomer, Pooch
We currently have a fish named Tickles
Our cat's name morphed into what it is currently. It started out as Buttercup (Princess Bride), then it turned into PeanutButterCup (The candy), but that was a mouthful and it got shortened into Peanut.
ReplyDeleteAnybody want a Peanut?
My goldfish, Sashimi - my frog, Shylock
ReplyDeleteMy cat of 17 years while a grad student, sp-----r professor, and wife and mother was named Wacky, short for Anahuac (pronounced "anna-WACK" in Texas history--not even close to the proper Spanish pronunciation), a famous battle prior to the Texas Revolution and part of my master's thesis. She was a tortoise-shell calico with a corkscrew tale that thumped instead of swished.
ReplyDeleteOur dog growing up was named Hershey because her sister was named CoCo.
Katrina was the name of our hamster who ate her babies--never liked that name since.
I forgot! We also briefly owned a milk cow named Bossy. I can't remember the calf's name. I hated the milk from Bossy - it had flecks of cream floating on the the top. We made delicious butter from the rest of the cream - by hand.
ReplyDeleteI just read two weeks to remember and the poor,starving, lost dog that almost got ran over was named Bones.
ReplyDeleteMy memory is appalling. I was talking to Betty Sherri this morning when I remembered our Shetland pony named Misty - it should have been called "Spawn of Satan". Worst pet ever (I was 8 or 9 years old). I was scarred for life...I've never wanted to ride a horse again.
ReplyDeleteOne year for Christmas we received three Shetland ponies--black, white, and brown ones named Coffee, Cream, and Sugar. Cream bucked immediately upon feeling anyone on her back, Coffee bucked if you sat on any of 80% of her back, and Sugar you could ride a bit before getting thrown off. Shetland ponies are devils dressed as angels.
ReplyDeleteI have a cat named Oliver and an English Bulldog named Emmitt :-)
ReplyDeleteWe also had a dog named Sam when I was a child. We lived in a tiny house in a historic neighborhood, and Sam (a collie mix) was too rambunctious, so we "gave" him to a family living in the suburbs, a good 15 miles away with the Mohawk River in between. You know where this story is going...
ReplyDeleteSure enough, Sam came back to us. Then the family moved to Colorado. And no, Sam did not cross the country to rejoin his original neurotic family.
After that, Toby & Vixen, both belonging to my mother (who never met a pet she couldn't make more neurotic).
There was a family cat named Fizzies (a "soft drink" of sorts based on the same principle as Alka Seltzer: you plunked two tablets in a glass of water & got a fizzy sweet pretty-much-flavorless drink a couple minutes later), then I had a Siamese cat I got to name: Gabrielle Arianna (a Veronica, wouldn't you say? one of the Dutch ones she has to marry off to a paunchy Floridian with gold jewelry). Given the chatty nature of Siamese cats, she quickly became "Gabby."
When Betty Ross and I were discussing getting a dog, we had two names picked out. If it was a male dog, "Zitch," short for "Zitch Dog," the name of an annoying car trip game we saw on "How I Met Your Mother." (First person to see a dog says, "Zitch Dog," and you keep score.)
If it was a girl dog, she was to be Mia. There's a wonderful dog training show on in the UK called "It's Me or the Dog," referring to those painful conversations that couples have when one loves the dog, and the other thinks the dog's behavior is past the pale. When I saw that this show was going to be on BBC America, I told Ross, "Hey, we have to watch "It's Me or the Dog," and he replied, "It's Mia the Dog?"
Wow, I really am jet-lagged. Our dog is named Mimi, not Mia. I forget exactly why, but when we got her, she just didn't seem like a Mia. I think she's a bit too goofy. So, instead she's named after Puccini's heroine, the one who's "Che Gelida Manina" (tiny hand is frozen). That rather fits Mimi -- she's no fan of water or snow or ice or even cold mud. Sun, fire, etc. -- as befits her Rhodesian Ridgeback ancestry.
ReplyDeleteAs long as she doesn't become consumptive and waste away between arias...
ReplyDeleteI have cats named Emma and Jamie, so I tell people that when I have children, I will name them Spot and Fluffy.
ReplyDeleteBetty Keira -- No, Mimi is in fine health. She's two & a half now; we're waiting for the magic third birthday when she's supposed to be ADULT. (Actually she made dramatic improvements at age one, but she's still a bundle of energy -- which I am not!)
ReplyDeleteBetty Lynn: LOL!