Thursday, April 8, 2010

On Changing a Cat's Name

Our cat is currently called Meri. Now, I think of this as "merry" but I know other people hear it as "Mary" which is just a dumb name for a cat. Okay for people, not so good for a cat. Might as well call her Edna.  Actually, Edna would be better, catwise.

Please note, in my dialect these words are pronounced the same: merry, marry, Mary.   I know in some regions they are distinctive, not so for me.

We've had this current cat (see picture) since September, and her foster parent from whom we adopted her called her "Merigold." I dislike that even more than "Meri" but Meri was a compromise so that the cat knew who we were bellowing at when she tried to use the furniture for a scratching post. 

Now, I think I've come up with a better name. I'm staging a quiet little campaign to a) get the cat to recognize it, and b) get the other people here to use it. Well, my son, anyway. My husband calls every cat we have "Cat." He's a bit stubborn.

The new name is "PDQ" because this cat eats her dinner Pretty Damn Quick. You'd think she'd never seen wet food before, every single night. One night she conned my son into feeding her at 7:30, and behaved just as usual when my husband fed her again at 8:30. Food? *Inhale!!*  Takes her all of two nanoseconds to eat. Don't stop to wash your hands on the way back to the living room after you drop off the food. She'll beat you back there.

We could call her "Petey" for short. 

I like it. Even though when my husband was a kid, he had a parakeet named "Petey" who died tragically. So, I think to myself, why didn't he just call the parakeet "Bird?" I ask you.

Now we'll see how the Grand Cat Renaming Campaign goes. 

2 comments:

  1. Did it ever occur to you that the horrific experience of losing Petey has kept me from getting too close to pets?

    And talk about pot/kettle. You call me "Deer" all the time.

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  2. I like PDQ. We have one of those cats, adopted out of the trash can someone threw her into when she was the size of an overgrown peanut, eyes still blue. Nursed her with a doll bottle and cat formula. Was afraid she may not grow up big and strong. Turned out to be the largest cat we have ever had, we love when she walks on our backs because he sheer weight on those cool padded paws makes a great massage.

    Anyhow, our PDQ ("Oreo") lives with dogs. Not only would she inhale two full feedings within an hour of each other, she will then sneak pieces of DOG food out of the dogs' bowls. I'm talking dry tasteless dog kibble. As though the kitty hasn't eaten for days.

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