A Surplus of Names
Before any shelter visits, before buying cat supplies, in fact very early on in the cat-adopting process, I warned Adrienne and my other roommates that if we did get a cat, I would definitely not end up calling it by its real name. Probably, I said, I would assign it a long and possibly literary person-name, like Christopher Marlowe or Elizabeth Bennett, but then mostly call it Kitty.
It seems to me that this is common practice; Jeremy’s cat is, I believe, named Zane Grey, but they generally call it Bob, and as far as I know, Jesse’s cat is just called Kitty. I considered the idea of calling a cat Duckling or Bunny or Gator, but I’m not as excited about that as I once was.
Adrienne had been interested in having a cat named Smudgy, which is admittedly an adorable name, but after we decided on Franklin, who is stripey but not smudgy really at all, it seemed that we might just let him keep his name, and just elaborate on it until someone forces us to stop.
We had two starting points: my tendency to fill out the “Franklin” with various historical Franklins (like Delano Roosevelt, Pierce, or Benjamin), and Adrienne’s throwaway reference to him as Dr. Burke, meant originally to differentiate him from Dr. Kitty McDreamy, aka Christopher (Robin). While deciding between FDR, Benjamin Franklin, and Franklin Pierce, I naturally came upon Benjamin Franklin Pierce, and from that Hawkeye followed logically. The fact that both Hawkeye and Dr. Preston Burke are both TV surgeons (and both, as far as I can remember, cardio-thoracic specialists, and good ones) was too great of a coincidence to pass up, and so our poor cat, who probably doesn’t even realize that he is about to come live with us, has accumulated the name of Dr. Preston (Benjamin) Franklin “Hawkeye” (Pierce) Burke, aka “Scampers.”
I will probably just call him Kitty.
(Happy birthday, Mom!)
It seems to me that this is common practice; Jeremy’s cat is, I believe, named Zane Grey, but they generally call it Bob, and as far as I know, Jesse’s cat is just called Kitty. I considered the idea of calling a cat Duckling or Bunny or Gator, but I’m not as excited about that as I once was.
Adrienne had been interested in having a cat named Smudgy, which is admittedly an adorable name, but after we decided on Franklin, who is stripey but not smudgy really at all, it seemed that we might just let him keep his name, and just elaborate on it until someone forces us to stop.
We had two starting points: my tendency to fill out the “Franklin” with various historical Franklins (like Delano Roosevelt, Pierce, or Benjamin), and Adrienne’s throwaway reference to him as Dr. Burke, meant originally to differentiate him from Dr. Kitty McDreamy, aka Christopher (Robin). While deciding between FDR, Benjamin Franklin, and Franklin Pierce, I naturally came upon Benjamin Franklin Pierce, and from that Hawkeye followed logically. The fact that both Hawkeye and Dr. Preston Burke are both TV surgeons (and both, as far as I can remember, cardio-thoracic specialists, and good ones) was too great of a coincidence to pass up, and so our poor cat, who probably doesn’t even realize that he is about to come live with us, has accumulated the name of Dr. Preston (Benjamin) Franklin “Hawkeye” (Pierce) Burke, aka “Scampers.”
I will probably just call him Kitty.
(Happy birthday, Mom!)
posted by Katherine at 10:41 AM
2 Comments:
Since you're acquiring your cat on my birthday, it should, appropriately enough, be named Janis. Or even better, Thompson (Tom's son). How do you know that the cat's dad WASN'T named Tom???? Just please, whatever you do, resist calling it "Kitty."
The mom, aka Janis Thompson
Whatever the name, you now belong to kitty.
Remember the dictum:
"Dogs have masters, cats have staff."
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