Be Careful What You Name Your Pet

Be careful what you name your pet. I have found that there is a certain energy or luck that follows the name you give your pet. At least it seems that way to me. I have had many pets in my life and I have seen the phenomenon a number of times. We had a cat named Dusty. When she was eight weeks old, and almost pure white, she came running by me. I looked at her then looked at my husband and said, "What's wrong with that kitten?" She had climbed into the fireplace and had soot all over her. Ever try to give an eight week old Siamese kitten a bath? We closed ourselves in the bathroom so she couldn't escape and bathed her in the sink. We ended up with tiny scratches all over our hands and one clean, but extremely disgruntled kitten.

When I was a kid we had a cat named Spacey. Boy, was she ever. That cat thought she was a dog. She would hang out with my cocker spaniel in her dog house. She would chase the other cats. The stupid cat would chase the other cats up trees then sit at the bottom of the tree and howl, totally unaware she was a cat and perfectly capable of climbing the tree herself. I don't know what she thought when she made noise and a meow came out instead of a bark. It must have freaked her out. To be fair, my cocker spaniel raised her. Her mom was pretty young and she wasn't much for mothering, other than feeding them. There were only two of them and as soon as mom went out on the prowl, the dog would get them out, drape them over her front paws, lay her head on them and they'd all go to sleep like that. It was pretty cute and after the first couple of nights I stopped worrying about it.

We have a cat named Toby. A male cat with a nice androgynous name. It worked out well when the cat had to have a sex change operation. I'm not kidding. With due respect to people who need sexual reassignment surgery. I would never make fun of them.  Toby wasn't feeling like he was a female in a male's body though, his was entirely a physical issue. His pipes kept clogging up. It was the surgery, to straighten out the pipes so there wasn't a bend in them for things to get caught in, or put him to sleep. We weren't willing to put him to sleep. My husband and son found Toby and his sister dumped on the side of the road when they were out geocaching. The kittens were about two months old at the time.  He turned out to be an expensive free kitty.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't happen all the time. Brandy didn't drink, Holly wasn't prickly and Gypsy doesn't wander. But when it  does happen, it can be devastating. My mom named one of our cats Squish. She really shouldn't have.