Here's another piece on New York City felines, but this article comes from the Real Estate section and is a Habitats column ... one of the weekly features I never miss! I was especially impressed that this caregiver's home always smells fresh.
We also have a multiple cat household and it just got a bit more multiple-er with our adoption of Key Samuelson. The jury is still out on the name she'll be known by on the records of our family since Annie and I are deadlocked about it. Technically, the cat is Annie's to name. Graham named our black cat Knight and did so after just one glance. That's how Graham rolls. He never has a problem thinking of Webkinz names and he likes what he picks. Our cat Alexei has a good name too. Kyle and I adopted her from the shelter and when we realized that she was a Russian Blue we knew we wanted a Russian name. It was either Alexei (Marni's suggestion) or Sasha. Both are nice but Lex is definitely a cat who needs an 'x' in her name.
Back to Little Girl. That's what we are calling her for lack of a finalized name. I gave the suggestion of Beatrix/call-her-Trixie right away. It was rejected. Annie offered Alex. That's not going to work since we already have a cat named Alexei (see paragraph above). I offered Gertrude/call-her-Trudy next. I love Trudy for this cat. In my heart, she is Trudy.
Graham wanted Chloe since our friend Elaine named her tabby kitten Chloe. But Annie said no.
Annie offered Polly and I thought we had a winner! Polly is a great cat name. But Annie can be fickle and she changed her mind. Now she wants to name the kitten Puff Puff.
This is our standstill. I refuse to call the cat Puff Puff. I told Annie we could name the sweet thing Polly with Puff Puff as a nickname, but nope. It's Puff Puff or nothing.
Right now I'm sticking with nothing.
The kitten is a darling snuggle bug. Today she leaped from Graham's bed to my shirt, just because she wanted to nuzzle my neck. She loves to play with ribbons and toys, of course, and Graham thrives on that kind of animal care. Annie wishes the kitten would sit still in her lap for hours at a time, but it's hard to coax Little Girl to stay in one place that long. I don't think calling her Puff Puff is helping on that front.
11 comments:
Oh name her Puff Puff! You'll have her for DECADES and when Annie is 18 and bringing boys home you can be like, Annie's so good at names! Here's our cat PUFF PUFF!!! It's a parent's joy to be able to embarrass our offspring with their own youth ... Joking aside, I do think your compromise of Polly nickname PuffPuff is a winner.
Noooooooooooo! Elizabeth, though I love you like the friend I've never met, I don't think I could allow "Puff Puff," either. Actually, I know I couldn't, since my poor kids don't get to choose pet names at all. And I don't mind being an ogress on this issue, because it's exactly names like "Puff Puff" that take all joy out of my relationships with animals.
I have devoted paragraphs to this very subject in regard to my chickens. Judge the ridiculous names I gave them all you want--I'm the primary care provider for the poultry, so I get to pick.
Truman and Brig have named all the creatures in their stuffed animal menagerie--maybe you could buy Annie a stuffed kitty on which to bequeath "Puff Puff"???
My word verification to leave this comment is "yarmon" . . . a far-better name choice than Puff-Puff-P-Diddy-Puff-Daddy-Puff-Kitty.
PS- "Pretty Boy" was the lowest point your blog ever slid, Erin . . . but I love THIS post!
:)
I think perhaps Erin's animosity towards a name like Puff Puff is because in the Hill household all cats names were literally FASTED and PRAYED over (both first and middle name) - and often reflected "the times" in our house - pop culture included - my personal favorite being Schubert Warlow Schwanberg-Hill (we had to hyphenate his name because he had lived with Jennifer but he really is MINE so I kept the Schubert but gave him Warlow (after Anthony Warlow - greatest singer EVER!) and Schubert Schwanberg-Hill was indeed how he was listed as an honorary groomsman for our wedding.
You can't put puff puff with the likes of Spencer Lodz and Indiana Scarpacci and Madison Lorenzo, or even Lucci Weasley and Jussi Potter, what about the B babies - they got OUR last names as middle names.
Perhaps you and Annie can spend some quality time on a baby naming website.
Trixie - really Erin? Trixie? I can buy Trudy from you (a la children's books from our past) but Trixie - it's like a Barbie gone bad.
Keehee, Courtney. Good call on "Trixie."
I'm sorry I let our kids name her in the first place. If T & I had named her, she might have come to you with a better name than Key. I'm liking Trudy. I also like Trixie. My first car was named Trixie.
Long live Puff Puff!!! (someone has to speak up for the non-thoughtful namers in the world. You guys are all so darn sophisticated. Although I'm sure it is my envy of your sophistication talking ... Spencer Lodz INDEED.) Although, Becca, I did love your chicken names ... and I was so tired of seeing old Pretty Boy. Perhaps Puff Pretty Boy?
Elizabeth - We got Spencer after I returned from a study abroad in Poland and we were centralized in the city of Lodz (said Woodje) - because the L has a slash through it and the o and the z have accent marks (thus, so does his name.) We also had Sophie Winslet (this during the height of Titanic and we thought a proper British name would fit with Sophie.)
The fact that Erin is letting her children contribute is wonderful but seriously, if children really contributed to names and parents didn't have a veto I know some CHILDREN who would be named things like "handlebar" or "darth vader" - seriously!
Perhaps Puff Puff can come live in D.C. with you???
Are you speaking ill of my sweet soon-to-be-born daughter Darth Vader? Oliver really loves the name for his little sister. Okay, okay, I concede, you guys are all just more thoughtful than I am. My only pet was a small dog named Casey (not very deep) and I was always kind of horrified, but my sister had a cat named ... Cat. So, I guess our lack of creativity came out early. Puff Puff is dead! Long live Puff Puff!
I like pet names that just take the color of the animal and add a fanciful -y or -ie. For example, if your cat is gray you call it "GrayIE", or if it is Brown you would call it "BrownY" (not ie for the obvious reason that it would be confused with my personal favorite snack, brownIE-we don't want the kids mistakenly devouring the cat as an after school snack, now, do we?) or perhaps if it is multicolored you could call it "Colorfullie" or even "Rainbowy".
I can attest that allowing your children to have the naming rights to pets makes them sweet, compliant, responsible, respectful, and grateful teenagers.
ps I personally enjoyed "Pretty Boy". Long may he live.
This is hilarious!
The only thing I must say is this.......the more a parent resists puff puff, the more a child will want it. It is good for children to resist parents (unless they are my children right?), or at least it feels good to them.
I am not saying name the cat puff puff, but a deadlock could be solved by a sideways move.......
Perhaps an acceptance of puff puff might lead to the rejection of such? (:
Post a Comment