by Brenda Morris

Created on: May 22, 2008

I do not believe in naming a cat before getting to know him/her. I like to see its personality and then name it appropriately. There are just too many cats names Fluffy, Cuddles, Tiger and Precious in the world.Until I name a cat, I just call it "baby." When the name strikes me, I name the kitten or cat.

All my cats are usually adopted by me because I am the "cat lady" in the neighborhood. There are several of my pets that stick out in my mind. One evening a kitten was found in the parking lot of a local junior high school. He was a tortise shell Tom that had seen better days. Within a few days I realized that he had completely made himself at home and was running all over the house "fast as the wind." I thought to myself, wind. The name of the wind in the movie Paint Your Wagon was Mariah. So Mariah earned his name by running as fast as the wind.

Another kitten was found in the back of a Chevy truck. She was just a few days old and was in terrible shape. Apparently she had been abandoned by her mother, or the Chevy drove away while the mother was absent. My boss' daughter bottle raised her until she was five weeks old and then gave her to me. I named her Chevy, of course, because she was found in the back of a Chevy truck. Chevy never considered herself a cat, but a human. After all, she was fed by humans as far back as she can remember and she slept in bed with me curled between my shoulder and neck every night. When Chevy got to big for that, she would sleep on my pillow.

It is no wonder that I name my cats strange names because I think they should be as unique as the cat that answers to them. I have a white cat with burnished orange and gray spots. This little cutie I named Tess, which means Fire. The burnt orange spots reminded me of fire and her personality went along with that, so Tess it was.

One of my cats that sticks out in my mind is Scratch. Of course he was named for his wonderful personality and the fact that he would scratch my boys on a regular basis. He was a delightful cat that would love on you, let you hold him in your lap, and rub against your legs when he felt like it.

There are many more stories and many more names that I have had over the years, but I guess I name my cats/kittens like the Indians used to do. When a child was born, the first thing the Father saw after the birth became the child's name, such as "Yellow Moon Rising." Every cat is an individual and deserves to have a unique name. The real secret to naming a cat is not what you choose to name it, but what the cat decides to come to.

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