Pet Stories

Our five living cats are named: Darryll Cooper, Elliott Ross, Martin Keil-Ross, Eddie Haskell (the neighbor's cat whom we adopted when he moved to NYC, the neighbor that is, as he, Eddie, lived at our place anyway and always had the manners to compliment my wife on her house dress before entering our home on a daily basis to devour every scrap of food in sight) & Shipton (short for Rocket-Ship the Prozac Cat) Ross-Keil. My first cat (no longer with us) was named Pete Keil (after a friend of mine, also deceased) and one of my wife's first was named Todd (AKA Puffy Todd before the days of Rap). Richard is a great name for a cat and it may very well be a "next" in our household (hey, after he's neutered we can call him "Little Dick". Why do people give cats stupid cat names, when they have such distinct personalities.

Right on DeKay! Richard is a fine name.

I had a cat named Richard when I was a teen, named for actor Richard Burton. (The kitty was dark and handsome and was given away by folks whose surname was Welsh). His full brother was named Albert (for Albert Finney, Albert was charming but always over-reacted.). Then there was Fred (short for Frederic Chopin, a kitty that liked to sit on the piano bench and plunk individual keys with one paw)... Deidre, who was sweet and dreamy...Michael J. Katt (named for the person who gave him to us)...Amneris (she was exotic looking)...and of course Bachus & Ariadne (these two kittens were dumped at the farm one Saturday afternoon and guess what the Met broadcast was?)

Dogs: Peabody (yellow lab), Audrey (miniature pinscher), Mozart (mixed breed) Pixie (Australian shepherd) and on and on. You should see the names we give our horses!

Alas none of the above are still with us...pet lives are relatively short. But the next one will be carefully named according to his/her personality and physical attributes. All our critters have been "characters" with strong personalities. And none of them really bothered the gear (We "trained" the cats as well as our dogs. Our four legged family was taught to mind their manners in the house.) It was a near thing with the labrador, however, as lab pups LOVE to chew. And Mike the cat thought he wanted to gnaw on power cords - a little hot pepper sauce changed his mind.

Nilthepill, buy those darling girls a furry friend.

my spouse and i raise west highland white terriers ("westies"). she works countless, unpaid hours in purebred dog rescue. this past april, martha - my bride of 34+ years - was given the "humanitarian of the year" award by the dumb friends league, one of the most successful and well-funded animal adoption programs in the usa, for having led to the placement of several hundred abandoned dogs of many breeds, while simultaneously serving on numerous governmental boards and legislative committees in colorado. (can you tell i'm mighty proud?) anyway, we're down to 2 westies now: eleanor rigby and bonshaw's brae lad. our others, recently departed, were named kirsty and babbs. together, our 4 westies were of 4 vertical generations. i'm now engaged in friendly persuasion that, i hope, will result in our to travelling again to scotland to acquire a champion bitch to start a new line of "bonshaw's westies." none of our canines could much stomach my audio system, tho all learned to snuggle next to me, quite close, ears covered by paws, to avoid the more strident tones coming forth. -kelly