« Archives in November, 2013

“LITTLE MAN ON THE COUCH”…On Cat Names, Dog Peculiarities & The Prodigal Half-Pound

It’s a boy. Oops! Not so fast.

TP: Hi, Little. Happy Halloween a day late!

LM: Thanks, doc. I went as myself this year—“a grumpy old man.”

TP: Still smarting from that ER doctor’s comment about you, I see.

LM: Let’s just say it was good he didn’t send his kids over, trick-or-treating.

TP: OK, Mr. Grumpy. What else is new?

LM: Here’s something. You know Miss Genny—Curly’s mom and all-around-trouble maker?

TP: Sure, we’ve discussed her before.

LM: Well, she’s big into fostering kitties, for which I give her kudos. But she seems to have a little trouble with gender identification.

TP: How so?

LM: Get this. She finds a little one abandoned in a trailer park and decides to call him Earl. Makes a big deal of it on Facebook, says she’s naming him after some TV show called, My Name Is Earl. Duh. Apparently, it’s a show about some ne’er-do-well who tries to turn his life around. And this has what to do with a newborn kitten?

TP: Well, people have all kinds of odd ways of naming their pets. Look at you.

LM: This is not about me. Anyway, a few weeks later, STOP THE PRESSES. Earl’s a girl! Oops! That’s a little embarrassing for Miss I know everything about pets. Hell, she’s only been breast (I mean, bottle) feeding the little runt for weeks…she just now got around to checking out the equipment? Anyhow, now we get a post that says, “we think Earl might be a girl.” She thinks?

TP: Well, maybe it takes a little while, you know, for things to develop.

LM: Please, doc. It ain’t rocket science. Anyway…drumroll…here comes the name change. Earl is now Celeste. Now you tell me, doc, have you ever heard of an animal named Celeste? I mean, what’s the kitten named after now? A pizza? She’d been better off taking a page out of that Prince guy’s book, you know? Just become the cat formerly known as Earl. That’s got some panache, at least. »Read More