Pet Rant

[LewisLegion]

Not the kind you’re thinking…well, unless you read my ‘Mother’s Christmas Present’ thread, then it’s exactly what you’re thinking.

Why is it people can’t be original in naming their pets? Either they have to name the animal after one they saw in a movie or read about in a book…or else they have to name it after clichés of the breed’s country of origin or another overdone ‘silliness’.

For example…pugs named Otis or Frank after the dog in Milo and Otis and Men in Black. Dalmations named Patch or Pongo. Neo Mastiffs named Fang after Harry Potter. Douge (sp) de Bordeauxs named Hooch after Turner and Hooch.

Or the country one…poodles named Jacques and Pierre and Fifi. Chihuahuas named Pedro or Pepe or Jorge. English bulldogs named Norman or Neville or Jeeves…you catch my drift.

Then there’s the silly one. Yes, dachshunds are known as weiner dogs, but that doesn’t mean you have to name every other one of them Oscar (Oscar Meyer, so ‘original’).

I could go on and on. My point is, why can’t people be at least a little original? I’m not talking about naming your pet something no one has ever named their pet before…that’s just not going to happen. But seriously, do you have to name your boxer Tyson? There’s NO other name you can think of? And if you just have to name it after a professional boxer, does it really HAVE to be after Mike Tyson? Why not call him Sugar Ray? I’ve never met a boxer named Sugar Ray.

And my second rant…people who get pets because they saw them in the movies. Seriously. A movie should not be your basis for picking a dog breed…or any other animal. Sales of macaws went up after PotC…and macaws are not beginner birds that are suitable for anyone. Border collie sales went up after Babe was released, dalmations after 101 Dalmations, rat sales went up after Harry Potter as well. How many clown fish and blue tangs do you bet languished and died in poorly set up and prepared tanks because every kid just HAD to have Nemo and Dori? And I’m fully expecting Chihuahua sales to explode again thanks to that new Chihuahua movie.

And what happens a year or so after the new acquisitions are made? 90% of them end up in shelters or dumped or listed on Craig’s list or dead because guess what? The new dog doesn’t act perfect like the one on the movie. Rats are actually WORK. Saltwater fish tanks are actually a LOT of WORK. Macaws are lots of work AND they BITE hard enough to break fingers if they’re of a mind..not to mention they’re loud enough to make your ears bleed.

They don’t fit in with the kids, with the lifestyle, with the unrealistic expectations, so the pet gets dumped.

Seriously, I wanna smack humanity sometimes.

[Cat]

I completely agree with you on buying how horrid it is to see people buy pets because they look "cute" in movies....and I'm betting there are quote a few animal organizations that aren't too happy with the new Chihuahua movie.

BTW I have two cats, Baba O' Riley and Morgan Le Fey; and two hermit crabs, Pluto and Neptune....good names?

[LewisLegion]

Excellent names

Now, if you had named one of the crabs 'Sebastian', I'd have had to hurt you

[AFPheonix]

If one of the foals next year is a boy, I'm totally lobbying that its registered name be Pimp My Ride.

[Chantilly]

I let my pets name themselves. That decision came from the fact that no matter what name I'd decided on before I got the pet, it was never the name I ended up calling them, and what I ended up calling them was determined by their personality.

Using that method, my cat's name is Mrs. Kravitz (nosy cat that has to insert herself into every household activity and cannot abide a closed door).

I did once have a tank of platies named after the starting lineup of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.

Yes, dachshunds are known as weiner dogs, but that doesn’t mean you have to name every other one of them Oscar (Oscar Meyer, so ‘original’).

My sister's wiener dog is named Luther, thanks to my bro-in-law.

[AdminAssistant]

I had a litter of kittens I named Mario, Luigi, Princess, and Bowser. They fit PERFECTLY. Mario was a robust leader, Luigi was much thinner and more timid, Princess was very prissy but had an attitude, and Bowser was the largest and a bully.

[tropicsgoddess]

Our schipperke Bear (a dog) got his name from SO because when he was a puppy, he looked like a bear cub and he still does. The name fits him to a tee. I just hate when people get pets just because they're cute.

[Norton]

My current pets have decent names. My big black cat is Boo. He came with that name when I adopted him and I decided to keep it. "Boo the black cat" seemed fitting.

My two younger cats are sisters - gray tabbies. We named them Hera and Terra, Hera for the Greek queen of the gods, and Terra for Earth. Hera definitely acts like a little queen. Terra fits her name in another way - she's easily frightened.
Also, when they tear around the house, their nicknames are "Hera-cane, and Terra-ble".

We had two rabbits - Soup and Nuts. Their names used to be Soup and Stew, but Stew developed quite a pair on him, so he got a name change. Unfortunately, Stew/Nuts is no longer with us.

I used to be much worse at naming animals... the last cat I had before these three was named "Kitty".

[Flyndaran]

My present cats are named Fireball and Smackers respectively.
I've had cats named Cerbee, Cricket, Penny, Dipstick, and Pepper. The last was not named because he was black, but because he loved hot peppers and licked up hot wing sauce.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Let me run through our pets...

My two mice are named Bellatrix and Sirius...because Bella is fucking crazy and Sirius is black. When I still had Moody, she was named because she was huge and cranky. I just wanted the names to fit together, heh.

Now, let me try the cats...

Hamlet, Chella, Lulu, Smokey, Butch, George, Gracie, Paddywhack, Toby Keith, Grymlin, Mattie, Wally, Osmo "Ozzy", and Moby. And the dog, Penney. Yeah, there's no real trend to how we named any of them.

Lulu's name is technically L.U.L.U. Her full name is "Little Ugly Little Ugly." When we found her, she fit in the palm of my hand and was HIDEOUS. So she was double-little and double-ugly.

My sister is a Toby Keith fan. The current Toby is Toby Keith the third...or fourth, maybe...

Grymlin's father was Dragon. I guess a little dragon is a gremlin? (Don't ask me about the spelling.)

I adopted Wally out of a box in front of Wal-Mart, and we adopted Penney the day I got a job at JcPenney.

My mom has a habit of giving her cats "Mo" names. The first one I can remember is Moose. Then there was Moe. Now we have Moby and Osmo, or "Ozzy" for short. (We think Ozzy just keeps reincarnating and showing up here, though...we found some pictures of Moe the other day and the resemblance, even among two silver tabbies, is ridiculous. They're freaking identical.)

The others, I can't really tell you why they were named that way. Though I used to have a cat named Fluffy. Yes, Fluffy. He was a very fluffy white kitty. It was supposed to be so cliche as to be ironic. Nobody got it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Hmm, pet names... well, here are the names of all the pets I've ever had. XD

Hamsters

Harry, Billy, Hans-Hamish, Spikette, Henrietta, Terminator, Daisy and Ace.

Harry and Billy; can't remember why they had those names; Spikette was a girl, so couldn't be called Spike; Terminator used to bite and not ever let go til you shook him off your finger; Daisy was a total bitch so was named after Daisy Berkowitz and Ace was so laid back, he was practically horizontal. XD

Goldfish

Jaws. Jaws ate the other two unnamed goldfish, so was given a name. XD

Rabbits

Becky and Roger. Becky was first, named for Rebecca, a book I was reading at the time. She died of myxmotosis so I got Roger, who was completely insane so lived up to his name. XD

Other

Dog: Jessie. Already named when we got her; she was a rescue dog, a Welsh collie cross.

Cat: Cleopatra. Thinks of herself as a queen, so it fits. xD

[AdminAssistant]

There's no way I could go through all of the various cats of my childhood. Besides the Nintendo litter, there was Violet (a calico). Hmm, and Tia and Tamara (because they were twins. Remember Sister, Sister?) I've had a couple of male cats named Tom. Yeah, yeah I KNOW.

Dogs.. Well, we had Jake (Feed Jake, he's been a good dog). And Walker. Yes, from Walker, Texas Ranger. They were both blue heelers (Aussie Cattle Dogs). Bruno - well, that's what Dad decided to start calling him. We've had other dogs, but those are the ones where I remember the naming process. (We also had Corky, Pepper, Hawk...)

My sister used to have a min pin she called Smoke. Not because he was light brown (he was a chocolate min pin), but because that's the nickname of her favorite NASCAR driver. You know you're a redneck if...

[Dreamstalker]

My menagerie over the years:

Livia (black and white, not sure where her name came from) and Snowflake (white and fluffy). They were around when I was born. Snowflake would play chess (according to my dad, she would make legal chess moves until she got bored and swatted all the pieces on the floor). Livia would run to get mom whenever I woke up or started fussing. I also once bent her tail in two and she batted me across the face with just a "soft paw"; I was unhurt but it scared me enough I learned never to do that again (mom was astounded that Livia did not use her claws).

Cora, found hiding under our car. She died mysteriously when I was about 8.

Red Fred, grandparents' dog (setter-something mix that just showed up one day). Grandpa named him. Apparently, Grandma didn't know if Fred was male or female until one day I came into the house and announced "Fred's a boy dog because he has a penis!" (I was five). That dog would growl at anyone who came into the yard when I was outside, I had no doubt that had someone ever tried to grab me they would be prying dog jaws from their face. I can't remember what happened to him.

Charlie Brown, a squirrel my grandfather used to feed. Not a "pet" per se as he didn't actually live in the house, but he always showed up for "feeding time" when grandpa was in the garage having his beer. I don't know how he managed to equate "person sitting in the yellow chair" with "food", but he did (and even a specific person; Mom tried sitting in the chair once with a bag of peanuts and Charlie didn't show.)

Boots, another stray that just showed up at my grandparents'. I think she eventually died from some infection (grandma never believed in doctors for people or vets for animals, so she never had her teeth cleaned and that probably contributed to it).

Mickey, a kitten that adopted my grandfather. He named him after his favorite beer. One day Mickey ventured out onto the road and we're assuming he got run over.

Sooty (ex-barn cat, so named because not only was she gray, she would roll around in cold fireplace ashes). She had to be put down 2 years ago due to some sort of degenerative bone disease (stepfather says she tried to walk up the back steps one day and one leg completely shattered, it was determined at the vets that putting her down would be kinder).

Right now the only one we have is McGriff, named for a Reds pitcher in the 90s because we thought his double paws looked like catchers mitts. He's a 17 year old, diabetic ball of love.

[Sylvia727]

I've always named my pets after what they remind me of. My calico cat was named Pumpkin Muffin, because the orange and brown, topped with white speckles, looked like a pumpkin muffin with powdered suger sprinkled on top. One of my mice was all black except for his face, the right half of which was white, divided straight down the middle. His name was Phantom, after the Phantom of the Opera.

Now, my mom insisted throughout my childhood that all family pets -- i.e. cats and dogs -- be given people names, which I personally thought was silly. But she believes that dogs and cats are some sort of higher order of pet and therefore deserve higher order names. One cat started out with some silly name, but I renamed her Sugar because she was always so hyper she acted like a little kid on a sugar high. By the time my mom figured out it wasn't a term of endearment it was too late, she no longer answered to whats-her-name.

[Dreamstalker]

We never really had any sort of naming scheme for our animals, just whatever we could come up with. McGriff will answer to so many variations of his real name...Griffles, Piffs, Squiffs, Grumples (bestowed by the vet once), etc.