Names – like Trouble, Biff, and Seven Ways from Sundown

My family has a way with names. Dad named his boyhood cat Stalin. Later in life when they had the barn cats he named the big tom, Lowenstauf. My brother John named the latest tom cat Lazarus due to the tatters his long fur would get into during the winter. I love unusual names and so my critters have had names like Trouble, Biff, PomPom and Streak. No Tom and Jerry for me.

When I got my first kittens they were called rather ordinary names, Blackie, Patchy, Silkie and Tigger, named by my nephews. We got more creative with the next one, L.P. for Little Patchy since she was similar in colouring to the older calico Patchy. L.P. gave birth to the twins, PomPom and Arrow. PomPom was a real princess, soft grey fur like a Persian and beautiful aqua eyes. Arrow was grey but straight haired and his eyes were more hazel. Arrow was my real baby and I have noticed that neutered males are the most affectionate cats. The females are more snobby and only come to one on their own terms where the boys come when you call them. Blackie was my first boy and he would come even as a tiny kitten to sleep on my chest. He died tragically of that urinary tract infection which I first learned about with his sudden death.

After the twins we had a lull in the menageries’ growth and then along came Teddy. He was another grey cat but much more stocky than arrow with a face like a teddy bear, hence the name. A year later we got another grey boy which we named Trouble because he seemed to survive every disaster he encountered. Trouble was a more solid grey where the others had white hairs mingling gently in the grey. Trouble also had brilliant green eyes and a white splash across his nose. His was a very funny personality and he would get into all sorts of antics that had us laughing.

But despite having named the cats good names they also got themselves some nicknames. Arrow was Keester, PomPom was Patchouli, Teddy was Buddy, Cherie is Tarzan and so on.

My favorite name is Seven Ways from Sundown which is from a movie of that name. The character with this title name told the story near the beginning of the movie about how his father could not be bothered naming his children so he called them One, Two and so on. But the mother was not happy enough with that so she added One for the Money, Two for the Show and down the line he became Seven Ways from Sundown. I saw that movie when I was eight or nine, quite little, but I still remember that part of the movie though I do not recall anything else other than Seven was looking for the man who killed Two!

Another time I will talk about my sister Charlotte and her nicknames for all of us. Hardly like to go there!

Cherie struts his stuff