Caturday ~ let's have a mid-May event

That's your assignment for today, if you choose to participate in this mid-May event on Bonnie's Books.  You didn't really expect it to be strenuous, did you?  Simply share a name or two or ten to answer the question, What have you named your kitty?  Any kitty, no matter how recently or how long ago.  What name did you choose?  For even more fun, tell us why you chose that name or tell us how you happened to get that particular cat.  I'll start.

She looked more bedraggled than this.

(1)  Duchess ~ When I was nine years old, a neighborhood boy and I were splashing in rainy puddles when a bedraggled kitten found us.   My mother said it looked like a drowned rat (well, mouse ... the kitten was very small), and Micky's mother wouldn't let him bring it into their house.   After due consideration, Mother decided to let me keep the kitten.  I named her Duchess, and she slipped right into our family like she had always belonged there and grew to be very regal indeed, a beautiful soft gray cat with white paws and a white spot below her chin that moved like a dog's tag when she walked.  Duchess had her first litter of kittens in my drawer on top of my socks and underwear; it must have been the softest place she could find at the time.   When I was in high school, we rode the regular city buses to school and home again in the afternoon, yet Duchess was always at the bus stop to meet me.   How did she know which of the buses that ran every 20-30 minutes all day would be the one I rode?   I don't know, but her internal clock was set and there she was, waiting to walk home with me.

Jack grew to be a big cat and looked a lot like this one

(2)  Jack ~ When my twin daughters were five and my son was two, they found twin kittens from the same litter under our tree on Christmas morning, one male and one female.  I have never been able to tell one from the other until cats grow up, but we told our children which we thought was which.   We were, of course, mistaken.  Before we learned we had mislabeled the kittens, the children had chosen names from among their favorite stories, and the fur babies became Jack and Jill.  Or Jill and Jack.   Within a few months one darted under the wheels of a car and "Jill" lived on ... until the day it was undeniably clear that "she" needed to be renamed Jack.  I'm sure Jack was totally confused when he received his sister's name, after having been Jill up until then.  But it was clear that he knew the word meant HIM.  Whenever he heard "Jack"  in a sentence spoken between humans, he would twitch his ear in our direction, even if we thought he was asleep across the room.

Kiki Cat in later years

(3)  Kiki ~ My loving Kiki Cat, who was twelve when she died a couple of years ago, was a con artist from an early age.  She was quite good at lying for a good cause.  Her antics were sometimes hilarious.  When my roommate Donna would come home from work, Kiki would show up to tell Donna she had not yet had her afternoon treats ... and Donna’s cat Sammy would come running to jump atop the piano to watch, hoping Kiki could convince the human that the poor starving kitties never got their treats on time.  The only trouble with their scheme was that I was usually right there in the room.  Donna would look at me and say to Kiki, "But you already HAD your treats."  Kiki, the more talkative of the two, would say plaintively, "Maiow mew mew."  Donna said, "Yes, you did."  Kiki protested, "Meow miahow mew!"  Donna would say again, "Yes, you DID."  Getting desperate, Kiki insisted, "Meow miaow meOW, myou."  The cats never seem to notice that humans communicate with each other as well as with them.  Finally, Kiki would give up and plop down on the floor with her back to Donna.  Still watching from the piano, Sammy would sigh and sit down.

I still miss each of you, Duchess ... and Jack ... and Kiki.