Recently my youngest daughter had the possibility of adopting another cat. Where this possibility of adopting a “Stubentiger,” as cats are often called by Germans, leads is not to interfere with what they decide to do and what they to decide to name it.
No, the possibility of a new cat is just a trigger to write about a topic I have been interested in for a long time.
Adopting cats and owning cats has been something I have been involved in since I was old enough to say, “Nietzie.”
I grew up in a home where German and English were both spoken. Of course, “The Katze” was the most common German word for cat, but it was usually used for an older cat. Baby cats were called “Mieze” or “Nietzie,” the equivalent of “kitty” in English, or “Miezekatze,” which would translate as “kitty cat” or “pussycat” in English.
But this is how you identified cats; there were many possibilities of giving them actual names. Though you like me as a child wanted to name your cat “Kitty” or “Nietzie.” Regardless of what we named them, as children when we called for them to come home, we repeated, “Here Nietzie, Nietzie, Nietzie, Nietzie,” our version of “kitty.”
As children helping our parents name the many cats, we came up with descriptive names, Blackie, Snowball, Tiger, etc. our dogs were always males, and were given boy’s names, like Bobby, Freddie, Gus, and the German Fritz. In later years, my parents named the dog they always had to have with them, always choosing Chihuahuas and a name that meant “tiny” for each one.
After my wife and I married and started having human offspring, we began collecting cats. Our first cat, Patches, came with the house we bought and was like a little Mama for our first child. There followed Ginger, Jeannie, Kona, Fluffy, Cassy, Prissy, Gatsby, and Pixie. I may have skipped one or two, or got them out of the order in which we had them. But naming each cat was usually a family decision, unless it was brought home from a garbage bin or some such place by a particular family member. During all these years, we had one dog named “Ditch” who was found in a Ditch.
There is one type name I have never named a cat or dog, but I like the idea so well, I may very well name my next cat in this manner. It’s to name him or her The Clutz, Big Man, The Professor, The Butterfly, Jazz Man, The Princess, the Captain, etc.
We have had every type of cat with every type personality you can name. I have been severely scratched, bitten, and leaped upon like a panther attack; and I still would not have refused to adopt any of those splendid creatures. After all, a Cat Is a Cat.
Ray Spitzenberger is the husband of one wife, the father of two daughters, the Grandpa of three granddaughters, and the Serf of one cat.