I can tell you straight out that the three humans in my household all refer to our cats as our "kids" and we think of them as treasured family members. Judging by my emails, comments on this site's blogs, and the day-to-day conversation on the About.com Cats Forum, a lot of people have similar feelings. Just for the record though, what do you call your cat(s)?
Please vote in the poll, then compare your answer. Obviously, these are very general answers, so please select the one that closest fits your relationship with your cat.
I've voted already. Your turn.
Comments
when talking to my in house family, I refer to each cat (and dogs) as brother sister, son and daughter. But when speaking to family and friends outside of the house I refer to them by thier names if speaking about 1 or the cats (or the dogs) when speaking to them as a whole. The funny thing is when I tell my husband about something regarding one of them, I usually say your son or daughter did such and such. And his responce of course is which one.
I refer to my two cats as my “babies” and - even they are two different breeds - I think of them as “brother” and “sister”. They are as much a part of my family as my son is and I treasure the time I get to spend with them.
I have 4 cats & refer to each as “fuzzy” when commenting to my husband on something they’ve done. Based on what activity they were caught in, he always knows which I actually mean.
When speaking collectively about them (we have
outside our family, I refer to them as “the kitties.” But most everyone knows we think of and treat them all as part of the family.
When speaking of them collectively within the family, I call them “the furballs,” or “the little buttsniffers.”
Individually, outside the family, I’ll call them by their names. Within the family, I usually refer to them by their individual nicknames.
Either, my cat
or by the cat’s name(which is all they come to). My husband says they don’t know they’re cats. But they do know their names.
we always refer to our cat by name, whether we’re talking within the family or to “outsiders.”
We do have an affectionate nickname for him; we call him the “catten” which is a mash-up of the words “cat” and “kitten.” So he may be called Rocky Catten, Rockford Catten, or, if he’s in trouble, it may be simply “the catten.”
“The Boys” or “Two Kitties”
or “The Two-Headed Cat,” because they’re like the Yin-Yang symbol and are all curled up in one another.
We have 1 cat and 2 dogs, so the cat is usually “the cat” or “my kitty”. She has a name (Ivy) but for some reason I’ve never been able to make names stick to cats. It just feels strange calling them by their name. All my cats have been called kitty and that is the name they know. At one point I had 2 cats at the same time, and so the younger one’s name became “little kitty”. We call the dogs either by their name or the name of their breed. i.e. the schnauzer or the beagle. Sometimes we say “the black dog” or “the brown dog” if we don’t want them to know we are talking about them
Hmmm…
Collectively, they’re “the boys”.
To people who know them, or have been around long enough to at least recognize that the names are refering to cats, I call them individually by name.
To people who don’t know them, they’re “my cat(s)” or, when they’ve done something annoying, “the cat”, “that cat”, or “your cat” (addressed to my husband).
Funnily enough, I don’t refer to them as my kids, but when talking “for” them, my husband and I both refer to ourselves as their mom and dad. As when my husband interpreting for a begging kitty as “Come on Mom, you have the good stuff, no fair!”, or I comment on one of the cats doing something because “he wants to be like dad.”
I have three cats. They are Prince,Chloe, and Trooper. They also live with my one dog. (Little Dog) Chloe has picked up the most nicknames such as slow-hand, tloe, sister, sister girl etc. I have had her the longest. Of course Prince is also called the cat formerly known as, and sometimes I only do a symbol. They are my sweetest babies , best friends and sometimes testing roommates.
I refer to my three, very different cats, as my family - my closest family.
hmmm, where to begin…
Kittybaby
Kittyboy
Babykitty
The Brat
Kitty (
Interesting question.Thinking about it I realise that I refer to my cat the same way as I would refer to my roommate.To people who don’t know her,I call her my cat,(or roommate).To people who know her I call her by her name.Preta.When speaking to her I call her Preta or I call her Mama ,just as I’d call my partner,Joe or Bozo.
I have always called my cats (2 Siamese sisters) “My girls”…for years, people at work thought I had true human daughters…..I love it!!
I call them by their individual nicknames, Peekaboo becomes “peekster” and Nicky becomes “nickerbocker”. Or together I call them “Kitter Kitters. My mom calles them her Grandkitties. She knows they are all she’s getting from me! LOL
I call my cat whetever comes to mind really, so long as it is legal in all 50 states! Right now it’s mommy! Tomorrow who knows…..
I address him more often as “Cat”; as in saying “Man” to a guy. I also call him by his name, or as “furball”. He doesn’t seem to care much what I call him; he’s likely to ignore it anyway.
All together they are “The Girls”. The two youngest are “The Twins” because they are littermates.
Individually they are referred to by nicknames which are too silly to mention in public!
Our cat (Meescha) is nick named honey or sweetie. She comes to her real name Meescha. The three dogs (Yorkie, Sheltie, Chihuahua) Rascal, Dasher, Spanky. We also have a Hamster (Hamstie) They are our five, four-legged kids. Wheew… there you go.
I call the cat(s) by their name(s) within the house, or by one of their many nicknames. I also think of them as ‘my furbabies’. I call them ‘your granddaughter(s) or your furry granddaughter(s) to my parents, just to bug them as they are not pet lovers. If people know my cat’s names, I use them, otherwise I just say my cat…
Our cat is called “the baby” and he tru;ey is. He rules the house.We enjoy him so very much. Really keeps old folks from getting loney!
When I come home I say “girls!!” At work Angel is my “dog” and Ms Deville is my “clown”.
I call my cats “girls” and when at work I call Angel my “dog” and Ms Deville my “clown”.
My cats are my babies, or my boy or my girl. I also call Rocky Rotten Rocky, Rockster, Rock, sissy boy, etc. I call Lacie Lacie Gracie, Fattie, Fat Thing, Sweet Girl, etc. They don’t respond to all of these nicknames, but they know their given names quite well. I am mommie & my husband is daddy. My mother refers to them as her grandkitties.
Collectively we refer to them as our kids with tails. We do speak as if they’re all siblings, look what your brother did, where’s your sister, etc. They are my dad’s grandcats, and our sibs niece and nephews. Even my grandma will say, does the widdle baby want grandma to make him some more chicken breast?
They all have nicknames, and recognize their ‘given’ and nicks. Mr Peaches is Mama’s Boy, Number One Son, or Crash Landing. Nacho is Milford Baby or Nacho Man, or Mama’s Sunshine. Zephyr is Zephi, Typhoon or Bullet. Daniel is Tummy, and Topaz is Princess Pretty Girl Topi. Our joy, all of them.
Penelope
We call our two male cats ‘little furry babymen’ or ‘keeties’. Jake, our 6 year old, has gone by the name ‘Senator Tuppins’, while Paws Blackwell our 4 month old kitten is sometimes known as ‘the little black man’.. Yep, we’re insane.
My male, brown, medium haired tabby cat’s name is Archie, but we call him Starchy, Starch Muffin, Fluffmaster Flexx, Fluffball, Baby Arch, and Archie-poo
He’s a vocal cat and though he only meows at things that sound like his name, he seems to pop out of nowhere no matter what we refer to him by!
My cat mame is Tutifruti but most of the time I call her Tutita , Tutu ,Bebe,o Gorda(fat}. She is really fat she is very small but weights in at 15 lbs.She is a lot bigger than the dog who adopted her when she was a couple of days born,Chiquitina mer adoptive mother weights only six and a half pounds. She still minds her adoptive mother even when she is now 8 years old.
We have an almost grown up cat (or catten) named Tosca. The two most common referential names that we use for her are the babygirl and four legs and furry, i don’t know why. We also call her tosca doodle, doodles, taco taco, rosco, dudly, choskie, tascoo and anything else that comes to our minds. It’s quite amazing that she even recognizes her name at all.
Ok I dont have my kitten yet, my friend has it for 2 more weeks and ill get her =] but i got to see my kitty already and i call her cuddaboo its her pet name =]
oh and her name is chloe, i thought it was a pretty name
We have five indoor cats. When speaking to friends, they are referred to by individual name (when relating a specific story) or sometimes the “boys” or “girls” or collectively “the gang”. When it’s just my husband and I we refer to them with nicknames but use their names when we call them (and yes, they come every time!) Our friends always comment on how they have such distinct and colorful personalities. We think it’s because they are treated like family and love the interaction.