a cat named mimi
Saturday we’re going to dinner at the house of Plan C’s old friends. He said there was something he needed to tell me ahead of time — mild fanfare mixed with anxiety — namely, that their cat was named Mimi.
* * *
But, he said (before I had time to respond), he would ask them, for the duration of our visit, not to address the cat as Mimi.
!?!?!?!?!?
Why?? I asked him. Why can’t they call the cat by its name when I’m there??
It would be embarrassing for you, responded the ever-thoughtful-but-sometimes-a-little-nutty Plan C.
Why would it be embarrassing for me? I asked. It’s not as if my name is Squeaky or Fuzzy or something. I don’t have a cat name; their cat has a person name.
* * *
It took a while for Plan C to stop laughing.
Finally, when he paused to breathe, he said that if I’d been named Squeaky or Fuzzy it would have been a deal-breaker, and he wouldn’t have dated me.
But you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the profile, I said. It might have been too late by the time you found out.
Maybe, he answered.
* * *
I think I’ll tell him that the next friends of mine we’re going to visit have a gerbil named Plan C, and so, to avoid embarrassment all round, I’m going to tell the friends that my new boyfriend is named Whiskers.
* * *
May 8, 2008 at 1:13 am
I read that people who give their pets people names are better pet owners.
My cats are named, in the Jewish tradition, after deceased relatives. It’s an honor, and I think of my relatives whenever I call my cats’ names. My grandmother, dead for 40 years, is currently asleep in the chair by my side, with her foot on her nose.
May 8, 2008 at 1:26 am
you know, this is a topic i’ve never seen discussed! but then, i haven’t googled it….no doubt somewhere on the web someone else is discussing people-names for pets! i named a cat after a favorite aunt. plan c’s cat (as you may remember) is Polly.
May 8, 2008 at 1:41 am
Too funny! His respect for felines and females is evident!
May 8, 2008 at 1:47 am
Exactly.
That’s what he’s like…
May 8, 2008 at 3:20 am
Hah! I have a friend who was actually named after his father’s childhood cat. And one of my cats is named Tesseract, called Tess, and my aunt Teresa, called Tessie, was not too happy when she found out! The connection hadn’t event occurred to me when naming the cat - the tesseract is a concept in A Wrinkle in Time, and I was writing my thesis on that author at the time.
May 8, 2008 at 3:35 am
LOL!
so was your friend named Furry or Whiskers or Squeaky?!
and judging by your signature, i’d say you were named after a kat also…
May 9, 2008 at 7:16 pm
His heart’s in the right place! Maybe he’s taking his gallantry a little too far though.
May 9, 2008 at 8:38 pm
it still makes me smile to think of his concern about the cat’s name and my name….
i’m looking forward to meeting the cat [and the people] tomorrow.
May 11, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Just getting caught up from the past month of your life with Plan C… sounds like things are going wonderfully — mazel tov!
May 12, 2008 at 12:39 pm
welcome back, LV. glad you had a great trip.