A cat by any other name (part two)...

Gosh, who would’ve thought it would be so difficult to name a kitten? We considered Dolce, Aria and Adagio… we considered names from operas, like Carmen and Tosca (Rick said he could only think of Carmen Electra when he heard the name “Carmen,” so that name was out… and I didn’t know much about Tosca, so I read a synopsis of the story and discovered that the opera’s namesake commits suicide at the end. And did I really want to name my cute little kitten after an operatic soprano who throws herself off a building at the end of her show?), and, as I said in my previous post, we THOUGHT we’d settled on Toccata. But the more I used it, the less it seemed to fit the kitten. And besides that, Aunt Carol mentioned that the shortened nickname “Tocci” (presumably pronounced “toe-key”) reminded her of marijuana because “toke” is slang for smoking pot. Now here’s what I want to know – how is it that Aunt Carol is so clued-up on marijuana lingo?? Hmmm… (just kidding, Aunt Carol!! :))

So after all of that, I finally went back to a name I’d been thinking about a few days ago – Piva. I passed over it initially, because I’d never heard it before, and also because in Italian it can mean “bagpipe.” And while it might be weird to name a cat “Bagpipe,” its Italian counterpart sounds much cuter – and besides, if the last few days are any indication of the future, this kitten is going to be quite talkative. But “Piva” is also the name of a fast dance from the 16th century, or its accompanying music – and our little Piva is definitely fast. Rick has already discovered that she can go from zero to the speed of pouncing on your hand in about half a second… he has the scratch mark to prove it. And Piva just FITS her – she looks like Piva, she sounds like Piva… unlike the other names we’ve tried. So this SHOULD be the final christening…

It’s funny how much easier it was to name my cats when I was a kid. My first cat was a gray tabby with lighter-colored paws that I immediately named Mittens. I mean, since she looked like she was wearing mittens, why not name her the same? We also had an all-black cat that we named Blackie. Such creativity. Later, we added Squeaky to our household – Squeaky, of course, had a meow that sounded like a little rubber squeaky ball. And then came our Siamese – Eric and I decided he should be called Boots. (Gee, Boots, Mittens – what was it with us and accessories? Hey, my cat has a lot of fur, I think I’ll name her Coat…) My mom, however, had another name in mind for the Siamese cat – she wanted to call him Sammy. Eric and I were vehemently opposed to this departure from the specific characteristic-descriptive monikers we’d bestowed upon all our cats up until this point. So much so that we taped a sign to Eric’s bedroom door that said we refused to call Boots “Sammy,” and then barricaded ourselves inside the room in protest. I think we may have gone on a hunger strike. For about, oh, you know, like an hour or so. We were serious. We meant business. We would call that cat Boots for the rest of his life. (And mom, I believe, called him Sammy for the rest of his life. So the cat had two names… it’s not like cats will come when you call them anyway. Unless they really WANT to…)

It wasn’t until I adopted my very own cat from the humane society that I decided I should try to be a bit more creative with my naming process. And I’m glad I was – because although I’m sure there are a million cats in the world named Mittens (and probably TWO million Siamese cats named Boots), I’ve never run across another Allegro. And unless there are a lot of Scottish-Italian bagpipers with cats out there, I probably won’t find another Piva any time soon… :)