Why on earth would anyone call a cat....

A digression, but in our local animal park the two pigs are called Bangers and Mash and two of the sheep are Mint and Sauce...

OK this might be daft but when DD was about 6 / 7(?) I bought her a birthday card with a verse in it ( not my usual style) which went:
"When you were just a little sprout
You brought us joy, day in, day out
But now you've grown much bigger dear
You bring us joy from year to year" The nickname" little sprout" stuck for a while and when she in turn was expecting DGS1 , throughout her pregnancy the baby was referred to as "Sprout"! A propos of nothing at all DGS2 was referred to as Speck (because he started as a little speck) until he was born and for reasons of their own, this obe is referred to as "Minion" (perhaps from "mini one") DGS1 assured me seriously though that "when mummy's baby is born he'll have a proper name". Whew!

"this one" bl***y phone!!

I think 'Sprout' is a great name but then we do have a cat called 'Kiwi' or, as all the children call him, 'Wee wee'.

My DGD has an older half brother who was called sprout until he was 10. He was a dear little soul and it suited him perfectly - his little head would look up at you with earnest intent just like a seedling with newly unfurled leaves.

I expect that this sprout had that coltish bambi look that endearing and inquisitive kittens have. You can still see it now IMHO

Loved the idea of Cats own names for themselves. I have a black cat whom we've never presumed to name. We call her The Black Cat (TBC) because we couldn't agree on a name for her. I don't think she'd approve of her staff calling her by her first name.

We gave a home to a stray cat which had been living on the Army range behind our house which we called 'Pussy' - didn't want to name it in case it didn't stay. DD1 could only say 'Percy' so Percy he became until a vet friend announced that Percy was female. (I was never much good at that sort of thing!). We had her for 12 years - she even moved 500 miles away (in aforementioned vet's car under sedation because after 10 miles he couldn't stand the yowling!) and she evolved from Pussy/Percy to Puss, Minikin, Cat - basically she answered to anything. Never had a cat since as DD1 and I became very allergic to cat fur
MiceElf I was once asked to name a friends's newborn lambs - I chose Rosemary & Garlic

Eliot poem about naming a cat I was going to copy it, but decided I might be infringing copyright.

It never bothered Andrew Lloyd-Webber, anno

phoenix he is adorable and fits the name so well,Gizmo & Poppy are beautiful and the family of feral cats are so attractive,I hope they find loving homes and loads of mice to catch.

I think that ALW probably had an arrangement with Eliot's estate, phoenix. But please let's not get into the details of copyright law - it's too hot for that.

my daughter has two cats, named Brocolli and Carrots!

You are quite correct phoenix the Fonts were born in my office and their mother was called Fishpaste. Their full names were Zapf Dingbat (aka Fatty), Helvetica Semi Bold (and he was), Bodoni (a serif cat if ever there was one) and Frutiger Light Condensed (she was tiny). My unrelated witch's cat was called Dylan. Only three lived long enough to travel to New Zealand and Dingbat has since died (on Good Friday this year). The two girls (Bodoni and Frutiger) - now rather matronly as they are 17 years old - will have been here for a full year in a couple of weeks time and are still going strong.

Cats we had as youngsters were called Peter and Gordon (after the singing duo). We sometimes feed next door's cat 'Ninja'. DH loves him and would, I think, like a cat but I'm not keen as they bring in things and I couldn't face a half eaten mouse.

Oh we get loads of half eaten mice, rats and rabbits. I do wonder why they only eat half though and they always turn up on time for their Whiskas!

When we adopted a beautiful ginger boy just over 2 years ago, he was named Chiron, heaven knows why, but we renamed him Pepper.

My fluffy white girl (with yellow eyes) is called Daisy. DS and his lady's new 7-month-old rescue smooth-haired, black cat has been renamed Clawd. He came with the name Demon !

Reading here about the names of cats and it seems at least some of ours weren't as unique as I thought they were at the time, such as Whiskey and Fudge. We also had a Zowie (the wall-eyed cat) and now have Boris - a RSPCA rescue at Christmas, named as such because at the time he had wild hair!
Also interested in the rehoming discussion. As a District Nurse, I used to be involved with having to get cats rehomed on occasions, particularly if the patient went into hospital, hospice or care home. The Cinnamon Trust can help with this: www.cinnamon.org.uk/.

Two of ours were going to be named Samwise and Frodo but Frodo didn't look like a Frodo (no idea what a Frodo looks like), so became Merry. All Hobbit names, since DS2 had just finished the marathon of Lord of the Rings.

The Cat Protection League are always looking for people who will foster cats but be warned, one or two may stay longer than you thought as you may want to keep them permanently!

Errrrm, confession time!

Can you guess?????

Well, as long as you promise to keep his name as Sprout...

Are you going to take the PLUNGE, Good for you !

Are you going to take the PLUNGE, Good for you !


With sprout, am I right do tell ?

Plunge taken, new thread started!