If you have ever been owned by a cat then you will understand the struggle of naming a cat. T.S.Eliot put it beautifully when he opened his poem
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
I’ve never even tried to give my cats two names, and certainly have never worked out what their third name might be. I just struggled with finding their everyday name!
You see for those of you who have never been owned by a cat the problem is they will never tell you what their name should be, and if they arrive as a kitten you never quite know whether they will grow into the name you have chosen.
When my seventh cat arrived, nearly 9 years ago now, he arrived with an everyday name but it wasn’t right for him or for us. On went our thinking hats, as he was already about 9months old and with the experience of 6 previous cats you would have thought it would be relatively easy to name him. It wasn’t perhaps because I had spent too much time as child reading T.S.Eliot;
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
We considered
- Roobarb after the cartoon but then I remembered that was the dog, and Custard just didn’t sound right;
- Ginger and Rusty we felt were far too obvious, as was Marmalade
- Garfield appeared for a moment or two but at that stage our cat wasn’t fat
- We then tried Gobbolino and I was looked at in horror
- By which point I was trawling the net for names
- Saffron I liked but our cat was a boy
- And Orlando we thought was too everyday
- We then thought of ‘The Cheshire Cat’ but did you know he has no name
- We tried ‘Old Possums Book of Practical Cats’ alas to no avail
- And then it came to us, so perfect, so us and so him
- You see I remembered he was to be my seventh and I was reading Georgette Heyer at the time
- Clearly our cat, our splendid ginger cat, his name could only be Septimus
Found my way from your Algarve blog. Gorgeous cat!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well done and lovely to see you here 🙂
And thank you we think he is too . . except for when he has been on your lap for a while and you start to lose all feeling in your legs. He’s a big boy!
LikeLike
Ha ha! Know the feeling. We used to have cats but didn’t replace the last one. I still miss having a cat – but travelling is much easier when you don’t have to worry about pet-sitting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh that’s so true . . we are still figuring out what to do this Winter with ours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All our cats seem to have several names 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
And they do they respond?!
LikeLike
Lovely post about the naming of Septimus! It’s the funniest thing….friends of mine in North Carolina in the early 1980’s had a cat named Septimus. She said her college student children actually named the cat.
I found you on Katzenworld with the picture of your fur baby for TRT and had to come here and let you know there has been another cat named Septimus!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh wow – that’s the first other Septimus we’ve come across 🙂
LikeLike
It is an uncommon name….and not just for cats.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great post!! The naming of animals is a big deal…I have quite the menagerie so it gets harder and harder to find great names…but it is time well spent! And your blog is beautiful!
I have nominated you and your blog for the Liebster Award. Check out my blog tomorrow for the rules of accepting the award nomination, copy and paste the instructions and modify them to suit …Happy blogging!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi thank you so so much.
And how exciting about the Liebster Award – I’ll pop across later to find out more 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me again do you mean the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No the Liebster…the post is up now 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Whenever there’s a cat photo I immediately go there. I like your blog very much, and your T.S.Eliot poetry is wonderful, the way you have it incorporated into the post is excellent. Personally I have six cats inside, plus an undetermined number outside…it varies, between us and the neighbors next door we have at least 15 communal cats…nearly all of which have been “fixed” by the APL.
LikeLike
Wow 6 inside. I tried 4 not that long ago but it didn’t work we had open warfare which resulted in two upstairs and two down!
Thank you so much for your lovely comments.
LikeLike
Oh, six inside cats are too many! The youngest is a little cat who has that “tumbling kitten syndrome,” which would have resulted in her very early demise outside. She can walk and jump, but her motor skills are sketchy. Another cat, Sister, came in the house two winters ago when it was below zero, and refused to leave. One is 17+ and … well, I’m sure you get it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh my word . . . . I know it is impossible to turn them away. I felt simply dreadful when we have to drop back down from 4 to 2, we did though find a lovely home for them.
LikeLike
Awwwww blessed. Your cats look very healthy and happy. We had 3 cats that we were very closed with but passed on to a better place. But we named them all ‘Sammy’ perhaps it was because we were so attached to the first one that we wanted the ‘first’ sammy presence to still linger with us. And I can understand the pain and stress of having to name cats are close to you. Its an unexplainable bond that till this very day, we are still thinking why we can’t let go of the name ‘Sammy’.
LikeLike
I know the bond stays forever so totally understand why you can’t let go of the name Sammy.
LikeLiked by 1 person