"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Monday, November 16, 2020

TTT: Characters I Would Consider Or Have Named My Pets After

 Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I have or would consider naming a pet after


Sleepy dog. Bingley is not usually allowed on the bed so he is taking full advantage of his good luck this day.

1. Bingley---My Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is named after Mr. Charles Bingley of Pride and Prejudice fame. His full name is actually the same: Mr. Charles Bingley, Bingley for short. When searching for a name we wanted one which sounded very British and went to Jane Austen for inspiration. Pretty perfect, huh?

Demi and Bingley cuddling together recently.

2. We have had several cats named for characters from the musical "Cats", which was inspired by the poetry of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

  • Gumbie---"I have a Gumbie cat in mind..." She was a beautiful black and white long hair.
  • Jellicle, Jelly for short--- "Because Jellicles can and jellicles do..." He was a lovely, sleek black cat with a few white markings and a very mischievous disposition.
  • Rumpelteazer, Teazer for short---"Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer were a notorious couple of cats..." She was a long-haired tabby, a stray who found herself at our door one day. 
  • Victoria, Tori for short---Victoria was the dance captain in the Broadway production and the center of the story in the film but no songs mention her name. Our cat was a beautiful, but neurotic half Siamese, half Rag Doll long-hair.
  • Demeter, Demi for short---"There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter, Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames, Such as Plato, Ademetus, Electra, Demeter. But all of them sensible, everyday names..." Demi is still living, though quite old and decrepit. She is a long-hair of a silky variety with one blue eye and one yellow eye.
  • Other names I would consider from this book of poems if we have cause to name a cat in the future: Mr. Mistoffelles; Skimbleshanks; Bombalurina. The poetry collection is a treasure trove of cat names.

George (up) and Fred (under covers)

3. Fred and George Weasley---My daughter adopted/rescued two ginger cats named Fred and George named for the twins in the Harry Potter books. When the veterinary office referred to them as Fred and George Bennett, our last name, she wanted to correct them and say their last name was Weasley.

  • Other Harry Potter characters I might consider naming a pet: Crookshanks; Luna Lovegood; Dobby; Dumbledore; Cedric Diggory; Wilhelmenia (Grubbly-Plank).

Elphie. My daughter's beautiful but elusive pet.

4. Elphaba,
Elphie for short---my other daughter has a long hair black and white cat named for the green witch in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
 

-Anne

44 comments:

  1. I love how you choose the names for your animals! Ours are always more randomly named.

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    1. Not listed here are all the pets who had random names. (Ichiro, Clover, Barney, and Muffy.) You are not alone.

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  2. What fun names! I saw elsewhere that someone would name a hairless cat Dobby and a black cat with green eyes Elpheba.

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  3. I loved this prompt too as we had cool names for our animals too. Talking about Cats , one of my old school principals had a cat called Macavity ( from Andrew Lloyd Webber's show CATS) . My partners cat was called Tenshi which is Japanese for Little Angel. They also had Rajah ( Jasmine's Tiger from Aladdin) and his mum's cat is now Matilda ( from Roald Dahl's Matilda)

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    1. I love the idea of Matilda as a pet name. She was such a plunky character.

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  4. Lovely post - and beautiful cats. My cat is called Heidi - not after Heidi in Johanna Spyri's book, but because she loves to hide.

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  5. Jellicle is fun. :)

    I love ginger cats.

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    1. Jelly was a precious boy. He disappeared soon after our move to this neighborhood. We think he was captured by coyotes. Sad ending.

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    2. Oh I am so sorry to hear that. :(

      So sad when animals disappear like that. Heartbreaking.

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  6. You have such adorable dogs and cats. Great naming them after the play Cats. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2020/11/ttt-111720.html

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    1. My daughters were obsessed with the musical. We had a videotape of it and they watched it endlessly. That is why I know so many of the cat names

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  7. Hi there Anne! Oh how lovely your post is!! All those lovely cats and hats of to you for choosing all their names from Old Possums's book of practical cats. Can you believe I've never read it before?

    I love Fred and George! That is soooo clever! Mr Bingley is also a great name for a dog.

    Just about all our pets are also named after famous characters. Here's my TTT: I was named after

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    1. Fred and George have a sweet story. They were foster cats, advertised for adoption. My daughter went to see them at the store but they weren't there. My daughter was downhearted because she thought they'd be perfect. She was resolved to pick some other cat, but she went home empty-handed. The next weekend she got a call from the cat's foster home asking if she would like to meet the boys. She did and adopted them on the spot. That was Sunday, March 15th. Two days later the state of California went into lock down. The twins have been her constant companions ever since and we are so glad they came to live with her when they did.

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  8. All of your pets look so cute! I love the two ginger cats named Fred and George. It's such a fun idea to give pets matching names :)

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  9. Very cute names and very cute pics! Bingley was my favorite but the Weasley twins are very cute too. Well picked!

    Happy TTT. My own post here: https://lexlingua.co/book-famous-animals-for-top-ten-tuesday/#more-559

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  10. This is great. Love seeing all your pets and their literary names.

    Thanks for visiting my blog today.

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  11. Old Possum's is one of my favourites, especially Macavity! Gumbie and Jellicle would make such cute names. Love your list!

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    1. I read the poems after I saw the musical. So as I read them, I felt the music swelling up in me.

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  12. Your family's pets are adorable and what great names!
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/top-ten-tuesday-290/

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  13. You and your family's pets are so cute! Elphaba is such a great name for a cat. :D

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  14. Yup. I'd have to name a pair of sneaky cats Fred and George now.

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  15. Mr. Mistoffelles; Skimbleshanks; Bombalurina are great names -- a little long to say, though!

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    1. Good pet names that are long should shorten easily Skimbleshanks would become Skimble. Mr. would become Mr. M.

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  16. Such fun names, I love that you already have such fun names for your pets! Fred and George Weasley are adorable and and Bingley is such a perfect dog name :)

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    1. I'm pretty proud of Bingley's name. It takes a pretty big Pride and Prejudice fan to think of Mr. Bingley as a character.

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  17. This is a cute post. Do Fred and George live up to their names? When I was a kid (a million years ago) we had an orange cat named Fred too (but not after Fred Weasley as he didn't exist yet).

    Have a wonderful week. - Katie

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    1. Yes, Fred and George are pretty much into playing and non-serious stuff.

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  18. Of course Mr. Bingley is a spaniel! It's perfect! As are Fred and George the ginger cats. I listed Elphaba as a black cat and it makes me happy to know there really is a black cat out there named after her. I thought about names from Cats as well but didn't take that route for whatever reason. Eliot created some fabulous names.

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    1. I thought of another name from CATS that would make a good pet's name: Jennyanydots.

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  19. I love this list of pet names. We are so not clever with ours and just pick any old name, very boring.

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    1. My kids were obsessed the CATS the musical so we had to name our cats from the show. Later we found our way to the poetry.

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  21. These are all so adorable! And I'm thrilled seeing an Elphie in the bunch—one of my favorites.

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    1. Her dog is named Luna and I thought it was a tribute to Stella Luna, a favorite children's book but she corrected me yesterday and said it was for a marking shaped like a crescent moon.

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  22. I like how you included your very own pets. You can almost have your own version of Cats here!! haha. Fred and George are also just so precious. That's so cute how your daughter wanted to correct the vet haha. Of course Elphie is also, a great kitty name as well. Great list. Here's mine if your interested. If not, that's fine as well.
    https://boomerwrites.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/top-ten-tuesdays-characters-id-name-a-pet-after/

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  23. Bingley is the perfect name for your cute spaniel! Love that picture. :D

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  24. Harry Potter names are so fun and adorable. Great idea. I love the idea of rescuing animals as well.

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  25. Oh I love this so much! So many unique and special names. I wish my family would let me use more literary names for my pets. ;) Bingley is an adorable name--and pup!

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  26. I love the pet photos. My SIL has a Cavalier King Charles which she rescued in 2010 after my brother died. He has been the best companion, such a sweet guy. He's now 12 (we think)and has some heart issues and is deaf but still a gem.

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