The following question was inspired by Houston’s five year old daughter, Lucie, who was looking at pictures of my dogs with her daddy and wanted to know how they got their names. So, I ask The Panel:How did your pets get their names?
The answers, in order received, because I’m lazy.• Jen: Their breeder named them.
• Justin: I’ll go in order, from oldest to youngest:
Taffy was named by the German Shepherd rescue group that my uncle adopted her from. She’d been abused as a puppy and was taken in by them. She didn’t take well to being at their facility, so she was placed with a foster family and was named Taffy because she “sticks to you like taffy.” There was no doubt she was my uncle’s dog. When he died, she didn’t eat for a week because she missed him so much. My grandmother ended up taking her in when the family that was keeping her moved and couldn’t bring her with them.
Bruiser was named before I got a mile after picking him up. He was a pretty big puppy… twice the size of his sister and quite clumsy. My mom threw out that idea and it stuck. Of course, later that day he lived up to the name when, playing on the floor, I was thumped in the eye by his tail and wound up with a scratched cornea.
Petey was named by my mom. She breeds shelties and had intended to use him as a stud, but for reasons I probably shouldn’t get into on the blog, he wasn’t really fit for it so she gave him to us. I’m really not sure where his name came from.• Mollie Katie: How did our pets get their names? Well, right now my family --- that is, my Mom, my sister, and I --- have five cats. We joke that we're the "Home For Wayward Pets" because all the animals we've had over the years
have been shelter or rescue acquisitions. We tend to take a lot of animals with medical problems as well; one of our current cats, Rita, takes people-medicine to control her asthma and another cat, 
Maggie, came with ear mites that would have caused her to be euthanized due to the cost of treatment had we not adopted her. On Twitter, you may see me Tweet often about my little grey cat Rita, who is the asthmatic cripple kitty and matches her asthmatic cripple owner. She lives in our finished basement separately from all the other cats, because one day she came home from the animal h
ospital smelling medicine-y and the other cats have never been friendly with her since. I'm her mom, and she is my furbaby. Over the years, our furry little family has included two gerbils, two guinea pigs, one chinchilla, and a total of eight cats. Right now we just have five cats, which is a relatively small number compared to the menagerie we're usually running. From eldest to youngest they are named Oliver (the only boy-cat), Maggie, Rita, Weasel and Libby. We named Oliver after the "Oliver and 
Company" Disney movie about cats. All of the other cats came with their names with the exception of Weasel. We got Maggie, Rita, and Weasel at the same time from the local animal shelter but Weasel also came pre-named Maggie. We thought this would be confusing, and Weasel didn't really fit with the name Maggie, so we set out to re-name her. After lots of debate, we 
settled on the name Starlix. But she soon took to stealing various items including Q-Tips, earrings, loose change, scissors, bottle tops from the recycling bin, and anything remotely shiny and hiding the items behind our bathroom door. I was once so frustrated looking for a pair of earrings that I finally found in her bathroom hiding spot that I yelled at her, "Stop stealing my things, you dirty stinking thieving little weasel!" And the name Weasel just stuck after that. She looks like a Weasel, always up to no good and super-lovey-affectionate so you can't be mad at her. Weasel has bonded the most closely with me (although she'll love whoever is around if it gets her out of trouble), which is very fitting if you've known me a while... I would encourage anyone looking for a new pet to consider looking at their local animal shelter first! I know from experience how lovely these animals can be. And if you're not in the market for pet adoption, please visit The Animal Rescue Site and click the button, which is a ***FREE*** way to give approximately 0.6 bowls of pet food with each click to those animals in need. You can click as many times as you want in a day, or like me you can click once a day and incorporate this website into your daily internet use, just as checking e-mail and playing on Twitter have become regular activities. The Animal Rescue Site also sells animal-related products for pets and their humans with proceeds also benefiting animals in need, should you be in the market for those kinds of goods. I hope everyone reading our blog today will click on over! Thank you all!
• Houston: Our family has a slew of pets so this may take a while.
Let’s start with our dog, Angel. THE WIFE will tell you she was named by our oldest son who said she “Was almost an angel,” on the drive home. Me personally I like to remind the neighborhood “Angel” is short for “Angel of DEATH!” She is a sweet and loving dog… because I feed her the flesh of day laborers and hookers I bring home.
Next up are the three cats. Boo, Nancy and Sato.
Boo is our oldest cat and is known for Cat-Capsizing in front of us which involved walking directly in front of you and suddenly tucking her head under he front paws and rolling in a half-assed summersault till she plops on her side in your path. Her ability to do this to block our path has earned her the nickname BABBA-The-BUTT. Boo also has some freakish fetish for licking glass and plastic and is the sole cat responsible for attacking my feet under the bathroom door when I get out of the shower.
I have given so much blood for her amusement…
In short, she needs therapy. Oh, and we named her Boo because we got her right before Halloween.
Nancy is our extremely neurotic cat who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for reasons unknown. I honestly don’t know why the hell she’s named Nancy. I blame my son Christopher as he pulled that one out of thin air. I plan on cutting back her espresso intake to see if she “Evens out.”
Sato is the 800 pound baby of the cats. He is some kind of sicko rag-doll cat so he is nothing but dead weight every time you try to pick him up. Think of trying to pick up a fourteen pound wad of fuzzy chewing gum from hot pavement.
I blame him for my bad back.
Benjamin named him after a Japanese friend of ours. Of course I made the mistake of telling some other Japanese friends of mine, so the original Sato now has to take a bunch of crap thanks to me. You’re welcome, Sato.
Our newest member of the family is Agent Rico which is Lucie’s guinea pig. I made the mistake of calling him “Rico” instead of “Agent Rico.” I will not make that mistake again. Agent Rico was named after an online vote at THE WIFE’s blog.
All in all, I lead a legion of evil pets whose sole purpose is world domination. We will not be denied.
• Kristin: Kinki and Twinki. Those are my Chihuahuas. Why? The reasons? I can't say for sure. Kinki, the black one, was supposed to be named Kiki, according my mom, who took me by surprise one Christmas Eve and came to see me at work with a little black puppy peeking at me from her purse. I thought Kiki was too cutesy and cliché. I wanted her to have a bad a-- name, how Kinki fit that description, I'm not sure. Some (you know who you are) speculate that Kinki's name is a reflection of her owner, to which I can say I have no idea what those people are talking about.
One year later, almost the same situation. Christmas Eve, I get home really late (for me anyway) after spending a fun filled evening/night with @aka_cody and @aka_Rhys and I'm very sad and almost tearful because that was our last friend event before they moved away to D.C. (They came to their senses and moved back, thank goodness, but I digress.) I'm oblivious to my mom and brother staring at me expectantly...then I see a little white speckled thing cuddled next to Kinki. My brother actually chose the name Twinki---because it rhymed and she's sort of Twinkie colored. I wanted to name her Pancakes. Doesn't matter, really. Typical conversation in my house:
Me: Hey! Where is Twinki?
Mom: Where's who?
Me: Twinki!
Mom: Twinki or Kinki?
Me: The WHITE ONE!
The End.
• Michelle: I've always been something of a history buff, and am especially fascinated with the ancient Egyptians and their gods. When I got my current cat, a solid black cat, I named him Anubis. Anubis was the god to protect the dead and bring them to the afterlife, and is usually depicted as being a black jackal. Since my kitten was all black, it seemed appropriate. Of course, he usually just gets called Little Boy or whatever pet name I saddle him with at the time.
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