Have you ever changed the name of a fur-friend?

[WillParkinson]

We had originally named her Pixie



but her behavior has caused us to start calling her Brownie. Sometimes a little sweet. Sometimes a little nuts. And, like the Brownies of Legend she can be incredibly kind, but also very mischievous.

[BlueJazz]

1. She's a real Cutie !!

[wickerwoman]

2. Twice...

A Julius became a Juliet after an informative visit with the vet.

And we had a kitten called Ariel who we renamed Hudson after the character from Aliens because she would cry and whine constantly.

[BarbaRosa]

16. I had a similar experience,

with a kitty, Eleanor (Rigby) who became Leroy, and he was bad, bad..

[Rosie1223]

27. Haha -- Same here!

Bubbles the kitten became Bubba the kitten after things became somewhat, um, more apparent.

[david13]

3. I think you can name them anything you want. Or nothing. Don't forget

the song, "A Horse With No Name".
dc

[MiddleFingerMom]

4. I never named any of my cats, although when I had two cats at once...

.
.
.
.
.
.
I did refer to them as GreyCat and BlackCat just so friends would know to
which one I was referring.
.
.
.
My last cat (I lost her in September after eight years and I'm STILL tearing
up a little), after longterm nagging by multiple friends, went from a cat with
no name to "NoName" (pronounced faux-rez Indian fashion as "no-nah---m-HAY").
.

[femmocrat]

17. Same here!

We had White Kitty and Black Kitty. Black Kitty lived 20 years! We always just called him "here, kitty kitty kitty...." and he would come running. The kids tried to name him over the years, but nothing else stuck.

I miss that krazy kitty.

[knowbody0]

5. Halo became Pooka

[mycatfred]

6. Almost every single one

Rex-- Fred I
Fred II-- Frederick
Sunny-- Sonny-Jim
Honey-- Sadie-- Goldie-- Molly
Sox-- Boots-- Sterling-- Thomas

What an incredibly adorable canine!! Congratulations

[grasswire]

7. Yes

Jack became Chester (he came to us at a year old)

Beauty became Cookie (Beauty turned out to be a boy and the name was just a bit feminine)

[petronius]

8. I don't rename them 'officially,' but they all end up with one or more nicknames

that they more or less choose for themselves...

[rivercat]

9. le gasp!

what a cutie!

[smalll]

10. Name them whatever you want. Just don't call them a "fur-friend."

Well, I guess that's MARGINALLY better than calling them "fur-babies."

[WillParkinson]

11. What would you prefer I call them?

As not to offend your delicate sensibilities.

[smalll]

12. "Pets" always used to work. Or "dogs" (if that's the particular kind of pet you're talking about.)

God. "Fur-Friends" -- that grates on my ears as bad as "impact" as a verb. What the hell is happening to our language?

[WillParkinson]

13. Sure, whatever makes you happy.

Next time I'll just go with fur-babies. Don't want to water it down any.

[hobbit709]

15. They're part of your family, call them whatever you want.

Mine come running when I holler "Kids"

Of course they come running when I yell anything else too.

I have one who is now called Wheezie-her original name was Sweetie but when we inherited her we already had a Sweetie.

[Roon]

18. I knew someoen who had about a half dozen of outdoor cats

She would whistle like you would for a dog and they all would come running to eat!!

[ChoralScholar]

14. It's being impacted by people who have no problem with an evolving language. EOM

[SoxFan]

19. Lighten up, Francis.

[TommyO]

37. Someone always has to pee in the Cheerios.

[LibertyLover]

20. I had dog years ago whom I adopted named Bosco

I renamed him Shah, because I just couldn't see having a dog named after something my mom used to put in my milk to flavor it. Our female greyhound had the track name Hexed. We just call her Hex. And recently I changed the names of one of my rats from Danae to Danu (from Perseus' mother to an Irish goddess).

[Orsino]

21. Delilah

Before we adopted her, her name was Angel. If you knew her, you'd guess how fast we had to fix that little error. She's even wearing a mask and cape, fer chrissakes.

[Rob H.]

22. My cat came to me named "Bleu" but I changed it to "Summer"

Now I think of her as The Cat with Nine Different Names because she has a lot of nicknames, too: Honey, Baby, Sweetie-Pie, the list goes on. My metamorphosis into a crazy cat laddie is almost complete!

Edited to add the obligatory photo, now that I've finally taken some new ones:

[dembotoz]

23. i call them many things when they puke on the rug.....

[LynneSin]

24. The name Evita had at the rescue place where I got her was "Precious"

First, I do not name my pets after adjectives. Second, to know Evita is to know exactly what the opposite of Precious is. On the surface she may look 'Precious' but inside she is the spawn of Satan. At nights I think she watches over me and contimplates how she will kill me.

[Dr Morbius]

25. Actually, when the opportunity came about I refused to do so.

We adopted a beagle perhaps four years ago. His given name was "Barkley", a name I loathe. He barks, his name is Barkley: get it? Of course you get it, everyone gets it, which is why the name is so lame. And my daughter asked me if we would rename the dog. I asked her, about 12 at the time, to suppose something happened to my wife and myself and someone new were to look after her; would she like it if someone gave her a new name? She felt she would not. I believed then and now that retaining his name helped him retain some sense of identity despite getting a new home.

I changed the spelling to Barclay, though.

[lukasahero]

26. Well, there was Matilda who we later named Theo

You can probably guess what happened there: found a stray - didn't see anything indicating she was a he until we took him to the vet. Oh well. We still kept the flaming pink soft-paws for his nails.

[bigwillq]

28. No (nt)

[Arkansas Granny]

29. I once had a pup who came to me with the name of Dumpling.

She was a very funny, playful dog and after a week of exclaiming "Oh, you idiot dog" when she pulled her little shenanigans, I just started calling her Idjit. It fit her perfectly as she was just a clown.

[Brother Buzz]

30. Sally was a twice rescued girl when we entered the picture

Our local SPCA is non landed so our girl was working part time at UC Davis dairy science department where her foster master worked. We don't know her first two names, but she was tagged Freckles when she worked with the cows at UCD. We renamed her Sally as it's our belief that ALL working dogs should have human names. We call her Sally Freckles on formal occasions and endearing moments.

[AngryAmish]

31. I guy I knew in college got his name changed because the dog already had that name

Guy had family trouble and had to move in with an older sister. Her family already had a dog with the same name - Pat. So they changed his name (they guy I knew) to Emmitt. 28 years later he is still know by all as Emmitt.

[pitohui]

32. no but my bird has changed my name

i have a pet whose name i wouldn't have chosen, but it's a parrot, and the parrot is perfectly happy w. his name and uses it frequently

my name however has been changed (by the parrot) to a name i wouldn't have chosen...but...sigh...he has decided to call me by this v. old-fashioned name for a good 20 yrs now, i guess he's going to call me that name for life, i won't put it here but it's a name like "muriel," in that class, a name more appropriate to an an elderly lady with lavendar soap and doilies...i have no idea why he picked this name but he's pretty much called me by it from day one

[applegrove]

33. My cat Monster was named South Park when I got him.I don't like the show and the little bugger

attacked me so I called him monster. He has since calmed down quite a bit and it is a real pleasure to be owned by him.

[one_voice]

34. Never changed the name..

but gave them nicknames and extended names...

Taytum..was tatertotdog (all one word)...the kids wanted to name her tater tot cuz she was so small..she's not with us any more.

Sugar..my son named her..and I call her LuLu cuz she looks like a LuLu to me...she'll come to either name.

Izzie...is little bit..she'll come to either name..she's 100lbs hardly little.

Buster was my cat..we called him Busterkitty..or butterfinger. I miss him a lot.

[yankeepants]

35. The dog's name was Nemo

after the disney fish.

This is a beautiful female Australian Cattle Dog that I rescued and was finding a home for and I could NOT find it within me to call her Nemo.
We just started calling her The Dingo.

After we decided to keep her we felt that she needed a real name so she is now Dingrid Catalina Wallaroo or Ding or The Ding when refered to in conversation.

They don't care if you change their names.

That's a beautiful pup you've got there.

[Crystal Clarity]

36. Lydia my cat became "Mouser", "Mouse", or "Miss Mouse"

Jim my dog is now "Jimmy D", "James Maxwell", or "Big Jim"......

[KamaAina]

38. Actually, we let her do it herself

as our brindle kitty (authentic western CT barn cat) started to mature, we realized it was time to stop calling her "Ferret Face".

But we couldn't decide on a more dignified name. What to do?

Finally we wrote some names down slips of paper and put them in a bowl. Darned if Ferret Face didn't pull one out!

From then on she was "Elsa".

[Kali]

39. we have a dog named Dumbass

but the rest of the family calls him Bones. He doesn't come to either name. Hence the original.