Cats with clause and pause…

'You can do this with pets because they just respond to the sound of their names with no thought to the actual meaning.

 

This was planted at a very early age when my much older brother got his first house, first cat, first dog and I thought he was awfully clever when he named his cat 'Dog' and his dog 'Cat'.  These really were their names!

 

And it was very funny when people came to visit and he would call; "Here, Cat" and the dog would come running or "Here, Doggy" and the cat would come and jump onto his lap.  For me - this was very funny and that was when the seed was planted.

 

So, in keeping with this tradition, the first time I had two dogs I thought I was awfully clever when I named them.  But nobody ever got what their names were all about.  I had a Boxer and a Labrador and they would wait at the gate for me to come home from school, from out riding my bike, from rehearsals.  There they would stand with their paws over the gate waiting, together, for me...just waiting.

 

Their names were Vladimir and Estragon and I really thought people would get that Vladimir and Estragon were waiting for Darren.

 

(The dogs were named for the characters Vladimir and Estragon from Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot.") Like the characters in the play, they just waited! And in real life my dogs just waited...their lives incomplete until I came along.  

 

Nobody ever got it, nobody ever remarked on how awfully clever it was and it would be years before I finally had my moment as far as the genius naming of my animals went.

 

When my daughter was 3 years old we went to an animal shelter and adopted 2 cats. One was your average moggy and the other, unbeknownst to me at the time, an Egyptian Bobtail.  

 

Anyway - we collected the cats and my daughter was adamant that I name the cats.  This was a gift because of my penchant for the significant and consequential naming of animals.  However I did say to her that as they were to be her pets - she should name them, but she was totally unfazed and said; "No Daddy, you must name them for me!"

 

So after some thought I named the cats Deey and Scan and most people would acknowledge that they were pretty innocuous names for cats but all I was really doing was waiting, waiting, waiting for that one opportunity when my daughter was out in the garden calling the cats, "Here Scan, come Deely" and the little old lady next door looks over the wall and says to my daughter, "Who are you calling?"

"I am calling my cats" says my daughter, "Oh, what are their names?"

"Scan and Deely!" 

And then arrives the moment I was waiting most of my life for...the perfect moment - and look on the granny's face - when she says; "Who calls a cat Scan?"

 

Penny drops

 

Gold Moment

 

Hooorraaayy!!!!

 

Followed, of course, by "Who names a cat Deely?" Cat Deely being the host of 'So you think you can dance.' Call back moment - my daughter loves that show and the penny drops for her too -Boom.

 

Add the look on my daughter's face when she realised that for years she had been calling her cats Scan and Deely without the slightest inkling to their significant connection when their full names were actually Cat Scan and Cat Deely.

 

SUCCESS! #LifeMade'