Do you get your cats' names mixed up?

persi & alley

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I only have two cats. If you take a look at their pictures above you will see that they are about as different looking as cats can possibly look. Yet I am always calling Persi Alley, and Alley Persi.

This happens most often when they follow me into the bathroom or into my office where I don't actually look at them that close. Yet I also do this when looking right at one or the other.

I don't want to mention the A word, I just want to know if I am not alone. Do any other of our members commonly make this mistake??
 

arlyn

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I don't get them mixed up, but sometimes I will hear someone getting into mischief and without looking to see who it is, I'll admonish Jade.

She's the baby and always in trouble, but sometimes I'll look and discover I've chastised Jade when it was Baby getting into trouble.
 

anjhest

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I get their names mixed up all the time! I know which is which, but for some reason the wrong name comes out sometimes. They don't seem to mind, although Leo KNOWS his name.
 

katiemae1277

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yes, I do, but I have a good excuse: it's realyl hard to keep 15 cats straight! sometimes I'll call them a couple wrong names and then just say "whoever you are!"
I also get around this by calling them generic nicknames like cutie
 

myfamiliars

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I do because both my cats are black, and they are brothers. One (Shadow) has a few white hairs on his chest and more on his stomach while Raven has no white hairs; Shadow is a pound heavier and has a fuller face; Raven is much more sleek. However, in the dark or when I am not paying really close attention, I have been known to mix them up.

In general, though, I can tell them apart.
 

monaxlisa

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lol, I'd never considered the A word!! I do call my cats the wrong name sometimes. I can tell them apart (even the ones that look the same) but for some reason the wrong name comes out, even though I know which is which..sigh.
 

footersownsme

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i do it all the time to Possum and Sloth. They are both trouble makers I usually just yell both their names and then sometimes when i say hi to them i say the wrong name. I feel bad but they dont mind. Also when I'm mad and flustered i always end up shouting "whoever you are get down from there" or "whoever you are knock it off" Having 4 cats and 1 dog gets confusing sometimes what can i say. i now understand how my father mixed up our names...lol
 

libby74

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For some reason, DH & I both call Hannah and Katie by the opposite name on a regular basis. Doesn't make any sense---Hannah is black and chubby and Katie is a slender grey tabby.
 

natalie_ca

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I do sometimes. Chynna doesn't care because she's mostly deaf and can't really hear me talking to her unless I'm right up in her ear. But Abby gets offended. As soon as she hears me say "Chynna" while cuddling her, her eyes get big, she pushes against me with her front legs and takes off in a huff!
 

miamaria

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Originally Posted by MonaxLisa

lol, I'd never considered the A word!! I do call my cats the wrong name sometimes. I can tell them apart (even the ones that look the same) but for some reason the wrong name comes out, even though I know which is which..sigh.
Yup! This is what I do... I look at one of them and say the other one's name even though I know it's wrong the second I say it. Then I correct myself, as if the cat is going to care! It happens more often when the neighbor's cats are visiting and we have 7 in the house, so maybe I just get overwhelmed by all the different names
I don't know about anyone else, but my parents used to run through every kid's name before saying "whatever your name is!"
 

kittybernard

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"Bil-.. Joh-.. I mean, Kit-.. Pun-.. oh, I give up! YOU!"


Whenever I'm rounding them up for food or bed though, I keep it generic and just call them all "cattle".
 

satai

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

I do sometimes. Chynna doesn't care because she's mostly deaf and can't really hear me talking to her unless I'm right up in her ear. But Abby gets offended. As soon as she hears me say "Chynna" while cuddling her, her eyes get big, she pushes against me with her front legs and takes off in a huff!
That's actually quite adorable!
 

momofmany

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Mixing up names is a family trait in my family. It used to take my dad 3 tries to get my name right (I have 2 sisters). I sometimes get mine mixed up across species (the dogs and cats), and sometimes even call out the names of our OTB pets. I can't tell you the number of times I've called one of my dogs Jethro, who crossed about 10 years ago. OK, Spike and Jethro are both big black dogs, but still......

But I've used this family gene to my advantage. My sister has a daughter named Emily (calls her Em). My name is Amy. Whenever I'm over at their house, my sister calls me Em and her daughter Amy. So my niece started to call me Auntie Em. Guess where my business name came from? Nope, its not because I live in Kansas.
 

gemlady

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Originally Posted by Momofmany

Mixing up names is a family trait in my family. It used to take my dad 3 tries to get my name right (I have 2 sisters). I sometimes get mine mixed up across species (the dogs and cats), and sometimes even call out the names of our OTB pets. I can't tell you the number of times I've called one of my dogs Jethro, who crossed about 10 years ago. OK, Spike and Jethro are both big black dogs, but still......

But I've used this family gene to my advantage. My sister has a daughter named Emily (calls her Em). My name is Amy. Whenever I'm over at their house, my sister calls me Em and her daughter Amy. So my niece started to call me Auntie Em. Guess where my business name came from? Nope, its not because I live in Kansas.
Many the times my Dad would call out the names of human and creature alike before getting the one he wanted.
 

laureen227

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yes, i do that sometimes... of course, i also do that w/my students @ school. i'm more likely to mix up names that start w/the same sound [Pixel & 'Puter (Firefox's 'call name'
) for example].
like Amy, this is a family trait - most of my mother's family do this, as well. we call it the 'roll call'!
 

nekochan

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Right now I have 6 tabbies. Five of them are foster kittens all from the same litter, and the 6th may be their older half-brother (they were all feral kittens and I think they had the same mother.) It can be very hard to tell them apart at a glance if you're not paying attention! There were 7 kittens in the litter but two were adopted...

If that is not difficult enough--

I have 6 cats who are tabbies: Church, Harlequin, Spot, Mr Gray, Tiger and Blaze.
I have 6 cats who have tuxedo markings: Church, Harlequin, Spot, Mr. Gray, Blaze, (all tabbies) and Sneakers (black and white.) In the dark it can be hard to tell if a cat is a tabby with white or black with white-- or when a paw reached out from under a couch.

I have 4 cats with face blazes: Spot, Harlequin, Mr. Gray, and Blaze.
I have 3 cats with face blazes, tuxedo markings, and brown tabby color.
3-4 tabby cats with ticked bodies (Blaze has faint stripes.)

However I can usually tell which cat is which if I actually look at them for a second or two because they are all very distinctive in ways. The two that look most alike are Blaze and Mr Gray. They are both brown tabbies with some ticking and tuxedo markings, and they have nearly identical face blazes. They almost look like twins except that they have different face shapes! Blaze almost looks like a Siamese and Mr Gray looks slightly snub-nosed, a bit like a British Shorthair or something. Mr Gray is a little smaller because he was a runt.

Here is a photo of some of the kittens. Blaze is the one whose head is the furthest to the left of the photo, and Mr Gray is the one directly in front of him.

 

satai

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Originally Posted by Nekochan

Right now I have 6 tabbies. Five of them are foster kittens all from the same litter, and the 6th may be their older half-brother (they were all feral kittens and I think they had the same mother.) It can be very hard to tell them apart at a glance if you're not paying attention! There were 7 kittens in the litter but two were adopted...
How confusing! But that is a fantastic picture, all of them snuggled up together like that
 
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persi & alley

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Originally Posted by Satai

How confusing! But that is a fantastic picture, all of them snuggled up together like that
I could not agree more! What a great picture. I would REALLY be in trouble with all those guys. Wait, I know. I would write the name of each cat by its picture, then laminate the picture and run a chain through the picture, then hang it around my neck. Yeah, that's it and then when I saw a cat coming I would simply refer to the cheat sheet around my neck.
 
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