May 4, 2016

Why you accidentally call family members by your dog's name.

But not your cat's name.

25 comments:

tim maguire said...

Because dogs are family members, but cats aren't?

Darrell said...

Cats are family members. For the intelligent.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The Monks of New Skete say don't give your dog a human name because then you'll anthropomorphize it leading to a parade of horrible.

That's some pretty dumb advice.

They also claim that it's perfectly humane to crate your dog because dogs have a denning instinct, and if your dog whines when first put in a crate, you should punch the top to startle the dog into submission.

WWJD?

PB said...

I'd like to see some correlation of this with IQ and other factors. I've never experienced this.

Bruce Hayden said...

Then, there was my mother who called us "B, J, J, T, B, Suzi, Sonya", where the initials refer to our names, in age order, Suzi was the puddle, and Sonya a huskie. Never mentioned the cat, Mittens, but he was an outdoor cat, so maybe that doesn't count. Might have made more sense to just use "hey you, yes YOU" instead.

madAsHell said...

When I was young, my mother would yell at me with first my father's name, then the dog's name, and finally my name.
By this time, we were both laughing.

tim maguire said...

Darrell said...Cats are family members. For the intelligent.

Is that what your therapist told you?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Now I'm kind of wondering how many women have called out their dog's name while getting banged.

Bruce Hayden said...

As to IQ - my poor sainted (after raising 5 boys) mother, who did that, was 1st in her class at the University of Illnois. Maybe a bit different, but not stupid.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Yikes. I do this to my younger son regularly. But it's OK because I really, really love our dachshund.

The dog is family, the cat is an employee.

Nichevo said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gahrie said...

My Mom sometimes runs down my brother's name, my father's name and several of the pet's names before she settles on my name.....

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I have a cat who goes "Meeeeeeooooowwwwwww" whenever I say "Wanna Whole Lotta Love."

She'll do it four times in a row.

If that's not a good time, then I don't know what is.

Jeff said...

We have cats and my wife has called me by the cat's name more than once. The researchers just don't have the right cats.

B said...

My cat doesn't have a name. The closest thing to a name is when I whistle. When he hears that he comes inside to eat.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

That was funny, Eric, and even more funny if true.

Deborah M. said...

Actually I call my cat by my former boss's name. And, my mother used to call her dog by my husband's name. I don't know what any of that means.

Michael K said...

Bill Cosby, in one of his routines, said he thought his brother's name was "Jesus Christ!" until he was ten because that's the way his father always called the brother.

Quaestor said...

I've done that. I love my dog, so I hope my friends and family take it as a compliment.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Totally true.

Early on we learned that she would meow whenever someone addressed her by name.

One thing lead to another.

Fritz said...

My mom used to routinely run down the list of "Mark, Ted, Prince, Fritz" when preparing to yell at me for whatever it was I was doing wrong. Mark and Ted are younger brothers. Prince was a German Shepherd.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Damn! I missed a golden opportunity to type: One thing Led to another.

Roger Sweeny said...

Every year, there seemed to be one pair of kids whose names I mixed up in my high school classes. Usually, they looked similar, and were always boys. If they started getting annoyed by it, I'd promise to pay them each a quarter if I ever did it again. I lost a few bucks that way but it let them know I was trying.

(I never confused the pair of identical twins. One wore glasses and I quickly memorized which one that was.)

Sam L. said...

You can call the cat whatever you want, and it won't come. Until it's ready.

David said...

"(I never confused the pair of identical twins. One wore glasses and I quickly memorized which one that was.)"

Damned clever of you Roger.