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

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?; 5/4/16, 10:13 AM
Darrell said...: Cats are family members. For the intelligent.; 5/4/16, 10:22 AM
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?; 5/4/16, 10:22 AM
PB said...: I'd like to see some correlation of this with IQ and other factors. I've never experienced this.; 5/4/16, 10:24 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 10:26 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 10:27 AM
tim maguire said...: Darrell said...Cats are family members. For the intelligent.

Is that what your therapist told you?; 5/4/16, 10:28 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Now I'm kind of wondering how many women have called out their dog's name while getting banged.; 5/4/16, 10:30 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 10:30 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 10:33 AM
Nichevo said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 5/4/16, 10:44 AM
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.....; 5/4/16, 10:56 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 10:58 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 11:01 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 11:05 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: That was funny, Eric, and even more funny if true.; 5/4/16, 11:26 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 11:29 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 11:35 AM
Quaestor said...: I've done that. I love my dog, so I hope my friends and family take it as a compliment.; 5/4/16, 11:48 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 11:52 AM
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.; 5/4/16, 2:35 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Damn! I missed a golden opportunity to type: One thing Led to another.; 5/4/16, 4:04 PM
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.); 5/4/16, 7:31 PM
Sam L. said...: You can call the cat whatever you want, and it won't come. Until it's ready.; 5/4/16, 11:30 PM
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.; 5/5/16, 2:06 AM