A Name For The Cat

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

I have been hunting for this poem for YEARS, as I remember it from my childhood. I managed to find a copy of the book on eBay (The Fireside Book of David Hope - 1972), so I hope you like it:

A Name For The Cat by David Hope

The name should be short
And easily heard,
Preferably just a one-
Syllable word.

Jill, or else Sooty-
Remember the sex!
Call a tom Mary,
His spirit you’ll vex!

A name to resound
To the park down the way,
Yet one that the baby
Can easily say.

Cats at a cat show,
The names they all bear-
Griselda of Grange,
Lady Lorna of Ware!

Could you or I yodel
“Puss, puss are you there?
Com in for your milk,
Lady Lorna of Ware!”

Cats have their dignity-
Don’t we all know!
Perhaps they enjoy
Fancy names at the show.

But back in the family,
I know, sure enough,
Griselda is Tibby,
And Lorna – just Fluff!

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

LOL!!! That is a GREAT poem!! I will save it for sure:)

[smokey the elder]

I think T.S. Eliot's "The Naming of Cats" is really good too!

[catmandu]

That isa Great Poem,and into my Meow Mail,it must go.

[koxka]

Originally posted by smokey the elder
I think T.S. Eliot's "The Naming of Cats" is really good too!

Yes, it is !
Funny, because just heard it today on the radio, while draving, and others poems dedicated to cats. :)

[koxka]

Googled it:

The Naming of Cats
. . . T.S. Eliot

The naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter
When I tell you a cat must have three
different names.

First of all, there's the name
that the family use daily,
Such as Victor, or Jonathan,
George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names
if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen,
some for the dames;
Such as Plato, Admetus,
Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you,
a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that is peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he
keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers,
or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind,
I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quazo or Coripat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellyrum--
Names that never belong
to more than one cat.

But above and beyond
there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you will never guess;
The name
that no human research can discover--
But The Cat Himself Knows,
and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought,
of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.