We had a Bean in our family many, many years ago - in fact, she was the second cat my family had after I came along. My mother bought a pedigree Siamese - this was back in 1963, so she was "old school"- apple-headed and large-boned, not the skinny wedge heads they breed today (not that those cats aren't beautiful too - all cats are). When she was old enough my mom had her bred and the result was 5 snow-white kittens. At the time my parents had a friend who used the word "bean" like most people would use "guy". So when the kittens were born my Dad told my mom "there's five new beans in the box." So the kittens were all "beans". Four were sold and my Mom decided to keep one, and of course by then "Bean" stuck. My mom was always chagrined that her beautiful pedigreed Siamese was "Bean". (Her mom had the elegant name of Samantha.) She never got called anything but Bean or Beanie, though. When I was in college I dated a guy whose cat was Benzoria, but never got called anything but Beanie. So we both had cats named Beanie. Bean, like her mom, was a beautiful, intelligent, dignified cat, but unlike Samantha, Bean would do some really funny, undignified things and always kept us in stitches. She took turns sleeping on our pillows at night. Bean died at the age of 18, of FeLV. This was in 1982, so she just missed out on the advantages of the vaccine. Who knows how long she would have lived if it had been in existence during her time. Anyway, just a fond memory triggered by Andi's post of her "Bean"...