Has anyone adopted a pet & then changed the pet's name?

[TaraPA]

Our neighbor is moving & cannot take her cat with her, so we are considering taking in it. However, we all really don't like the cat's name! Has anyone ever adopted a pet & successfully changed it's name?

 

[SandrA9810]

dunno...

When I adopted my dog from the pound, they said her name was Kiani. I dunno if we pronounced it the same way, but every one loved her name.

 

[hopemax]

We adopted a cat from a shelter this morning. Unlike most of their animals, this one came with info (his owner unexpectedly died and didn't have any family to take him). But they said that some animals aren't really attached to their name. So even though he was 7 years old, if we wanted to change his name we could.

If the cat visibly reacts to its name, I probably wouldn't change it. But in general, as long as you are holding a full dinner dish, I think the cat wouldn't care what you called it.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

First off it is a cat and pretty much they don't care.

Secondly yes, we adopted 2 dogs from rescue and we change their names. The rescue people were not happy about it but whatever. After a month the dogs responded to their new names.

 

[remyandhollandsmommy]

We "adopted" our chihuahua from a woman who was dying of cancer and couldn't take care of her anymore..can you believe her husband had named the dog Chemo? I couldn't imagine yelling that out of the back door without cringing so we renamed the dog "Christian" after the woman we got her from..we thought that was a much nicer way to remember the previous owner and showed how grateful we were for the pup (my girls ADORE her).

Christian was under a year old when we got her and had no probs with the renaming process..after a few weeks she KNEW we were calling her.

 

[JerseyJanice]

A coworker of mine adopted a dog called "Shrimpy" from a breeder. She hated the name and I can understand why. Turned out that "Shrimpy" was a nickname since the dog was on the small side for her breed. When the coworker got the dog with her papers, she discovered that the dog was really named "Jamie." My friend liked that name much more and so she called her that, and the dog adapted to it just fine.

Good luck with your new kitty.

 

[fairestoneofall]

We used to foster for Miniature Pinscher rescue. I changed the names of several of the minpins we fostered. Some were from a bad situation and I just wanted to give them a fresh start. There were a few that we didn't know their names, so gave them new ones. If it was an owner-turn-in (and not a bad situation), I usually left their names. However, some of the families who adopted those fosters change their names when they adopted them.

We've never had a problem with the animal adjusting to it's new name.

 

[ladycollector]

I haven't done it with a rescue dog, but my chihuahua had been given a name by the breeder that he kinda responded to (Baker) so I tried to go with a name that rhymed and had the same syllables (Jacob, Jakers). Worked great!

 

[briannesmom]

Our dog was 3 when we adopted her and we changed her name. The Humane Society suggested to change it to something that sounded similar. Her name was Diesel (who names a girl dog that?) and we changed it to Hazel.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

We adopted a dog once named Sensuous Desire. We renamed her Shady Lady (black dog). When her former owners came to visit her a year later, she barked at them.

I don't like to rename an animal but we could not live with that name!

 

[Magic Mom]

We changed both the dog's and the horse's name. The dog was Skipand we changed it to Max and the horse was Dixie (yuck) and we changed it to Ember.

 

[TaraPA]

Thanks everyone, sounds like animals are pretty resilient & can adapt to a new name. I guess we'll try it & see how it works with a new name. If the cat just won't respond to a new name we'll grin & bear it with the old one.

Sensuous Desire...OMG!!! That's cruel!

 

[akcire]

When we adopted this cat (see the photo to the left) his pre-adoption "shelter name" was Jackson. We renamed him Cooper. Jackson was a fine name, it would not work for us because we already had a cat with that name.

Cooper comes when he is called, as does Jack; when I want them both I call for "Kitty".

 

[mrsstats]

Yes, my chi/mix was Cheka, we renamed her Kallie. She was 3 years at the time. My other dog (who has passed) was named Buttons, we named her Mindy. My other chi/mix was Pee Wee but the rescue we got him from named him Petey, we stuck with that. We stuck with Danny too for our other dog who passed.

Yes, you can do it without a problem.

 

[justjudy]

We renamed our 8-year-old Golden rescue. It took her about 2 days to start answering to her new name. Guess she didn't like the old one!

 

[Diznygrl]

Sensuous Desire, omg that made me laugh so hard! What are people THINKING? Poor dog.

We have a stray cat that kind of went back and forth between us and the neighbors...it took me forever to think up the right name for him. He's black and white, so my dad called him Holstein (um...no.), the neighbor called him Coon (Uhhhh.... NO.). After we got him neutered and he became "our" cat, I finally decided on the name Bandit. He learned to respond to it pretty fast.

 

[OK!]

Sort of, yes. My cat was picked up by the Humane Society and was with them for about a week before I saw him and fell in love. They'd named him Seth after a character in The Fly because he jumped insanely high from a dead standstill; I changed his name to Rowan when he came home with me.

 

[Liberty Belle]

We adopted a dog once named Sensuous Desire. We renamed her Shady Lady (black dog). When her former owners came to visit her a year later, she barked at them.

I don't like to rename an animal but we could not live with that name!

What a name! Imagine calling that one out.

Funny - I call our black lab Shady Lady, only he's a (altered) boy. My son gets mad when I call him it. His name is Shiloh and his nickname is Shillelagh (shi-lay-lee), which became Shady, and then Shady Lady.

 

[EllenFrasier]

One of our dogs was 3 when we adopted her from a rescue group. Her name was "Deva"....I think they meant "Diva" but they spelled it wrong. Anyway, we didn't like that so we changed her name to Jessie and that is what it's been ever sense and she knows her name.

Like another poster said though, it's a cat and they really don't care!

 

[Imzadi]

First off it is a cat and pretty much they don't care.

That is soooo not true!

This my & my cat's true story:

I had been thinking for a long while of getting a kitten. I thought when I get one, I'm going to name her Sabrina , like the Audrey Hepburn movie. Also the Harrison Ford remake.

I looked around, spotted my kitty online at the neighboring county's shelter, 40 miles away, and went to pick her up.

What I should have done was walk down the aisle of cats and called out, "Sabrina!" and then taken home a cat that answered to that name.

Instead, I took my kitten home. I started calling her Sabrina, and she'd have none of it. (She was from a litter of strays and didn't even know how to use kitty litter, so it's not like someone else named her first.

She just wouldn't answer to that name. In fact, when I called her Sabrina, she'd purposely look away, with an expression of, "That's NOT my name. Quit calling me that." Or, she would simply ignore me, like I wasn't even there, holding a dish of smelly cat food.

So, for 3 months, I tried to figure out what her name was. Calling out every name I could think of, that I actually liked. No way was she going to be called a name that I hated. She reacted pretty much the same way to all the names. "I hope you aren't talking to me, because that's not my name."

Finally, I was down to the last couple names that I liked. I remembered a name that I always loved, but completely forgot about.

My kitty was looking the other way. As soon as I called her that, my kitty turned, looked right over at me inquisitively, "Yes? Did you want something?" she even got up and came right over to me. I figured out her name! In all the years since, she has NEVER not responded to that name. That's her name. And I don't have to hold cat food out to her to prove it.