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

[DMRick]

But in general, as long as you are holding a full dinner dish, I think the cat wouldn't care what you called it.

Yep, that's pretty much it. We name all our foster kittens, but we just do that to keep the paperwork straight. I'm always getting emails letting me know how Twinkle or Fluffy, etc are doing. Problem is, I have no idea who they are, because I didn't have any fosters with those names. So yop, just about everyone changes their names.

Food speaks to cats and kittens.

 

[Tiggernut_jadie]

We adopted our dogs from the pound and here in the uk they don't give them a name unless they know the dogs history and therefore its 'real' name. All 3 of our dogs were former strays so we didn't know what their previous names were. They were all quite quick in picking up their 'new' names - Karly, Sammi and Ruby.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

So Imzadi, was that name speshul snowflake?

When I did have cats I would just always call them with "the hand" and a snap, singing the "kitty-kitty" song, or clicking. Never had a problem.

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

I adopted a friend’s cat about 12-13 years ago. My friend and her family rescued a litter of kittens but couldn’t keep all of them. The one I chose was named “God’s Eye.” I could not imagine calling anything “God’s Eye” especially not an animal. It kind of freaked me out. lol I ended up naming her Patches (I know not much better lol!) She ended up actually responding to her new name much more than her old one. I guess she didn’t like it either.

 

[laurie31]

Imzadi, your stroy reminds me of the musical Cats!

"And so in time you'll reach your aim...and call him by his name!"


Anyway, all our pets are rescues or former strays. Several were named before we got them, and we changed them all.

"Rastus" became "Tux," "Samantha" became "Calli," and "Honey" became "Annie."

The most "significant" change was our rescued poodle who was already an adult dog, but he had the same name as one of our other pets, plus we didn't think it suited him at all, so we changed it. No muss, no fuss.

His name was Buddy, nothing too odd about it, but we already had a big loveable Buddy, and somehow it didn't strike us as a "poodle-y" name. His name is Paulie now. Paulie Poodle. Yep, we call him that.


Good luck with your new addition!

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

You can go to Banfiled, the hospital at Petsmart, and they will give you a pamphlet on how to change your pet's name. I kid you not.

When I rescued my dog he came with a name that fit him perfectly -- it was truly the right name for him, so even though he'd been given it by the rescue who had only had him a few days, and didn't answer to it, we kept it.

Anyway, we went to Banfield to get him checked out, and when I called and made the appointment they kind of snorted and said "Oh, don't worry about the name, you can change that, we'll tell you how." I said, thank you but we LIKE his name. Then when we went in a different person (opposite gender) told me "Here's a pamphlet to help you change his name." Then both he vet tech and the vet made a point of offering the pamplet, then when I left the person checking me out offered me the darn pamphlet again!

I don't want to post his actual name online, but it's an old man name, like Floyd. Something I would never name a child in a million years, but it suits him perfectly. Apparently, I'm the only one who thinks that however.

Anyway, they seem eager to hand out the pamphlets, and clearly don't believe that you can harm a dog by changing his name. On the other hand, they seem oposed to giving dogs old man names.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

When we adopted one of our bunnies from a rescue shelter, she had a long name in Japanese that we could hardly spell or pronounce. They've had hundreds of rabbits pass through the shelter and they need each one to have a unique name so they can tell them apart in their records. We immediately changed her name to Ashley because she has gray streaks and looks like she rolled in the fire place.

Last year, we fostered some baby bunnies and we were charged with naming them. We decided to go with street names. One was named after our street, one after a street that runs by the school where they were rescued and one after the street where my husband grew up - Willow. When we reported the names back to the shelter, they said they already had a Willow on record so he would be recorded as Willis. We broke down and adopted them (couldn't bear to give them back) and Willow went back to being Willow! He can be Willis for their records but he's our Willow now!

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

Yes. We had a Clover that we changed to Midden and a Flare we changed to Botter.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

Our first German Shepherd was Thunder when we adopted him. We thought it was funny because he was the opposite of thunder when we adopted him - a quiet, docile, meek, nervous Shepherd! We started calling him by his new name, Jack, when we first got him and he had it figured out by the end of the evening.

Sasha was a different story; she had been surrendered directly to the rescue and they knew her history, and she hadn't had a bad life until then. When you call her, her tail starts wagging furiously and her paws fly above her head as she bounds to meet you. We just couldn't bear to seperate her from that level of enthusiasm for her name, even though we knew she'd soon have the same reaction to her new name.

I don't think it hurts the pet at all to have a new name. Yes, there is some confusion at first, but animals don't identify with their own name in the same way that we do. They'll be just as happy with their new name as with their old one, as long as someone that they love is calling it!

 

[fiveforall]

We adopted an 11 year old cat whose name was Junior. His owner had died, and he was really depressed and lethargic. I thought it would be best to keep his name, but my daughters hated it. They called him Fassa and he was so happy to have love and attention, that he would come to us when he heard our voices. He adapted very well to the name change. We had him two years and then he died of a kidney ailment. He gave us a lot of love in those two years. I sure do miss him.

 

[dollydell]

our dog already had a name he responded to when we got him, and it wasn't a bad name, we just had a name already in mind. So we blended the two names, Fred and Rico together to get his formal name Fredrico, and called him that for a couple of weeks to get used to the sound of the nickname also. Eventually started calling him Rico, and he responded right away.

 

[tzolkin]

We adopted our cat in October and renamed her (after a few weeks of indecisiveness ). While we were waiting for the kids to decide on a name we just called her Cat or Kitty.

She was found under a porch with a litter of kittens in June or July, so she really didn't have a name. The shelter puts names on all of their animals, so she was "Twinkles". I posted some pics on the cat photo thread, but even my kids cannot figure out how anyone ever could have looked at this cat and thought "twinkles".

She's now Cordelia. But, honestly I don't think it makes any difference to her what we call her. It just makes it easier to refer to her if we're talking to each other.


I think a dog is different and if you wanted to change the name it should be something similar. My brother used to think it was hilarious that our dog would respond to anything that sounded similar to her name when we were kids. My parents changed the name of their current dog from Lady to Katie (I think she's technically "Lady Katharine" ). It was a similar name and the dog quickly started responding to Katie and Kate.

 

[Honeibee]

OP -

Whatever you end up doing about the name... I think you are doing a wonderful thing, taking their cat in. Kudos to you and bless you for probably saving that cat's life.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My sister adopted a dog from the pound for me once. It was a cutle little cockapoo type, named Tweety. We renamed her Ragamuffin, cause she looked like one, and actually called her Muffin. I don't recall that she ever had a problem learning her "new" name.

 

[KathyTX]

The beagle in my signature is a rescue, she was found running as a stray with another beagle and the rescue agency dubbed them Thelma and Louise.

Cute for the pair of them, but she's just NOT a Thelma!

We renamed her Jessie, and she caught on right away and we've had no trouble with her recognizing her name. (Of course, none of us have ANY idea what she was called the first five years of her life, before she ran away/got lost/was abandoned.)

 

[justinjenn]

We got a shelter dog who was 3 months old and known as "Ben". He is now successfully Toby!!! He did well with the transition!
Good Luck.

 

[lawsonsontour]

when we got our rottie he had been called romeo.....no name for a big dog so we changed it to harvey....never had any problems but he was only just over 1 year old

 

[tink1969]

We just adopted a 3 year old cat named Bobo and we changed to Baxter.
I'm am so happy that he such a friendly and lovable cat!

 

[Sparx]

In my experience, cat's names don't REALLY matter. None of mine have ever really recognized their name.

I adopted (from a shelter) a cat named "Billie" and renamed her, and she never seemed to have a problem with it.

 

[Danauk]

My cat was origionally called Thomas (as in Thomas the Tank Engine.) We found this out after he had adopted us and we had named him Cheeky (I thought he was cheeky as he decided to move in with us, we didn't actually buy him!!) My 2 cats do know their names and only respond to their name.