What's in a Name?

I have found, through conversations with fellow animal lovers, that we are not all that unusual in making sure that most of Da Buddies have multiple nicknames.  A sampling is below, for your reading pleasure:

Mister is most commonly referred to with a blurring of his actual name that begins to sound like a three-year-old pronouncing the French version of the word:  Monsieur (or Mizzour).  As an offshoot of this, sometimes we call him Mister Pamplemousse (which is French for grapefruit), mostly because he can be kind of sour and acidic when he wants to be.  An alternate name for him has, on occasion, been Clarence.  You'd have to know him well to understand that one.  Also, sometimes we call him Mister Rear, because of the noise he makes when he's annoyed with something. 


Mango is usually just Mango, or sometimes Mangoo or Mangoolia.  (This is because of the elaborate "Wanda language" that we have developed.  More on that later.

Otto is sometimes Otto-Blotto, Ottoodle, Big Buddy, or something that strongly resembles Cockney Rhyming Slang.  In other words, you take the word you're using to describe him at the moment, then make a contraction with his name and that word.  For example, if we say, "Otto play?"  It becomes Plotto.  Or "Otto is hungry" becomes Hotto.

Wanda is usually Wandoo.  Wanda is kind of a special case, because we decided that if Wanda could talk, she would have this very nasal-y voice and most words with a vowel at the end would end with -oo.  So Wanda calls herself Wandoo; she calls Otto, Ottoo, and so on.  Obviously, her favorite movie character is R2-D2 and her favorite car is a Subaroo (sic).  You get the idea.   Someday, if she ever gets to go to Bonnaroo, she's just going to be beside herself with joy.  


In addition to her impressive language skills, (we have also decided that) Wanda can use the computer to type emails.  Sometimes Sean will get emails (signed "Wandoo") from her, making various requests/demands.  (Hey, she is the alpha, after all.)  One time, Wanda requested/demanded a Cockoo Spanyoo.  (That's Cocker Spaniel to you and me.)   Most recently, Wanda wrote Sean to tell him that she had reached tweendom at the ripe age of eleven, and would like to change her name.  From now on, she wanted to be called Zsa Zsa.  That lasted about ten minutes, until Sean decided to bribe her with a shaky treat into going back to using her old name.  It would be too confusing for the other cats, he argued.  And besides, Reggie kept showing up every time he tried to call her by that name, which would only add to the confusion.  In the end, Wanda decided to take that shaky treat and continue being called Wandoo, but I think it pained her grievously to do so.


Reggie is often Wedgie, Wedgie-Wedgie-Head-Like-a-Veggie,  Redge-Roo (said with a high-pitched trill at the "roo" part), or sometimes Golem.  Seriously, if you ever saw his yellow eyes glowing at night, you would totally understand why we call him this.  I keep half-expecting him to start hissing:  "my preciousssss....."


Elroy, though the youngest, has somehow landed himself the most nicknames.  Elroy is alternately called Elrory, Elroodle, Roodle, or Roodle Doodle Stinky Noodle.  That last one is kind of a mouthful.  He responds to all of them equally well, though.  


Perhaps the Bard was right: "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  Or as stinky, in this case.  And I mean that in the most affectionate way possible.