Terms of endearment for pets.

Sorry Mamacaz to jump on your 'terms of endearment' band wagon! It set me thinking.

When I was a child, we had a neighbour with two pekinese, who would be taken out to "do their oo-oos on the grassy-grassy" and spoken to in similar baby talk all the time. Their owner discovered that it was my fifth birthday, and exclaimed in wonder that her pets were the same age as me.

I was not impressed and told her, "I would have thought they could speak properly by now!"

We don't call our 1.5 cats anything silly but I always ask them if 'Daddy' has fed them yet.

1.5 cats? or was that 15 cats? I must admit I used to sometimes say daft things to the cat [not going to fess up to what they were though!]

DH always had his own names for our dogs. Benji the JR was Benge from Penge, Nahla the Rhodesian Ridgeback, Gnarls Barklie, Millie, our JR, is Mrs. Mills and when he lets Peggy out at night he shouts, 'Git aht my Pub!'

- oh, I couldn't possibly tell you!

Dingbat is known as Fatty, Bodoni is often shortened to Dones, Frutiger is Small But Feisty and the late Helvetica was often known as Little Mr White Paws. Hello Girly Girl is the mode of address to Bodoni and Frutiger with the concomitant Hello Boyly Boy to Fats. Embarrassing really.

Love the font names absent!

My first lurcher was named Towser but he was always Mr Wobbs to me. My two male hounds are aka Bert Basset and Google. I had a beautiful Tortoiseshell cat called Ella and when it was feeding time I used to call Ella bella mozzarella in an Italian accent (don't ask me why). Caspar her predecessor was Sir Hissy.

Seriously, is it an inevitable part of ageing that we begin to become a bit less inclined to hold in our 'be sensible' bits. I hear myself talking in a soft voice to the dogs, whose my best girl then, whose my best boy then. I talked to the hens. My now all grown up daughters are sure, mum's a lot cause these days.

Tinker is often known as Tynx or if I am in a good mood Tinker Winker. Mind you it's not what you say but how you say it and my voice often makes her name sound babyish - 'Tinker Winker mwah, mwah'. Oh the shame

Shysal The Fonts were all born in my office – hence their names. Their mother was called Fishpaste, but that's another story.

Our two cats, Otto and Cleo were always called Rotto and Clotto by DH. They never took offense)

Sophocles (completely black and beautiful) was known as Soppy.

Missy - Missylaneous: Gorgeous Girl: Beautiful Girl, Best Girl, Baby Girl.

Oscar - Big boy, Dopey, Stumpy (he has lost most of his tail) Trouble, Oscar Poos, Brian's Boy, Daddy's Boy. Handsome.

I also refer to my DH as Daddy (sometimes) when talking to the cats about him and refer to Missy as his 'sister' and Oscar as her 'brother' - they are not related in any way.

Have just realised that names for the girl cat are sweet names whereas names for 'our boy' are mainly rather the opposite

Don`t know why, but I quite often call our cat Flossie Annabelle.............her name is Mia!

Digby is Squeaky Fatarse, or Digaby Wigaby Woo, Maurice is Mori Mori Moo, or Mauriiiiisovitch, and Lily is Lily Loo. They also each have their own song

Oh and I have to change their potties.

When we first adopted Lily she had a different name, but I just couldn't face the prospect of Mr P standing on the doorstep shouting "Spunky, where are you?"

DH usually calls Grace " Will you get out of my way (does she? No)

I have a pair of Cream Legbar chickens called John and Yolko.

We have a rescue cat that was called Skye when we got her. She's never called that DH either calls her madam or 'hello you'
I tend to call her puss or pussycat willow.

Oh dear! What a soppy lot we are.

With me its "Hello Budgie Wudgies, be good boys! and "Mummy is going to get you some!" (whatever).
Also "Mummies little budgie boys."
Since I have had my DGS I get a tad confused and refer myself to the birds as Nannan! There is also the cry of "Time for Budgie bye byes! as I put the cover on at night.

Do you remember the late Frank Muir who once wrote a children's book about an Afghan Hound called 'what a mess'?

I have several 'What A Mess' books, anno. I was reading one of them to my five year old grandsons a few says ago. 'What A Mess and a Trip to the Vet.' They're delightful books.

"What a Mess" remains a favourite here, and our doodle dog is often referred to as What a Mess by our daughters. It's definitely a term of endearment, and a great nickname, as she does manage to look like a scruff, beard standing out, all the fur on her face and ears sticking up in different directions, and gormless expression on her face.