It was hard saying goodbye to Maggie. She was a good cat with a hell of a lot of personality. At least when she got sick, the end came quick and she left us peacefully. And now it looks like she’ll be the subject of my next comic project, in line with Skateboard Heroes style, but a bit more off the wall.

But I’m not here to talk about my old friend. I’m here to talk about the new friends that will be joining our family soon. Actually, it’s the naming of these little critters that really is my subject. The kids all fell in love with these little sisters at the adoption agency, so there really was no choice in the matter. Of course, the adoption process is pretty wackadoo, but it involves getting the kitties spayed, which is an absolute requirement on all sides.

But naming the two balls of fluff is hard. And when the names have to be approved by three kids and two adults, all with strong creative opinions… it’s tough.

We tried brainstorming and word association. You start out okay with names like Tallalulah and Butch, but pretty soon you’ve got kids shouting out muffin fluffy cheddar custom swing sets richmond va honey cookie…

We discussed “Real” names (my personal preference). The problem, though, after naming three kids, you’ve exhausted a large proportion of the good “people” names that two adults can agree on… let alone three kids.

And then there is the consideration that the two cat names have to sound reasonable together. You can’t have Charles and Lickety Split or something. It sounds like a jockey and a race horse. Or like you really respect one of them and think the other is a damaged dink.

But we have managed to settle on two names that everyone likes and even the three year old can pronounce. (My new German Cinema directors concept was shot down on this basis… as well as the fact that we’d really need 4 cats to properly represent the movement.)

Maybe I’ll let you know what we picked somday…