I’ve been working at the cats only boarding facility since December. In the last few months, I’ve met cats with all sorts of creative, funny, or unique names. Some of my favorites are Squad Car, Count Catula, and Big Kitty.
Today, we were expecting a guest with the most unique name of all — a cat named Hot Guy. To be honest, I imagined a cat named Hot Guy belonging to a college kid. Wouldn’t you love to call home and tell your parents that your roommate is a hot guy?
We were expecting four cats in this morning, and I’d never met Hot Guy or his owner before — so I didn’t know what they looked like. An owner showed up with cat and accessories (bed, food, and toys) in tow. I said my usual, “And who have we here?”
“This is Hot Guy,” she said.
I grabbed the chart and started the check-in… but something didn’t seem right. Something didn’t SOUND right. “I’m sorry,” I said. “Did you say Hawkeye?”
“Yes,” she said, “Like on MASH.”
I burst out laughing and showed her the name on the chart. She burst out laughing, too. Go ahead — say it out loud. Hot Guy. Hawkeye. If you don’t enunciate the K (or have a bad phone connection) the two names sound a lot alike. To my coworker who made the reservation, the name sounded like Hot Guy.
When Courtney was talking about the people who were given the wrong dog at the doggy daycare, I mentioned my big name mix-up at the boarding facility: an owner came to pick up a cat named Marley and I tried to send her home with a cat named Marney. The owner noticed my mistake right away, and I went back for the right cat. Mistakes can happen — nobody’s perfect — but at least we can laugh at mistakes like this.