Tolly: (12years old) I rescued Tolly as a tiny bit of red fluff, in 9/1999 he was no more than 5 weeks old, pneumonia, chlamydia, ear mites and all.
It took him about a week to let me know what his name is. I was trying on different things, but none of them fit.
One night I was lying in bed reading, and he scrambled up by climbing the blanket, it was the first time he had made it up on the bed himself.
He was so proud of himself and, getting on my legs, he walked up the whole length of my body (he still does that). When he got to my chest he bumped his head into my face, and rubbed his face all over mine. At that moment I knew his name was Tolly and in fact began singing "Tolly Tolly Tolly, I love Tolly" before the thought was half formed.
The three girls each let me know their names the first time our eyes met
Mazy: (7 years old) I adopted Mazy from the shelter in 2/2005. I thought I was looking for a kitten, and I had been to the shelter many times over the months. One time when I went in the manager met me at the door all excited, they had a whole bunch of kittens.
I went into the kitten room, and sure enough, there were five or six tiny kittens running around. But my eye was caught by an adult size cat sitting in a cage.
I looked at her, our eyes met, and I said "Oh! You're Mazy!" (the name the shelter had given her was Trinity.) She said "prrt!" and so we bonded.
Jennie: (about 5 years old) I rescued Jennie in 10/2007. Jennie was a stray raising a family of four all by herself when I rescued her. (the kittens, all feral were taken to a shelter, to be fostered and socialized).
It took me a long time to win her trust, (at the time I thought she was still pregnant because she had such a funny pot belly, I didn't know she was already raising her family) and at first all I ever saw was her white hind legs disappearing over the porch railing, so I was calling her Socks, just to be calling her something.
One day she hesitated before she ran and I got a glimpse of her face. She did her usual jump off the porch, but when I looked over the side, instead of running away, she was crouched in the grass looking up at me. Our eyes met and I said "Oh! You're Jennie!" and she gave me a long blink.
Queen Eva: (9 months old) rescued from a bad situation in 8/2010. I met Queen Eva in a terrible household when she was only 4 weeks old. They were calling her "Lucky" because she is polydactyl. They were also already calling her "that mean cat" because she screamed and scratched and bit if anyone in that house tried to touch her.
I hunkered down to have a look at her, she lifted her golden eyes to mine, invited me to scratch her chin and told me her name was Eva. I knew I had to get her out of that house, though it took four more weeks to do it.
One the morning I took her home, as I was pulling out of the driveway of the place, she started screaming at the top of her voice (she was in a carrier strapped in the back seat).
I opened my mouth to say "Don't worry, Eva everything will be all right now" and instead what came out was her song which starts: "Queen Eva Queen Eva I love you, Queen Eva I love you, I do" So she was yelling that her name was really Queen Eva, not just Eva, and I better not forget it!
