Sorry, all - my news reader has the posts in order that I did not read
all the wherefore parts before I posted the other....
Kathy

<snip>

I am a terrible namer too.  I can never think of anything suitable at first,
end up nicknaming them temporarily and then it sticks.
I would never have named a cat "Boyfriend" on purpose.  It just seemed that
he must be Kitty's boyfriend or she would never have allowed him on the
place.  I tried to change it to Gideon, but it didn't work.   Neither is
Kitty an imaginative name.  It's what you call a cat when you don't know
their name and I didn't know her name as I thought she belonged to someone
else.
So I did dignify her a bit by adding a surname.

When Nüle was here visiting from Germany, she told me that the equivalent in
German was Meitze.  I may have the spelling wrong here, Inge? Bettina?  When
we call  "here, kitty, kitty"  they call for "meitze, meitze"    She claimed
that all cats will come if you call this phrase, and yes, mine did, if  "I"
called it.  Kitty came if Nüle called it, but for some reason Boyfie had a
deep distrust of her.
I know it hurt her feelings, as she is kind and she loves cats.  She wanted
to be his friend but he certainly didn't want to be hers.
I wasn't bothered at first as Boyfie hates visitors but after three weeks he
was still the same.  He spent a lot of time outside the house and would only
come in when she had gone to bed.  30 seconds or so afterwards he would
trill at the door, so he was watching.
N used to say  "But why does he hate me so much?"  with such pathos in her
voice.
I could not offer any explanation at all.  She certainly looks very
different from me.  I am small, 5 ft 4, and have darkish greying hair,
medium build.  N is 5 ft 10, yellow blonde spiky hair and as thin as a
stick.  And ok, her accent is different.  Maybe the lad just doesn't like
change.

Tweed