I’ve had many dogs throughout my life and was fortunate enough to name some of them. Others I received after they had already received a name and became used to it, which is probably for the best. I’m not the best person for deciding the names of animals. You can tell by my former goldfish named Spot & Fluffy. Plus, I always figured if I ever got a pet turtle, I’d call him “PUCK”.

With my cats, I had Figaro (because he looked like the cat from Pinocchio). Rayne (originally named “Booger” because of how sickly she was when I found her. As she improved, I attempted to train her to be a mouser, and she was eventually renamed after a video game character named Bloodrayne). The other cat was named Tinkerbell because the previous owners thought the cat was female. After realizing the cat was male, I changed his name to TINK. He responded! Then a wild cat adopted me. I named her Shadow, since for about 2 weeks, I just knew there was some shadow type animal living in my open garage. Once I realized it was a cat, she became my friend.

Figaro, Rayne, Tink, Shadow - Canva/tsm/Timmy!

Dogs were the fun ones. My grandparents adopted a stray that had a litter. I got to name all of them. The mother dog I named Suzie, and her litter of four was Smokey, Rover, Buster & Jennifer. My brother and I brought Buster home.

Buster the Dog - tsm/Timmy!

After Buster, there were Snuggles, Macy & Gypsy. Those dogs already had their names when we adopted them.

Snuggles, Macy, Gypsy - Canva/tsm/Timmy!

Yakima Humane Society Needs Your Help!

My little buddy that I’ve had for the past 10 years is named Rusty. When we first got him, he was all white, so I renamed him “Dusty” since it sounded similar, and he still responded. As his hair grew out, it took on more of a rustic color, and so we realized he already had the perfect name.

Rusty The Dog - tsm/Timmy!

So, as a resident of Washington State my entire life, how did I do on the names? Check out the Most Popular Dog Names in Every State to find out!