Kitty gender confusion

[bhskittykatt]

Saw this sign out at the mailboxes today. It's not verbatim, but it reads something to this effect:

MISSING:
Black and white cat with pink collar.
He She answers to [name].
We lost him her on [date].
We miss him her very much!
If you see him her, please contact [apartment number].

I would be wondering how they screwed that up if it wasn't for the fact that my dad always refers to their cat as "he" when she's really a she. (Typical phone call with the 'rents: Dad: "He's doing great." Mom in background: "She." Dad: "He got a new cat toy to play with today." Mom in background: "SHE!")

[Teskeria]

I had a cat that we were informed was a female. A lovely black lady. We took her in to be spayed when she was about 6-7 months old. The vet's office called me midmorning to tell me that when they opened her up, there was no uterus. The cat was actually a male. They asked if I still wanted him fixed (yes) and actually charged me the cheaper price for a male, as they felt they should have been able to verify gender beforehand. He was half Siamese and it seems that Siamese can be impossible to sex between about 2 weeks and 9-12 months. Naturally he inherited that and the voice and the jump (Could jump at least 7' straight up from a sit.)

[lobo94]

I once had a Meezer mix I had thought was a girl and named Boris. Upon getting a better look, Boris became Anastasia.

And a friend of mine had her "Dixie" go to the vet, and found out that Dixie was a neutered male. He became Mr Dixie.

[Mishi]

My little brother had a stray cat adopt him. He snuck the cat in, hid her in his room after tidying it (big deal for a messy 10 year old - it tipped me off that he was up to something), fed her some tinned tuna and even organised a litter tray for her under his bed. I couldn't say no, she was such a sweet cat. Our mother was on a business trip, I called her and negotiated for over an hour so that he could keep this cat. One of the terms was that the cat would be fixed, and I would 'pay' for it with my babysitting money.

The day arrived, Honey went in for her surgery and we received a call. Thankfully, it was just the vet nurse calling to inform us that they'd shaved 'Honey' and discovered that she was actually an underdeveloped HE! Poor cat came home with yet another new name - Harley. Mind you, the name that my brother had originally picked out was 'Princess Tiara' and our younger sister had wanted him to be called something equally as feminine.

[flybye023]

My sister brought our cat home as a kitten and swore up and down it was a girl and named it Sadie. Well, I was playing with Sadie about two days later and picked "her" up--first thing I notice is a pair of testicles. Sadie then became Gus

[teh_blumchenkinder]

I once had a Meezer mix I had thought was a girl and named Boris. Upon getting a better look, Boris became Anastasia.

Wat?

My sister brought our cat home as a kitten and swore up and down it was a girl and named it Sadie. Well, I was playing with Sadie about two days later and picked "her" up--first thing I notice is a pair of testicles. Sadie then became Gus

better than this

[MoonCat]

We had a kitty named Frosty (was born very very pale blond) whom we thought was a boy. Even took him to the vet when still a kitten because he came down with something that had him lethargic and running a fever. No one there questioned his gender, and he got better. One day when he was about 5 or 6 months old, "he" began displaying very obvious signs of being in heat! Yup - Frosty was a girl. By then her fur had darkened to Siamese coloring (Mom was a calico, Dad was black - go figure).

[teh_blumchenkinder]

shoulda named it/her/him/xex Mimic or Metamorpho!

[Ellf]

We had a male cat named Chloe. Once.

[Amanita]

we've got a lovely black and white female tuxedo cat named Sylvester! We thought she was male when she was a kitten, hence the name. But gradually signs emerged- we wondered what was up when our elder tomcat let her jump him, but wouldn't tolerate that from her littermate, for one thing. But eventually her littermate developed obvious..junk. And she didn't.

[Fire_on_High]

That's easy enough to salvage, just call her Sylvie!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I once had a Meezer mix I had thought was a girl and named Boris. Upon getting a better look, Boris became Anastasia.

And a friend of mine had her "Dixie" go to the vet, and found out that Dixie was a neutered male. He became Mr Dixie.

Made that mistake once with a cat . . .let's just say "Claudine" was actually a "Claude."

Even funnier: he had a habit of wandering around the neighborhood, especially across the street to the glass company lot. Mom would stand out on the front porch calling him to come eat and our neighbor across the street (whose name was also Claude) would be loading up his work truck and would holler back "Be there in a minute, Mom."

Fun times.

[EricKei]

They responded by name? o_O I wish mine did that. They understand "outside" and "tuna" (boy do they EVER understand the word tuna), but only seldom respond to their own names...

That reminds me of an ooooooooooold Garfield strip that went something like this:

Lyman: We had five cats when I was a kid, we called them Cat, Cat, Cat, Cat, and Cat.
Jon: No names?
Lyman: What's the use in naming an animal that won't come when you call it?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I don't know why they do it, but my parent, who are not senile or otherwise impaired in any way, consistently refer to one of their cats (they have two, both females) as a "he". "Let him out." "He wants to eat." and so forth.

And I always, go, "Underfoot is a girl cat." as if it's the first time I'm saying it.

Sometimes I wonder if they aren't just doing it to mess with me. But I don't think they are.

They only do it to the one cat.

[fireheart]

Not so much a cat, but we had a case of cockatiel confusion this morning.

My boyfriends sister (who has NF and an intellectual disability amongst a ton of other health problems) bought a pair of cockatiels which now sit out in their backyard area. I usually stay at his house over the weekend and go home on Monday.

When I left the house this morning, I was asked to uncover them so they knew it was wake-up time....I lifted the cover and my first question was "Umm....honey, what sex are the birds?" I had caught the birds mid-coitus. Upon informing my boyfriends mother, she goes "well, I guess we have a boy and a girl."