Some of the cats that visit me are obviously being fed very well somewhere else. I don’t know where. I don’t know whether those people think of the cat as their pet, or as a stray they happen to feed. And I don’t know what they call it — so I’ve given it my own name. Which means these cats now have several names.
Imagine one physical cat:
- To me, it’s Ninja.
- Three streets away, someone calls it Naranja.
- To the restaurant on the corner, it’s an unnamed stray.
- To a family nearby, it’s Milo, their beloved outdoor pet.
All of those perspectives can be true at the same time.
What this tells us
A cat’s identity can’t be its name, its location, or its owner — because all three are ambiguous. Underneath, there has to be a single cat, with many human claims attached:
- I call this cat Ninja.
- I see it here, most mornings.
- I feed it.
- I think it’s a stray.
- I think it belongs to someone.
- I last saw it on Tuesday.
And the important bit: the system shouldn’t force everyone to agree too early. It should gather evidence, and over time recognise that what looked like separate records are probably the same cat.
That changes the idea from a cat directory into something more interesting: a way to piece together the fragmented truth about an animal from many independent human encounters.
Do you know a cat with more than one name? I’d love to hear about it.