Cat Name - Bonni Anne Esther

by Ariel
(Hammond, Indiana, USA)

Bonni was born three days before Easter of 2007. She was a tiny little ball of charcoal grey fluff, no bigger than a mouse.

I was 16 at the time and put in charge of raising her, we had tried to catch her mother too, but Wendy would have none of that and avoided my aunt and I every time we tried to capture her.

Anyways, as we drove to the animal hospital where my little Bonni waited for us to take her to her new forever home, my aunt and I discussed names for her. I had suggested all the names I could think of for a dark cat, everything from Charcoal to Midnight. My aunt didn't like any of those, and as it turned out, Bonni fits her.

As we sat in the exam room at the animal hospital while the hospital staff got the kitten, my aunt suggested that I give the baby kitten a name that reflects the time of year she was born. I sat there spitting out springy names and finally spat out Easter Bonnet, and then suddenly called out, "Bonni!"

It was almost immeadiately after that the doctor brought Bonni in to me. She was only a day old, if that, at the time. 80 percent of hand-raised kittens do not survive and the doctor was sure to tell me this before turning my baby over to me.

Even with odds like those, I didn't give up on my Bonni, never losing hope that this baby was going to survive. After Bonni was four weeks old, we took her to our church and had her "christened" and presented her to the church congregation. Most of them already knew my little princess because I took her with me EVERYWHERE I went since I had to take care of her, but still, this was special.

Her first middle name was already Anne since it just sort of fits, but Esther came from the biblical story of hope in the book of Esther.