Khittopurr

From REDdimension Wiki

Khittopurr is the name of the Reddick family cat, a (originally) black tabby who, as she grew, began to look more like a calico. She had her front feet declawed after a couple of years, due to scratching up rental property.

History

It was the summer of 2000 when the Reddicks decided to get a kitten for their cat-crazy, 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Dana. They went to the City of Tallahassee animal shelter where Jon eventually picked out a friendly little black tabby. When asked what she wanted to name the kitty, Dana couldn't think of what to name her.

One of Dana's favorite shows at the time was a Nickelodeon Channel showed called "Zooboomafoo," which was about a lemur who lived at a zoo. The lemur, Zooboomafoo, was played in large part by a puppet, and interacted with two human actors, supposedly brothers, who ran a zoo. The show was all about learning about animals. Whenever they featured an animal, Zooboomafoo would name the animal according to coloring, physical feature, or attribute. For example, he named a baby elephant "Toothbrush," because of the stiff,bristly hairs on the elephant.

When Dana didn't know what to name her kitty, Ro asked her, "Well, what would Zooboomafoo name her?" She couldn't think of an answer, so Ro helped her. "Well, what to kitties do?" She immediately pipped up, "Kitties purr!...Kitty purr!" A great new name had been born! Since the Reddicks were very heavily into Star Trek at that time, and especially all things Klingon, they realized how the name sounded much like a particular Klingon planet mentioned on the show: Khitomer. Hence, the spelling of the kitty's name was modified to accommodate both their daughter's idea and their love of Star Trek to Khittopurr.