One day, when Mike and Ike and Jerry were still tiny little kittens (before I even adopted them), I saw Mike and Ike scampering across my back yard. It was really funny looking because they were trotting along shoulder-to-shoulder and zigging and zagging together in unison - it looked like they were Siamese twins, joined together at the shoulder!

Right then and there, I decided that they should have names that go together, like Soup and Sandwich, or Fred and Ethel, or Thelma and Louise, or something along those lines. Have you ever heard of the candy called "Mike and Ike"? It is made by JustBorn, Inc., the same outfit that makes the hot cinnamon candy "Hot Tamales". That is where Mike's and Ike's names came from.

Mike and Ike, like all of my cats, were named before I knew their genders. Mike is a male, but Ike is a female. I guess "Ike" is not a very feminine name, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Have you ever heard of the cartoon cat and mouse characters Tom and Jerry? That is what I was thinking of when I came up with Jerry's name. However, it turns out that Tom is the cat and Jerry is the mouse. Silly me, I named Jerry after a mouse! To make matters worse, "Jerry" is typically considered to be a "male" name, but my cat Jerry is a female!