Lance Orlando Billy Chance

When I adopted him his name was Lance. Lance was not a name I cared for very much and I wanted to change it. I was determined to find a geographic name (like our other pets Shannon and China) that fit and that maybe rhymed with Lance (I know! France!) France would have been a great name except for the fact that James had just broken up with his first love who had had significant French connections and I didn’t want to remind him of his ex- every time I called the cat.

I was determined to find just the right name. To find a geographic place name I perused the index of an atlas. I made a matrix that took in the following: black and white, geographic place name, sounds like Lance, toothbrush moustache (like Charlie Chaplin), vampire (he had big fangs)…One name seemed to fit a lot of criteria and that is how he came to be called Orlando*. Then I tried to call him from the yard one day. The name Orlando has too many syllables if you are in a hurry and want to get the cat inside. Its not like Spot - or Bingo, even. So, Orlando did not work on this level. Back to the matrix.

Unbeknownst to me Grandma living downstairs had other ideas and started to call the cat Billy. Concurrently, upstairs, I had begun to calling him Trance (rhymes with Lance, geographic place name [short for Transylvania], vampire reference). For a reason which I don’t recall, Trance became Chance.

When I found out about Billy I realized Fate had intervened and so, in cooperation, I incorporated this name into a bona fide title for him: Sir William Chancelot, the cat. Downstairs, he was Billy; upstairs he was Chance (sometimes, when he misbehaved and I had time, I would reprimand him with a sharp William).

Interesting footnotes: Looking through his paperwork one day I came upon the fact that he had originally been adopted from a shelter in Virginia and his name there was Oreo. His second owner had changed it to Lance. Also, when doing some internet research, I found that cats that looked like Billy aka Chance were known as Hitler cats (aka Kitlers) because of their toothbrush moustache. You can Google it. Maybe he ran away in search of his identity?

*Orlando is a place in Florida where sea world is; sea world has black and white orcas. The actor Orlando Bloom was in a movie about vampires.