Back when I was writing my Hidden Springs mysteries, I hadn’t had a cat for years and years. When I was a kid, cats were always around. Barn cats. Farm cats. My mother even had a cat she let in the house. When I was a kid, I was surprised at that, but Mom loved Maggie. My favorite aunt was a cat lover and let some of her favorites in the house, but I had never thought Mom would.
Those of you who read my posts here and on social media know that I’m a dog lover. I’ve had a dog of my own ever since I was about ten. Cats were okay, but a dog was necessary. Now I do have a cat. Mama Mia was a feral cat that had kittens under my deck. I found homes for her kittens, had her spayed, and made friends with her. She is now my front yard cat and seems happy to be so. She comes running every time I go out front.
Mama Mia showing up in my yard was a while after I came up with three cat characters for my Hidden Springs mystery books. so, she wasn’t inspiration for them.
The first cat was a yellow barbershop cat name Two Bits in Murder at the Courthouse. But Two Bits wasn’t the only cat in that first mystery story. Malinda Keane, Michael’s aunt, was a cat lover and had a cat that was a very one person cat. In the first scene with Grimalkin, we find that out when in an argument, the rocking chair where the cat is sleeping somehow gets kicked.
“You upset Grimalkin.” Aunt Lindy gestured toward the cat peering down from the bookshelf with an injured air. “She’s not a cat who forgives easily.”
Two Bits was an easy name to come up with for the barbershop cat, but I remember doing some searching to try to find the perfect name for Aunt Lindy’s cat. I’m not sure where I came across the name Grimalkin. While Murder at the Courthouse was published not so long ago, I first came up with the story and Aunt Lindy’s cat’s name years before that. I must have seen that the word could mean cat in a literary way somewhere. These years later, I don’t think I did enough research to discover that grimalkin could also be a derogatory term for an old woman.
If I had researched more, I might have wondered if the name was right. Here’s what I found when I looked up grimalkin this week.
A grimalkin is an archaic or literary term for a cat, specifically an old or female cat. By extension, it is also used as a derogatory term for an ill-tempered, crotchety, or shrewish old woman.
My apologies to Malinda Keane. Aunt Lindy is sixty something in the story. She’s single and has been teaching high school math for years. She’s a demanding teacher but ill-tempered and shrewish does not describe her. She is stern and expects her students to do their best. She demands the same from Michael.
Here’s more about the etymology of the name.
- Graymalkin: The word comes from combining “gray” (or gri-) with malkin, a diminutive nickname for the proper name Maud or Matilda. (Hmm, perhaps I should have named Malinda Matilda instead.)
- Malkin’s Evolution: Over time, malkin became a generic term for a lower-class woman, a scarecrow or mop, and eventually a name for a cat or hare.
- Shakespeare’s Influence: The spelling Graymalkin was famously used in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth as the name of the first witch’s familiar (a guardian spirit in animal form).
- Witchcraft and Folklore: Because of early modern associations between cats and accused witches, grimalkins frequently appeared in folklore and literature as magical or demonic familiars. In Scottish legend, a grimalkin was sometimes described as a highland faery cat that could shapeshift.
At least I knew the cat needed to be gray. You can check out Grimalkin’s picture on the mailbox in the picture at the top of this post. She was the starring cat in the second Hidden Springs mystery, Murder Comes by Mail. But Grimalkin is not a shapeshifter. She’s just an ordinary cat. Well, one with a decided attitude as many cats have.
My last cat character shows up in Murder Is No Accident. It’s a calico named Miss Marble. I asked my readers on Facebook for names and I got many great name suggestions. Some cat owners even shared pictures of their cats along with their perfect names. I went with Miss Marble since calicos do have a mixture of colors the way some marbles can and also because it was a play on the name of Agatha Christie’s character, Miss Marple. Miss Marble also had a big part in this last mystery.
Should I ever write another Hidden Springs mystery, I might let a tortoise shell cat have a role, but if that ever happens, I don’t know if Mama Mia would be the right name. But you never know.
E-Book Sale
My Hidden Springs mysteries are on e-book sale right now. If you want to read more about the starring roles of these cats, you can download their stories for 99 cents each on some internet book sites such as Amazon, Kobo, or B&N. Perhaps others too, but keep in mind that these special sales come and go quickly. So check before you hit enter to be sure you’re getting the price you expect.
Have you ever named a cat?
Comments 14
I remember one family of cats we had when I was growing up. I named the black cat Blackie, the gray cat Smoky, but I forgot what I named the yellow cat. The mama of the cats was simply called, Mama Cat.
Author
My aunt had a cat she called Grayball or something like that, Connie. And Blackie and Smoky are perfect and probably often used names for cats.
I came up with Mama Mia for my mama cat partly because of the mama in the name. But then I had her fixed and she only got to be a mama cat once.
We had cats when I was growing up, but my sisters all named them! lol!! My sisters are all older than I am, and the cats were “theirs” before I really knew much about cats. I LOVE cats, though I do like dogs, too!
Author
That is sort of my sister’s attitude. She LOVES cats but likes dogs too the same as you, Trudy. But if you got a cat now, you could come up with the cat’s name. 🙂 I don’t remember naming any of our cats when I was a kid either. My older sister probably came up with the names. The same as you, I was youngest.
I hope you write more Hidden Springs mystery books. I really enjoyed reading them!
Author
I would love to write another Hidden Springs mystery, Janet. I might just get that done some of these days.
I had many outside cats/kittens as a child, but I don’t enjoy them since I grew up. Yes, my cats had names. I’m a big dog person now, even though I don’t have a dog now.
Author
Well, dogs come first for me too, Susan, but I have a sister who usually puts cats first. But she has also loved some dogs and has one now that she sort of ended up with after her son got it but the dog bonded more with my sister. Hope you get a new dog you can love.
Hi
I have named several cats, I had two Siamese cats I named Cleo and Tony I have a brother sister duo right now that a named Winston and Willow.
Author
Love the names, Beth. Cats do need the right names and sounds as if you found the right ones for yours.
Probably when I was very young because I’ve always loved cats and usually had a cat period. My mother didn’t care for cats when I was younger.
A friend gave me a beautiful Siamese cat because she cried over time and my friend didn’t like that. I believe she had already named the cat Missy. My family love Missy and we kept her for 20 years. I let her have one batch of kittens..
Author
I’ve never been around a Siamese cat, Marlene. Not sure I’ve ever seen one in real life fur. They do have a very distinctive look. Glad your Missy lived a long time for you.
I’m more of a dog person but we usually had barn cats when my kids were growing up. We had one that I just called Mama Cat but my daughter called Whiskers. She was a beautiful gray and white, with long hair and lots of whiskers. She snuck into the house one day (possibly with help from one of the boys) and had kittens under our couch. We took them to the barn, and she brought them back to the house. I think she was trying to protect them from the hawks and owls. We eventually allowed her to keep them on the enclosed back porch. Another cat my daughter found one day was a little black kitten with big golden eyes. I helped name him after my favorite Disney movie character. Bagherra (from Jungle Book) turned out to be a very proper name because he grew into a massive cat. He had a huge head and a very long tail. He did, in fact, look like a small panther. He ended up becoming a part time indoor cat and quite spoiled. He was the only cat that my dog, Cookie, tolerated. I think she was just scared of him because of his size. 🙂
Author
Love your cat stories, Lavon. Thanks for sharing them. Bagherra sounds like a cat that belongs in a cozy mystery for certain and Mama Cat obviously as well. She was determined and protective.
We had a lot of barn cats when I was a kid, but after I married and we built a new house we didn’t have cats until Mama Mia showed up. We did always have dogs because the same as you I’m a dog person. But it’s fun having a front yard/shed cat.