Eckford

My visiting houseguest friend is trying to change the name of my cat. This large, completely black cat came to live with me four years ago. I went through several different names for him and felt dissatisfied with all of them. Finally, in desperation, I settled on Ivan – so he could be a black Russian. But it never felt right and I never called him by that name. Instead I always called him buddy. Not so much as a name, but as a description of our relationship. A couple of years later I realized what I really would name a black cat is Eckford. Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock 9, was the woman in that famous photo by Will Counts (one of the top 100 photographs of the twentieth century). As behind her a white woman, mouth contorted in hatred, is shouting venomously at her back, Elizabeth walks calmly on. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette called it “hate assailing grace.”

I could never tell anyone that the cat’s name was Buddy because I thought that was far too commonplace as a name for an animal. As my godson always said with disgust when I let slip a “hey buddy” when talking to him “Buddy is a dog’s name.” I was just too embarrassed to admit I had named an animal Buddy. So his name was always reported as Ivan, but I’ve always called him buddy. After I figured it out I thought Eckford would be a great name for a black cat. But I felt unable to change his non-name of Ivan. It seemed stupid to give him another name I wouldn’t use.

So my visiting friend has been calling him Eckford since she arrived (and heard the story). I think another two weeks of her doing that and his name might actually change. I will ask my graphic designer friend to make up name change cards for us to sed out announcing his appellation alteration. And I can start calling him Eck. I wonder if it will stick now since she is going home tomorrow. We shall see. What do you think?