My nana maternal grandmother who taught me swears had one of the most ridiculous pet names for her cat when I was growing up. For reasons known only to her, she simply called the cat: Kitty Kitty Meow Meow. The creature in question was an absolute love bug and lived to be almost twenty.
When I was dating my last boyfriend Brendan we ended up living with his mom briefly before we moved up north together, and his sister lived at home too. One day I was sitting in the kitchen and heard Brendan call teasingly to his sister, โOkay, Miss Kitty Kitty Meow Meow!โ
His sister laughed but my head shot up. โWhat did you just say?โ
Brendan ambled over to me, โOh, itโs an old inside joke. There was this one day I was riding the bus to Charlieโs house and I heard this girl on the bus say her grandmaโs cat was named Kitty Kitty Meow Meow. It was so stupid I rushed home to tell my sister. Itโs like naming a dog Doggy Doggy Bark Bark.โ He was hysterically giggling just relating this story.
I said, โCharlie and I were on the same bus route.โ
He blinked, his giggles tapering down and slowly started to frown.
โThat girl was me. That is the name of my nanaโs cat.โ
It turned out that while Brendan, a year younger than me, had never met me before we both graduated high school, he had apparently sat behind me once on the bus and turned a brief snippet of my life into a meme with his sister. Then a decade later we met through Charlie in college and went on to date. We were both flabbergasted by this coincidence.
But there was one more twist in store for me. I told my family about the way our paths had crossed before we ever dated and they thought it was hilarious.
Then a few weeks later I got a frantic call from my parents while they were in California visiting my paternal grandmother.
โHey guys, whatโs going on?โ
There was weird excited static and thumps as the phone passed around and I heard my dad in the background urging my grandma, โTell her!โ
My grandma said ponderously, โYou know my cats name is Kiki.โ
โOf course, itโs a really cute name.โ
โYour dad wants me to tell you the full thing.โ
My eyes widened. I could not believe what was about to happen to me but I knew it was coming.
โHer name is Ki-Ki Meow Meow.โ
I got it on both sides. Both my grandmas, in different states, with no contact, had named their cats the same silly ridiculous thing. I immediately ran to tell Brendan who laughed so hard he almost threw up.
