That's what I assume as well but believe it or not I can't remember ever hearing the word spoken. But I probably have and just forgot.
The term didn't exist when I was going to science fiction conventions. I wore costumes most of the weekend, but they were simply referred to as
hall costumes. Hall costumes are meant to have fun with dressing up, but not as elaborately as the people who enter the Bacchanal (costume contest on Saturday night). Some people said I should enter the Bacchanal, but I never did - too chicken, and the workmanship was definitely inferior to most of the entries.
What I did most of the time was take a long floor-length dress, accessorize it with various things (one year I did a homage to Larry Elmore, with how he accessorizes the mage characters he paints - leather pouches, beads, feathers, lots of gold, silver, or copper jewelry, etc.... the only exception being that I was more covered up than the typical female Elmore magic-user). My grandmother made me a black cloak, and I'd make 3-D needlepoint headdresses and headbands to go with some of the outfits. It's interesting what you can do with sheer curtains and kerchiefs, some costume jewelry, and don't mind a week of sewing. My dad found some nice magpie feathers, and I used those for an Elmore touch.
To complete everything, when I hit the Dealers' Room (where people sell stuff), I carried everything in pouches - money (mostly coins), room key, pen and notebook, small pack of kleenex, a few pieces of candy, and my meds. Doing that really shows how much crap people carry around that's not needed. Besides, you can't bring a purse or bag into the Art Room (I imagine they confiscate phones these days) because people might be carrying cameras. The staff still squawked about my large belt pouch, but after I showed that I had no cameras with me, they let me in. Besides, it's not very practical to deny people bringing a pencil and notebook if they plan to do any bidding.
Do dogs actually learn that their name is their name? Or do they just learn that it's something we say when we want their attention? Can we even know?
My poor dog has so many pet names it must be confusing. Recently we've begun adding german-esque names to the repetoire. Right now he's the boofenwoofen.
Unless you train them, dogs will usually decide which words or sounds are meaningful to them. Some won't answer to a name, but will answer to a whistle or some other noise. That said, I don't think there's one pet I've ever had who didn't have both a formal name and one or two nicknames. For instance, my cat Gussy would also answer to "Sweetie". When I trained him (as much as you can train a cat), I made sure that he would associate his name with food or other rewards such as petting and cuddling. So when I called him in from outside, he knew that he'd be rewarded for coming home.
Another cat chose his own name. When Tomtat was born, both my dad and the dog suddenly became goopy-brained. They were so taken with this little boy, that the dog didn't realize at first that his new friend was a cat, and my dad would cuddle him and croon, "Oh, you're a liddle tom-tat. You're
such a liddle tom-tat. Are you a liddle tom-tat?" and so on.
The result of all that babytalk was that the kitten decided to answer to Tomtat. Not Tom, Tommy, or even Tom
cat. We had to address him either as Tomtat or 'Tat. My grandmother was horrified and insisted on calling him Tommy. But he wouldn't answer to that.
Oh, and the dog? Tuffy eventually realized a few months later that his new "little brother" wasn't a dog, but just another
cat. They remained friends, though. Tuffy was a nice dog who tried to get along with all the pets we had, though at that time he was the only dog (our beagle had died the same year that Tomtat's grandmother moved in and his mother was born).
Tone of voice and intonation is very important. I can say Maddy's name one way, and she knows I'm calling her. Another way means "would you like some milk?" and another way means "You are in BIG TROUBLE." Just above a whisper means "You're a good girl, want some cuddling?" We just did that while I was typing this.
I have four dogs. They all know their names.
Joke is: I'm a cat person, but on an island with no litter boxes, no kitty litter, no scratching posts, no hemp rope with which to make scratching posts, no catnip, and no cat toys, cats are not an option.
Catnip is not necessary. In fact, some cats are very much not into it. Someone gave my cats a catnip toy, and one of them promptly peed on it. So I don't give them catnip.
Honeysuckle, though, will make some cats extremely mellow. I saw Gussy actually stoned on it, and tossing a honeysuckle twig into a cat fight (one night all four cats decided to have it out with each other) broke it up quite fast.
You can make your own scratching posts (you do have old pieces of carpet on the island, right?). A cat toy can be as simple as tying a few feathers to a string, or crumpling up a piece of paper. I've learned that no matter how many toys Maddy might get for Christmas, her favorites are a felt mouse and a crumpled-up cheeseburger wrapper. And boo to everyone who says all cat owners should get a laser pointer. Maddy pays no attention to those. I had to get one when I volunteered at a cat shelter, since several of the cats loved playing with them. My cats, when they noticed at all, just looked at me like they were saying, "What's this dumb thing for? You do realize we know there's really nothing there, right?". Chloe looked really insulted one time, like she was put out that I'd think her stupid enough to chase a red dot around the floor.
You can also make your own cat litter. It's not as convenient as the commercial clumping litter, but it's doable.
