How did you choose your pet's name?

Harvey ... big gangly (mainly) white thing with large ears ... from the film Harvey the White Rabbit.

Alfie ... knew how to work the room from the get go. Selfish, beautiful, always got what he wanted. From the film Alfie.

If I listed all the pets that I've had over the years I'd bung the forum up with their descriptions and name, so I'll just mention three of them.

Two cats (brother and sister) - a black and white male called Tigger because he spent his time bouncing about like Winnie-the-Pooh's friend and he was quite potty. His sister was Mowgli. She was a brown tortoiseshell with a distinct beige triangle on her head (the point ended between her ears on the top of her head) so she always looked surprised. She reminded me of an expression the cartoon Mowgli had in the film. She was quiet and quite reserved, but sadly Tigger died of anaphylactic shock on the operating table following an operation for kidney stones. He was 5. After that, Mowgli gradually came out of her shell because she interacted with me instead of Tigger. The next 13 years were full of character. She was an adorable little cat and lived until she was nearly 19.

And, of course, there was Gromit.

He was named after the Gromit in the Nick Park films simply because the facial expressions and surprised looks he gave me were like Gromit the dog's. They thought he was female initially (they are difficult to sex when young) and so was called Aimee. Once we realised that he was male, it was the ex who renamed him by making a simple comment of "look at the way he's looking at you. He reminds me of Gromit."

And over the years, I've had two other cats, three tortoises, two terrapins, ten rats, mice, Syrian hamsters, Russian hamsters, a toad, dozens of fish, three rabbits, gerbils, a Guinea pig and the list goes on .........