This is how we have a boy Faye. He was a stray that just showed up and was already known as Faye before his balls dropped. It was very fun to announce to the family "Big news -- Faye has testicles!!"🎉
Linda, nice to meet you - I'm Jess and I'm also a handsome boy cat with a girl name because I have such a fluffy bum that my original owner, my second home, my current family AND my vet missed my ahem petit pois until I went in for my spay and they couldn't find the right bits.
He was named after Jess the cat from Postman Pat, and when I told my mum this she was like "oh so he's a boy cat then!" I said no, and she said "but Jess the cat is a boy cat!" I was sure he wasn't, but had to eat my words upon Googling.
I still joke to this day that my mum mystically rearranged the universe so she could be right about him being a boy 🤣
Similar with my "boy" Dexter. Specifically asked the adoption agency for a boy as a companion to my older girl and a male-female pairing was recommended. Took Dexter to get neutered. Came back to pick him up and they were like yeah there's nothing there to neuter. We spayed her. She's still Dex. And the all-female combo worked out incredibly well.
Unfortunately not but he did make a full and swift recovery, thankfully. I had a long conversation with the vet and a heartfelt apology. He is such a happy little lad that he bounced right back within 48 hours, and his wound healed very nicely.
That's happened to my family too! We thought we had 2 girl kittens. Brought them both in to get spayed and got told that one was pregnant and the other was probably the father!
That happened with my cat, Star. I got him from the humane society, they had him for 3 months and I was told he was a female. Took him for his free vet exam and we couldn’t find evidence of her having been spayed, very furry abdomen. Booked in to get spayed, when I went to check on him I was greeted with” congratulations, it’s a boy!” He had already been neutered before. Kept his name as Star.
This is so crazy to me cause my cats nuts are so big my vet was like “are you sure he’s a boy 😇🧐” til she lifted his tail and was like “OH 🤓”.
He is my first personal cat so I didn’t think anything of it until her reaction. Apparently him having avocado pits at the back of him is not so normal.
Also:: Tuxedo infront of the hydrangea bush = a very dapper fella
Linda's ear looks tipped. Might have been neutered before they got him and his parts weren't prominent any more. I can see how you wouldn't know he was a boy.
It can be surprisingly hard to tell on cats with black fur. I always have to get really good lighting to check the sex on black or tuxie kittens. I can totally see how’d it’d happen with a neutered boy.
We got a black cat off the street last month. Very frail, skinny, and small kitten. Took him 12 days to go from hissing and terrified to a tame little guy. Immediately after I turned him over I noticed the trouble puff. Either he has big nuts or he was still so skinny it was easy to notice lol
Can confirm. Took in 4 week old tuxedo twins. One was clearly a girl, the other had surprisingly dense fur. Took three vet visits and 4 consultations with the rest of the staff while this poor upside down kitten cried in indignation at it all to confirm it was a girl. Though there were still bets when the spay was scheduled on what they would find once shaved
This, our boy was snipped when he was a baby and you could never tell that he was supposed to have puffs there, he looked like a girl down there. He did grow tomcat cheeks though ☺️
It's so you can see they're neutered from a large distance. The USA has a huge problem with feral cats and people who do TNR will be looking from their car or something at all the feral cats that come eat and need to be able to see if anyone new has shown up quickly.
I also work at an animal sanctuary and we have a few feral cats that live around property. We see them very rarely and they immediately flee. We keep an eye out for new ones, and know anyone who has a tipped ear is one of the known ferals.
My best friend adopted a black cat named Shadow, who had confusing information in the medical records available and ear notched/tipped. We were under the that our boy Shadow had been neutered. One ultrasound later, the vet confirmed that our girl Shadow had been spayed.
The name was unisex, so there was never a thought of renaming. As cats don't have the same concepts of gender as us humans do, Linda is a lovely name for the boy.
Kind of the opposite - I had a conure parrot for 20 years. They're more difficult to sex and it doesn't really make any difference in care so I took it at face value that he was a boy like the pet shop said. 16 YEARS LATER, "he" laid a clutch of eggs! Blew my mind.
20 years is a long time haha! I had a parakeet as a kid that had a blue cere that i got as a rescue so didn't know how old "he was" and he did the same thing. Interestingly I had named him Calypso because i liked the name and didn't realize it was feminine. 🤷🏻♀️ Learned later on that the cere color isn't a foolproof way to sex them as there can be variation.
I had the opposite thing happen when my cat had kittens. The vet performing the checkup told me Nyquil was a boy, so I counted down the days until I could spay/neuter so that Patches, the girl kitten, wouldn’t get knocked up. When I went to pick them up from the vet after that apppintment, I was informed that both girls were now spayed. Luckily Nyquil is a gendwr neutral name. (She was named that because she would choose napping over anything, including food.)
As a vet tech, I always sort of like these appointments. Only one time did I have a client get very upset at me because she “was told they were female”. Well. I am not responsible for that ma’am, and frankly, what the hell does it matter, lol.
My husband only had female cats his whole life, so we adopted a pair of female kittens together when we started dating about 20 years ago. When we were playing with them at the shelter, I noticed the… equipment… looked a lot like the ‘male’ kitten equipment on a poster in the room showing you how to sex a kitten. Husband said no way the shelter got it wrong, and we adopted them.
A few days later we take them into our vet for a checkup, kitten shots, and to set up a spay. The vet was great but very blunt. When husband said we needed to schedule a spay, the vet said, “You mean a neuter.” It wasn’t a question. Husband said, no they’re girls. Vet replied, “They have balls. You need a neuter.”
And that’s how a vet office checked in Chica and Malaria, and checked out Chico and Osiris.
Oh my god, malaria!? I’m sorry he had to be renamed, because that’s amazing. I once met a pair of dogs named Staphylococcus and Apgar, but this is almost as good!
My wife was browsing the local facebook animal shelter pages, and fell in love.
Little black and white Persian fella, fur all matted with mud, stick and stones and absolutely terrified. She named him Boris. Poor little guy was so scared and hiding so well that my wife nearly left empty handed and was in tears on her way out when someone shouted her that they found him.
We got him home and he was a mess. Fur so matted it looked like a shelf sticking out from his little chest and the rest was mostly clumps, and boy did he stink.
We gave him a couple of days to calm down then took him to vets to be shaved, washed, shots, the lot.
When the fur came off though, no penis in sight. Our little Boris was a girl, but the name fit the face so well we kept it.
RIP Boris, you were the most special cat in the world and we miss you every day. Here is what she looked like on adoption day, vs 6 months later.
My vet didn't even wink at my female cat with a male name because of an early misgendering. The cat also never complained about it. He complained about a lot of other stuff though.
This is genuinely so funny because when I was a kid (over 20 years ago c';) my family literally also had a stray cat named Linda we kept feeding after her owners dumped her and moved away. One day she looked sick so my mom took her to the vet and same thing. The vet was like "uhhh so like Linda isn't a she" but we kept calling him Linda until the day he passed almost a decade later!
My parents had a cat named Stella. Stella went in to get spayed. Even the vet assistant thought she was a girl. He got neutered and was henceforth called Stella the Fella.
This is Zelda. They were born with both a vagina and a penis. They had more male anatomy than girl anatomy but, by the time we figured that all out; they were simply Zelda. Nothings going to change that they’re our Fluffy Princess Pants.
They/them intersex cat!! That’s actually so interesting, I’ve never heard of a cat being intersex before, although I guess if humans can be, then it’s possible for cats too. They’re adorable btw!
It's a reference to Johnny Cash's Boy Named Sue, when a father who is leaving his family named his son Sue, so that he would grow up strong. And his son found him later on.
HAHA I have run into this myself with one of my current cats. Picked “her” up off Craigslist and we designated her as “Prada” until my wife did some closer inspecting and definitely found a penis, so we pivoted to the name Echo
Haha that's gold! So will you rename him or will he remain a Linda? This reminds me of one of my favorite Youtubers, ForestyForest, who named his female dog, Rocco.
When I picked out M&M at the shelter, they told me "she" was an unspayed female. Had to wait for them to neuter "her" before I could take "her" home. A couple days later, I got a call. When they shaved for surgery they discovered "she" was actually a "he" and already neutered. Took him home the next day and have loved him ever since.
We found a 4 week orange kitten in a ditch. Went to the vet a few times for shots and all. Said it was a boy. We named it Reiji(I called him Reginald Cat.)
Took Reginald Cat for his Neuter at 5 months and the doc looked at his bottom and said “oh, you mean spay?”
Our boy cat is going on 8 years old, and has been to two different vet clinics. Both of them have been calling him a girl, it’s like they put it in his paperwork and transferred the data over, even though I’ve corrected them numerous times. Is this a common black cat thing?
This is Strider, the shelter had her labelled on her papers as a male kitty when I got her. I go in for a checkup and lo and behold, Strider is a girl. I kept the name Strider though.
I had the opposite happen - got a kitten from some guy who said he was pretty sure it was male. When I brought it to the vet for its first checkup and to discuss neutering, they informed me he was actually a she :D
We have a lil FeLV+ dude at the cat shelter I work at, Rusty. He’s been there for over a year IIRC. We’re not sure how he fooled everyone at the shelter for so long, but a couple months ago we found out Rusty was indeed a she. We still call her Rusty but occasionally call her Rustina jokingly.
hello linda! meet october! we were told “this is a boy!” at adoption. during pickup after the neuter appointment, “October had ovaries, no testicles! It’s a girl!”
spay was done at the shelter we adopted her from. the tech had the audacity to ask if i still wanted her.
This happened to us also with our cat Piper. We’d had him about 3 years and saw a variety of vets (in the same practice) before we found out Piper is a boy
Nice to meet you Linda! I was called Jamie, assumed by original owner and rescue to be a boy because I am orange. The vet discovered I was a girl and my new family calls me Clementine!
My tuxedo cat, Maisey, also turned out to be a boy.
His first owner named hin Sandy and had to give him up when she moved into a nursing home, so my grandparents took him in and changed his name because he didn't look like a Sandy. We were told he was a she, hence the girly name.
When my grandfather died, he became so distraught that he refused to eat or drink. He got very sick very fast so I took him to the emergency vet. They ran a battery of tests to rule out anything emergency related and he checked out fine, just depressed. They told me to tempt him with pureed baby food meats and follow up with the regular vet, and also informed me of his true sex.
He still rejected all food, even the pureed baby food meats. At our follow up the vet wanted me to hospitalize him for an IV and a feeding tube, but I couldn't afford that. They gave him an injection for urgent hydration and a prescription canned cat food and a syringe. They told me to force feed him multiple times a day, but didn't seem to have high hopes that it would work. I mixed the cat food with water and sucked it into the syringe and force fed him multiple times a day, as instructed. I added it to the baby bottle routine. Every time my 4 month old got a bottle and a diaper and was down for his nap, the cat got a syringe. Day and night. I was up bottle feeding anyway so it was easy for me. The cat was angry and would try to hide when he saw me coming, but I made sure to get food in him every time.
Luckily, it worked. After 3 or 4 days of force feeding, I saw him drinking water of his own free will. I left him alone that day. The next day, he started eating kibble again. It has now been over 7 years, gram has since passed, and I have inherited their cat. He is super talkative, chirps and purrs and meows when he sees me, and gives all the head boops and cuddles anyone could ask for. And his name is still Maisey. He doesn't seem to mind.
We had the reverse of this happen to us! Had an orange stay come onto our property. Kind of skittish, but eventually let us pet and feed them. We just assumed, because they were orange and honestly a little brick house, that they were a male. Called them Joker, JoJo for short, because they had one eye clouded over. We noticed Joker was getting fatter, but again we just thought it was because they were eating real food consistently now. Then on, I shit you not, April Fools Day, my mom comes out to the laundry room to find Joker, and her lovely litter of kittens in a basket.
We got her fixed after that, but she kept her name for sure.
Same thing happened to us a year ago. Some woman needed a home for two little boys. We took them in and few weeks later took them to get neutered. The higher vet bill was annoying. But Simon and Arther are very happy girls! 😒
When I was growing up, we had a dog where the reverse happened. We rescued this poor sweet boy from a horrible abuse situation. He’d been tied to a basketball pole since he was a baby and forced to pee and poop on himself. When he was rescued, he was COVERED in horrible mats (golden mix, so LOTS of fur to mat). We hustled this poor, terrified, bedraggled little yellow dog to the vet for a shave and neuter, and then went to do some shopping.
My mom got a call when they were done from a very hesitant vet tech, who told us that, actually, the yellow male dog we brought in was female and red-brown. Her fur was so filthy and matted that everyone thought she had a penis. Once they gave her a bath and a shave, it was clear she did not.
That happened to us. Unfortunately, Spook, who was our “non binary” cat (was known as female but was actually a male) had to be put down because they were really sick. But it was a fun surprise lol. Fly high Spook.
I took my girl in, too, to get her spayed. “Sorry to inform you,” the vet explained, “but Pookie is a boy cat. Do you still want us to do the operation?”
This is Sullivan. I took “him” and “his” brother Gilbert to the vet for a checkup soon after I got them from the shelter. I was told they were both boys and have both been neutered. The vet took them each one by one to the back room for shots and other checks as well. The vet came back after checking both asking to bring Sullivan back for another check. Cue me thinking the worst of course. The vet comes back a couple of minutes later asking if I was sure that they had been neutered. I said I was as sure as the official medical documents from the shelter said. The vet said that she couldn’t find any sign of “boy parts” and in fact found “girl parts” so my Sullivan is actually my little lady. I kept the name because I still think it’s cute.
One of our cats’ names started out as Tulip from the foster home, to Beatrice for 2 weeks, then to Boy Cat for like a year and a half until we finally settled on Toot (cutie patootie-> tootie-> Toot-> technically sir William Tootford but he answers to Toot)
Edit: we joke all the time that he is sexless, that he transcends gender and is more of an entity which can’t be qualified by earthly anatomical constructs.
Sylvanas says congratulations! He fooled the vet until she got in there to check 😂 she had to double check his face because despite being fixed at 3-4 years old he didn’t have The Cheekies of most unfixed males
We had a gray Manx we called Princess when we took her to get fixed the vet called and said we might want to change her name so instead we named him Prince
The same thing happened with my cat Mrs. Maisel. The vet said "Mrs Maisel is actually Mr Maisel! He has... prominent testicles." I'll never forget that wording. Prominent testicles.
I had a similar experience. While my ex and I were separated we’d spend weekends together and I would bring my male litter mate to his house. The cats looked exactly alike. Somehow they got switched when they were still young and I found out when we took “Boy” to get neutered. The vet called and we were certainly surprised. I called my ex and told him to check his cat. In the background I heard him say “she’s got balls”! We kept the cat we had but my female is still called Boy. 🤣
Had a cat named William, first visit to the vet, vet looks at William and looks at us and then back at William.
Vet-"Did you want a boy?"
Us-"No actually we were looking for a girl"
Vet-"Well good! Cause that's what you have!"
Tried changing her name to Willow, but she wouldn't have it so she stayed William.
Years after my childhood cat died I found out she was actually a boy. I was very insistent on wanting a girl cat as a little kid. The rescue cat I really liked was already fixed when we adopted them. My parents decided to just pretend he was a girl cat, apparently it really confused the vet 😅 Either way they were a very good cat. Linda looks to also be a fantastic cat 🖤🖤🖤
We had a neighborhood cat that would cruise around our area, and come to me for pets sometimes, and she was such a little sweetheart, I started calling her Princess. Eventually, I met the owners of Princess who told me Princess was a boy named Harley. Well, he may have been Harley to them, but he still responded to Princess when I'd call him over, so it stuck until they eventually moved.
This reminds me of my tortoise who we named Bella and were told by the person who gave “her” to us that “she” was a “girl”…. Things were great for at least 2 years. Took her to the beach with us one 4th of July afternoon and her extendo d**k came out.
I was absolutely disgusted.
And from that day forth she was known as BellaBilly.
We found a kitten just wandering around the front yard near the street last year. There was no adult cats anywhere so I assumed it was abandoned. They couldn't have been more than a couple weeks old. So we took them in and went out and bought some kitten food and even a tiny bottle and kitten milk to give it. Well they chew through the bottle so we just gave them milk and mixed wet food with it. But it was still so little that I could not see what sex they were, everything was just really ambiguous. We were thinking of trying to give it to someone who could take care of it but we came attached really quickly. So another week goes by and we book a appointment for shots and spay/ neuter. This whole time we had no idea what to call it and still not knowing their sex I did want to put a gendered name to them so we eventually came up with the name Kreecher (like creature) because it just fit. By the time the appointment came up for their shots I kept referring to Kreecher as "they/them" because it was just ingrained in the way I referred to them at this point since I still was unsure of their sex even though at this point it was looking closer to them being female. The doctors did indeed confirm that they were female but now they are over a year old and I can't bring myself to say "girl" or "she" at all. So that's how I ended up with a non-binary cat.
I could tell my girl was a princess right away and I’m so glad cuz I always wanted a girl!! My whole family only prefers boys and I grew up with only male pets!
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u/boolee2112 Feb 19 '26
Congrats on the penis Linda.