Should have added -- Jaelin is the chicken cat by choice. He prefers the name Chicken usually. Squab prefers the name 'Squabley Squabertson' for some reason. Runt prefers her name pronounces with a strong trill in the 'R'. 'R-r-r-r-untephant'. All the mouses have 'G' names except Tasslehoff (who's really Laurana and Alhana's pet and lives with them). The reason is because Gerald was named first and it became a trend. As to Gerald, I don't know why we call him Gerald. He's not yet very old and he's a good mouse. Okay, it's a reference to the Pink Floyd song 'bike.' 'I've got a mouse and he hasn't got a house I don't know why I call him Gerald. He's getting rather old but he's a good mouse' All the rats except Mystari are named after elven princes and princesses from the Dragonlance books. For Mystari, we were running out of elven royalty -- we hated the name 'Porthios' and 'Gilthas' was too similar to his cagemate's name. So we just made it up, but it sounds like a decent elf name.