Pet Names

It is common to not give names to pets here, as its primary use is to protect the house, not be a friend.

Usually, if a dog is black, people will simply call it “Kamao” or black. If it is a cat, no color associations are granted, just “Mew mew.” In Lao, I do this too, calling cats “mew” but I don’t know if there is a way to say cat any other way, but in Khmer it’s “ch-maa.”

Limes have a joke… Limes are called “kro-it ch-maa” so people will nick name them “kro-it mew.” The other meaning for “ch-maa” is small so instead of saying orange small, they say orange cat. Jokes are awful recycled here, but it’s nice to be immersed in Khmer culture and understand those little things after a year.