When Emma Ainsworth first appears in The Solitary Rose, she is caring for a litter of orphaned kittens. These kittens were barn cats who would grow up to hunt mice, but people also kept cats as pets in the Regency period. Mimi Matthews has an excellent page about Georgian and Regency cats, including examples of cats in eighteenth-century artwork.

For today’s launch party game, we’re going to think of names for Emma’s five kittens! This is how the book describes them:

She had to move a bale of hay aside, and there they were, five kittens, a mixture of orange, calico, and black. They wobbled about and mewed. Emma could not resist scooping one of them up and snuggling it. It wriggled in her grasp before it began to purr. At this age, domesticating the kittens should be easy. (Chapter 2, page 13)

What would you name these kittens if they were yours? Suggest some names in the comments! Here’s a list of famous cats in literature that might help. And let’s not forget Samuel Johnson’s Hodge, one of the most famous cats of the eighteenth century!