'Sweet Potato is not a boy cat's name': Karen gets offended over cat's gender at the vet's office; owner continues to laugh at her

Author image for Blake Seidel
Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Aug 25, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

Cats don't care about anything (except mealtimes, snacks, ear scratches, and that random bottle cap you accidentally dropped and is all of a sudden their furvorite toy), but most of all, they don't care about gender. They don't understand the impawtance we put on "boy names" versus "girl names". We know a pair of pawrents who named their girl cat "Asteroid Destroyer", so tell us, do you think Asteroid Destroyer is a boy or a girl? The answer is: who cares! The only thing that matters is that Asteroid Destroyer is very cute and likes to cuddle. We also have a friend with a girl cat named 'Eddie'. She tried calling her a more "girly name", but she wouldn't respond. We could go on, but we think you get the point.

Anyway, all of this information just makes the Karen's dilemma below even funnier. While at the vet, a pawrent and their orange cat 'Sweet Potato' (great name for an ginger boy, if you ask us), appawrently offended a Karen who assumed their cat Sweet Potato was a girl. She claimed that Sweet Potato is certainly not a boy's name. Rightfully so, the pawrent laughed in her face and explained that cats don't understand the concept of gender, and that Sweet Potato actually really likes her name. 

Did you name any of your cats with a gender non-conforming name? If so, do you think this Karen would have said the same thing to you? We hope so. Scroll down to read more about this hissterical vet's office interaction!

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  • 01

    Lady got upset about my gender non conforming cat

    Orange cat in a cardboard box including '[She] was concerned that my cat would feel emasculated'
    via Arina Krasnikova from Pexels

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Some time ago I was at the vet for my cats annual checkup. The receptionist asked me for his name and I told her "Sweet Potato." An older lady sitting there with a little yappy dog in her lap smiled and said to me, "Aww, she's so adorable!" I replied, "He is, isn't he?"
    via IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl
  • 03
    She suddenly got a very disapproving look on her face, crossed her arms, and chided me, "He? Sweet Potato is not a boy cats name." Then she turned away and ignored me until I went back for his appointment, clearly upset. And later when I was checking out, she frowned at me and gave me a nasty look.
    via IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl
  • 04
    I can't help but laugh when I think of it. This lady was seriously bothered that my cat did not conform to her expected gender roles.
    via IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl
  • 05

    The Sweet Potato in question

    DODY D
    via IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl

  • We're pretty convinced that Sweet Potato is neither male nor female, but simply orange. They might not have enough brain cells to even understand if they are a boy or a girl. It seems to us that Sweet Potato only cares about Starbucks cup cozies and food.

  • 06
    alaswOeisme "Ma'am, I don't think potatoes have a gender." would have been my response lol
    via alaswOeisme
  • 07
    Background-Eye778 Well, she REALLY wouldn't like my female cat named Richard.
    via Background-Eye778
  • 08
    mrtars Oh to live a life where I seriously get upset at what a cat's name is. No other problems at all.
    via mrtars
  • 09
    wbradford00 Cats are woke
    via wbradford00

  • This isn't even about being woke, it's about not attaching our hooman ideas of gender to animals who have no concept of the construct of gender in the first place. One of our female orange cats (she's rare, we know) wears a blue collar. A lot of people assume she's a boy, and honestly, who cares? They treat her the same whether they think she's a boy or a girl, and she pawsitively can't even tell the difference.

  • 10
    Upvotespoodles The flower is hermaphroditic and the sweet potato part of the plant is so less. Thus, according to my research, 'Sweet potato' is a gender neutral name.
    via Upvotespoodles
  • 11
    Traumagatchi I have patients with the greatest names. Milkshake (m), pancake (f), bootybootyworldwide (m) Just name your pet something other than Luna, Odin, or Bella.
    via Traumagatchi
  • 12
    Cheezburger Image 10545902336
    via Odua Images
  • 13
    sonjjamorgan Imagine how difficult life must be when your expectations are that narrow, lol. Team Sweet Potato!
    via sonjjamorgan
  • 14
    BobMortimersBu hole "His name isn't my fault. He says, 'I yam what I yam'"
    via BobMortimersBu**hole
  • 15
    TheHalfHanded Hobbit How do we get baby sweets potatoes if there are no daddy sweet potatoes, only mummies?
    via TheHalfHandedHobbit
  • 16
    lilybug 981 I made an older lady extremely confused by putting a collar with a large bow on my boy kitty. He's a tuxedo kitty and I thought it would be funny to give him a "bow-tie." It had daisies on it. The lady was
    via lilybug981
  • 17
    concerned that my cat would feel emasculated, so I explained that he probably doesn't even know what a boy is, much less that flowers and bows are considered feminine.
    via lilybug981
  • 18
    She actually accepted that, eventually, but the poor woman remained extremely confused. I may have tossed her entire world view into question, just a bit.
    via lilybug981
  • 19
    Maleficent-Radish433 My cat's name is Vivi- people tend to assume he's a girl.
    via Maleficent-Radish433
  • 20
    alanaisalive She'd explode if she met my female chinchilla named George. (She's partially named after my friend's grandmother, who was also named George.)
    via alanaisalive
  • 21
    WORMBOY-3 my friend's male cat is called Martha cuz she rescued him on Martha Street. Crazy that some people care about a cat's name that much
    via WORMBOY-3
  • 22
    CatPurrson No1 As soon as I saw "Sweet Potato" I thought, "boy kitty", even though it seems like a very gender-neutral name!
    via CatPurrsonNo1
  • 23
    I have a boy cat with a feminine name. He hated his original name, but responded to the feminine one, so I went with it! (I wasn't even thinking about the origin of the name at the time.)
    via CatPurrsonNo1
  • 24
    jjpearson 1d ago . We broke the poor weekend vet because we named our cat Captain Carrot. He was a Tuxedo.
    via jjpearson
  • 25
    The first time we were boarding him we got a panicked phone call Saturday morning from the vet that she couldn't find our cat. Which was only slightly surprising because he was a polydactyl and loved to open cages.
    via jjpearson
  • 26
    Turns out she came in for weekend rounds and could not find the orange cat.
    via jjpearson

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gender sweet potato laughter funny cats karen stories orange cats vet Cats funny animals karen
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