What's in a Name

Chessie is my third cat.  My first cat was named Floyd and I had him for a little over a month, he had an enlarged heart and died.  My second cat was named Zappa and I had him for thirteen years and just lost him.  When I got Chessie, I was trying to think of a name for her.  I didn't want to continue the rocker theme and was thinking of naming her after a ship.  I couldn't think of any feminine ship names so I went with the next best thing....naming her after a railroad.

 She's technically not named after a railroad but a railroad's mascot and advertising icon.  The railroad is the Chesapeake and Ohio which was founded in 1869.  It's main source of revenue when it was founded was coal.  That enabled it to stretch from Chicago and parts of Michigan to the East Coast.  Eventually it would expand into other cargos and passenger service.
During the 1930's, it introduced an air conditioned passenger train with the slogan of "sleep like a kitten".  The literature featured a picture of a sleeping kitten.  That kitten would later be known as Chessie.

 The Baltimore and Ohio was founded in 1828 and is one of the oldest railroads in the United States.  It was the first carrier to offer freight and passenger service to the public.    It was also the first railroad to use a telegraph line.  While it wasn't in direct competition with the C&O, it served many of the same areas.
In 1960, the C&O started to buy B&O stocks and in 1962 the B&O stockholders approved C&O control of the railroad.  In 1972, the Chessie System was formed while it wasn't quite a merger of the two railroads it was pretty close.

 In 1987, the C&O, B&O and Seaboard Atlantic were formally merged to form CSX.

 And with that, I give you more cat pictures.  Here Chessie is watching my railroad.

 She was not an easy subject to take pictures of but then again, I suspect no kitten really is.

 I had to move my hand around to get her to look towards the camera.

And I leave you with one more shot of her.  Isn't she a pretty kitty?