I call them my language's version of kitty, which luckily has no sexual connotations (I didn't know kitty was a sex word), Our word just means cat but is cuter. When it comes do dogs, my language nick names them "woofie", but since our dog doesn't bark, I call her a made up name for dog that everyone will understand, but people will look at me crazy for. My friend calls her a B, not to be mean, she just sees it as a factual word for a female dog. LoL.