Pet Names

Mr. Chandler has told me a couple times about a student who named his chicken Teriyaki. (I believe this student lives on a farm, but maybe he just had really progressive parents when it comes to pets.) Today, while trying to read my cousin's latest blog posting, I stumbled across a blog called "The Occasional Chicken." I figured it was about the writer's sporadic bouts with cowardice, but it wasn't. It's about the writer's three chickens. He's been raising these chickens for almost a year now, and he takes pictures of them and writes about their activities, etc. The chickens' names are Pot Pie, Salad Sandwich, and Noodle Soup.

This brought all kinds of thoughts into my head -- (thoughts about pet names, mostly, although there may have been a random thought about getting my car washed as well). I like it when people are creative with the names they give to people and things. (My friend and I name our cars, but that's kind of personal, so I won't be sharing that with you.) My high school choir director had a pair of house cats, one black and one white, whose names were Song and Dance. On a TV show we were watching recently, Mr. Chandler and I were amused by the name of a pet frog: Fliza Minelli (flies + liza). My brother had a cat with no name for years. We all called her "the baby" or just Kitty, and the vet put Kitty on all of her records and meds.

My own dog -- Small Dog -- is saddled with a complete misnomer of his own. His name is Sonny, but he isn't. Sadly for him, I've long suspected that his name was given long before his grouchy nature developed. We're trying to help him; his life is certainly better (and more luxurious) since he came to live with us.

We had a difficult time settling on a name for our other dog, Big Dog. His real name is Jake, but we discussed Charlie for a while before making a decision. I've often wondered if his personality would have been different if he was a Charlie. A teacher friend once told me that boys with J names are usually the biggest behavior problems in a classroom, and my nine years of teaching support that theory. I don't start the school year thinking that, but it usually pops into my brain at some point between February and April. Anyway, that always makes me wonder if part of Big Dog's hyperactivity is because of his name...

We like to call our dogs other things, as well: Schmuppies (this always makes me think of Muppets), Pupplies (I have no idea why!), All Dogs (from the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven), Jake-opotamus, Jake-osaurus, Sonny Bunny Funny Honey, Old Man (only the grouchy small dog), Wild Outdoor Jake (who doesn't seem that different from Indoor Jake), etc. I intended for this post to be about the actual names people give to their pets, but I seem to have veered into "pet names" or nicknames instead. I've come full circle, I guess. I think I'm going to start calling my dogs "Blog Dog." This is meant to sound a lot like "slug bug," now that I think about it, and I may have just invented a new game for my neighborhood. If you see my dog running down the street (not at all out of the realm of possibility for Big Dog!), you can now play a variation of "slug bug" called "Blog Dog."