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December 12, 2003
Name Our Prospective Puppy
Chris and I may get a puppy tomorrow! I found her on petfinder.com yesterday. She is an Australian shepherd (mix) mixed with a Beagle mix. Her mother was the Beagle mix, and weighs around 25 pounds. I'm hoping she'll combine the intelligence and trainability of herding dogs with the pure love and playfulness of a Beagle. But Carlyn said she might be crazy, because Beagles want to go ahead and shepherds want to be behind, and she might be conflicted. She currently resides in the Dalles, Oregon. When I called yesterday to find out about the litter, the shelter said they had received many applications to adopt the puppies, but that I should go ahead and send in my application anyway (although they weren't very encouraging). I don't know if this is a hard sell tactic or what. Anyway, I faxed my application in and later that afternoon they called home and said we could have her! I indicated one of two dogs, Tinsel, who was a male pup and little more classically handsome (dark face with white blaze) and Twinkle here, whose odd asymmetry appealed to me, and I thought might make her a little more available. And she was! We're going to drive to Bend early tomorrow to meet her. If we don't like her, needless to say, we won't take her. Although we'll probably like her just fine. What's not to like in a puppy? This is not a replacement for children, just something to complicate the whole process.
So, Twinkle isn't really an acceptable name.
Chris's suggestions (to date):
Admiral Johanna Q Fuzzywinks
Lemmywinks
Bagle
Biscuit
Dumpy
Squirrel
Jeff Propst
Ruperta (Rupee for short)
Scone
Shortbread
Quadroon
Ashcroft
Little Sniper
Hanging Basket
Paul the 2nd
Daddy's Little Footwarmer
Daddy's Little Baby Replacer
$60 Norplant
Wet Spot (Spot for short)
Two Face
Scare Face
25 cent
Elephant Puppy
Ephedra
Unix
Puppix
BSD4.4
Mac OS X "Puppther"
Mommy's Little Paper Grabber
Michael Bolton
Houseplant
Methusulah
Little Cop Killer
This list will go on and on, I'm sure. Maybe we'll submit the ones we don't use to the world wide web pet names project. Or once we name her we can submit the story of how we did so to this page of interesting narratives. My favorite story there is the one about the kid who named his dog after the shape of a sore the dog had.
We'll have to be sure not to chose one of the most popular pet names unless we want to have that classic schoolyard experience of having six dogs run at us when we call (although with names like Chris and Mary, you wouldn't think we'd care).
Anyway, I think we'd better have a "Name Our Puppy" contest. Since none of my contests cost me much. Usual rules: submit the name here. I decide and announce it here, on this entry. It's possible no one will win. First prize: something from the mary's great ideas shop.
Posted by mary at December 12, 2003 10:13 AM
Comments
Well that is a super cute puppy. It's too bad that puppys grow up and pee in your house.
I think you should name it "Pants" because "Pants" is my favorite word.
"Here Pants!" "Get the intruder Pants!" "No Pants! Bad Pants!"
I like it.
P
Posted by: Pete at December 12, 2003 10:42 AM
I really like Lemmiwinks. Lemmy for short could imply Motorhead allegiance and it would follow the rockstar naming ala Lita.
Here's a suggestion of my own:
Quato
The perfect name for the wisest puppy that has ever lived in front of somebody's stomach.
Posted by: Loveland at December 12, 2003 11:08 AM
My cousin Karen's *least* favorite word used to be "Slacks." Go figure.
Dave, I had no idea where you were going with your "Quato" talk, until I looked at this.
Posted by: Mary at December 12, 2003 11:19 AM
Chris has added: Pika.
Posted by: Mary at December 12, 2003 12:40 PM
I'm liking Pika. Maybe we could spell it "Pie-ka" and it could be a reference to her pie-chart face. Or we could spell it 3.14159265...-ka. We'd defitely have to abbreviate it for the tags.
Posted by: Mary at December 12, 2003 2:19 PM
Dear Mary: I thought it was my own individual Sheer Genius at work when I came up with the name "Pie" before seeing your comment, but now I see its Familial Genius in action instead. She really does look like she has a pie on her head with a big piece cut out of it. My vote, then, is for Pie, Pieka, Pieface, or even good old Piewacket.
Posted by: Erika Hamerquist at December 12, 2003 4:17 PM
It looks as if your potential puppy is wearing a mask, so my choice is Phantom. Ok, just for the record, I'm a straight guy who likes musical theater! And I am not defensive about it!
Posted by: Bob at December 13, 2003 6:31 PM
Pie-ka-choooo!
Posted by: chris at December 15, 2003 9:07 AM
Scribbles.
When can I pick up my prize?
Posted by: Strawberry Mustard at December 15, 2003 1:08 PM
Pika (pica?) is also the name of the disease, or perhaps mental disorder is the term, that involves the compulsion to eat dirt. And I bet your dog will eat dirt.
But really I think you should name all your pets Paul. And if you have any kids, you should name them Paul, too.
Posted by: melissa at December 15, 2003 2:59 PM
Ok, Ok - Scribbles was a great suggestion, no doubt, but I've got one here that simply can't be beat:
"Dr. Phil"
Eh? Eh? I'm patiently awaiting my mug, mousepad, or tote.
Posted by: Strawberry Mustard at December 16, 2003 5:44 AM
Shan suggests "Pi," but says it has nothing to do with the novel of the same name. He also says he thinks Australian shepherds are really smart. His other suggestion is "taco," because it's his favorite food.
Posted by: Rachel at December 16, 2003 11:29 AM
Bort.
Posted by: Lyza at December 16, 2003 1:49 PM
How about "Howard Dean"?
Posted by: Spine at December 18, 2003 5:58 PM
Name him "Raul the Littlest Nazi".
Posted by: Sasha at December 19, 2003 7:14 PM
Evidentally it took me days to figure out how to reply to you and I'm not sure it will work. So being the old fart I am ,did you get the damn dog ?And more importantly does it eat ice cream???
Meri xmas....Kim
Posted by: kim thomas at December 22, 2003 4:34 PM
OKAY WE HAVE THE PUPPY. Mrs. Mary has been busy cuddling with the puppy -- so busy she has not blogged about it. There's a newer picture on chrishiggins.com, and I'm sure Mary will post more soon.
Her name is: Pica
Apparently the name of the main character in THE WHALE RIDER is "Pikeia" or something along those lines -- but it sure sounds like "Pica."
Pica's hobbies are: eating crunchy things, trying to jump onto the couch (little legs aren't strong enough yet -- she needs human intervention to finish the leap), eating inappropriate things (I'll limit the list to dirt, wood, and Mary's red slippers), chewing on things in an attempt to eat them, running around chasing invisible things, sleeping in unlikely positions, and playing with Salsa (Betsy's beagle). Her favorite foods are: food, wood, and dirt.
It is a busy holiday at the Wheeler/Higgins compound. :)
;Chris
Posted by: Chris Higgins at December 23, 2003 6:24 AM
dirt-eating! i knew it!
Posted by: melissa at December 23, 2003 12:46 PM
Harlequin. Good if you like jesters or romance, right? She sure is cute!!!
Glad to see your site, Mary! this is little Leah.
I remember when your Superfund tourism idea was just getting its legs. Nice to see it is getting off the (toxic) ground!
Steve suggests Chuckles.
toodles.
Posted by: Leah at December 23, 2003 8:08 PM
Why in the world would you ever post the possible name Little Hitler? As an avid dog lover, petfinder frequenter and a Jew, I am truly offended! How ignorant are you? You should be ashamed of yourself!
Posted by: Brooke at February 19, 2004 8:26 PM
Fair enough -- I'll take the name "Little Hitler" off the list. I'm ashamed.
We've already named her, and "Little Hitler" wasn't even a contender. In the meantime, a better name occurred to me which is Charlize Mansons, which is really just an updated version of marilyn manson I guess.
Also, Left Wing Freak Show that would be, like, her show name, and we'd call her Freaky for short. A friend of ours bought that domain name but hasn't figured out what to do with it yet. I think she may still be taking suggestions.
Posted by: Mary at February 22, 2004 11:14 AM
if you get the puppy in the picture, you should name it splitz because his face is split into 2 different colors.
Posted by: josie at December 5, 2005 7:09 PM
this might be a good name spot bingo daffy toocky sammy candy buster dinky
Posted by: Anonymous at February 22, 2006 4:38 PM
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