A Rose By Any Other Name May Smell as Sweet, But Dogs Tend Not to Come When Called By The Wrong Name

I have a bad case of being my own mother lately. My big sister left for college when I was 10 years old and my mom has been calling me by her name ever since. I noticed that I, too, have been calling the baby by her big sister's name, but now it has spread to the dogs.

Poor Booker, I just kept calling him Ziggy. Ziggy was the dog in than kennel before Booker. Now, I try to justify it with the facts that Ziggy and Booker are really pretty much the same dog, personality wise. When trying to stop myself from using Ziggy, I managed to come up with Blocker. He is also big and black like Booker, but I think that was just my feeble attempt to yank a name out of my head that was even somewhat close to what I needed.

Chance has been Rascal for at least half of his stay. Cleo, however, has gotten her name back. Last stay, I called her Chloe all week.

More Problems with Names

Chloe and Meg, the Dachshunds, arrived for a very long stay. Their owner explained to me that they were really named Nutmeg and Clover, but the names had become Meg and Chloe.

I was thinking about this conversation while trying to stop myself from mixing up Chloe and Cleo.

To me, nutmeg is brown and clover is black, but I am calling the black one, Meg and the brown one, Chloe. I am going to have to check with their mom when she comes to claim them.

Mangling Names Again this Weekend!

In my own defense, I have a genetic predisposition to mess up names. I got it from my mother who has called me by my sister's name since she left home for college - I was 10 at the time.

So, I had Sassy and Cleo come back for a stay. For their first stay, I got Cleo wrong from the start and kept calling her Chloe. By the end of their stay, I finally had her name right. Already at the kennel when they arrived this time was a Chloe. I don't think I got either name right on the first try.

Hot Dogs!

I have a total of eleven dogs staying with me this weekend. One of them never comes out of her run. I count 8 dogs all sharing the shade of the apple tree trying to keep cool.

Any room under there for the photographer?