Pet Channel

I have been a little remiss in my blogging this week. I'm "plumb" tuckered out after the weekend from hell. I am considering getting a divorce, and marrying my dog. Okay, maybe not, she doesn't have any money, and I'm all about the cash. Someone has to make the mortgage payments. I know the government is permitting gay marriages in our country, but I haven't heard anything about marrying your dog. I will bring that up in parliament the next time I go to Ottawa. And if anyone wants to know my hus/dog name, I will point out to them that we have a "freedom of information act", that prevents little snoops from knowing his/her pedigree, and what kennel she was born in. After all, I don't want the whole world to know if I marry a mutt. Maybe I should just go to Utah and start a polygamous sect which lets me marry as many dogs as I want to. I better get on that before the "Profit" Warren Jeffs gets the idea first.

So, we got a dog. Her name is Lucy (short for Lucille — we have this thing with old-people names for pets), and she’s a chihuahua-terrier mix with floppy ears that we rescued from the pound. She has to get fixed tomorrow, so we don’t bring her home until Monday…but man, are we psyched!

With Kaia I need to be peppy… jazzy praise, exaggerated signals, relatively loud cues… Mesa takes quiet, happy cues, and careful, small signals…her response is exaggerated with the strength of my cues. I have problems just switching dog names from class to class on Weds night as it is. Mesa’s class comes first, so Kaia is “Mesa” for the first half of the next class. I guess I’m going to have to train myself to completely switch mental gears… some kind of visualization exercise or something …should be an interesting experience.

As 2005 comes to an end, lists of all kinds are flying around rating the best, worst, favorite and most popular things for the year. One company you may be familiar with is Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. and they have just released their list of the top dog names for 2005.

1. susan b. anthony (we’d call her “susie bee”). women’s suffragist, abolitionist, overall a groovy lady, i guess. (except for the prohibitionist part of her “ists”).
2. amelia earhart. the real amelia went by “millie”. this is getting dangerously close to a traditional dog name. i still like “amelia” though.
3. lois lane. i think this goes without explanation. i think “lois” is a great name for a dog, plus HELLO, superman reference.
4. dor venabili. too obscure and nerdy and probably won’t fly. but i LOVE dors.

any suggestions? ladies? fellas? help me out here.

Is it another sign we're treating our pets more like children? The English pet insurance company Virgin Money reports that the top names given to pets are all people names -- no more Rover, Spot or Fluffy.

Top 30 Male Dog Names

1. MAX
2. BUDDY
3. JAKE