[Dailydrool] Naming our hounds

[Pamela McQuade]

I always say that if you keep an animal long enough, it will tell you its name. That's the ideal method. But I must admit that with the hounds we've adopted I've kept their names, mostly because it seemed they'd gone through so much, I didn't think they needed that change too.

Not that I didn't try. Alexis didn't seem like an Alexis--a very unbassety name, all angles instead of smooshiness. Though she had serious arthritis, Lex was the most graceful hound, who seemed to float when she walked. I wanted to call her "Grace" and even tried, briefly, to do so, but she just wouldn't answer. So Alexis she stayed; I added "Grace" as a second name, and that was fine with her.

Jane came to us as a pupster. She was actually my dad's dog, and he wanted to name her "Lady," after a childhood pup. I added "Jane," so she wouldn't have a completely commonplace name. "Jane" came from the day when my best childhood friend had been getting rather above herself, and her mom teasingly called her "Lady Jane." I never forgot it, and it came in handy when we needed a name for our pup. Lady Jane certainly picked up on the background of her name: She's been above the humans all her life--especially those in her pack.

Our cat came to us with the name "Sammy." I couldn't keep it, since I just didn't like it. I wanted to call him "Ducat," after an Italian coin in "The Merchant of Venice"; Shylock has to choose between his daughter and his ducats. Our cat has round golden spots on his sides, so it seemed appropriate. But Drew wouldn't go for it, probably because he's not really a Shakespeare fan. One day he mistakenly (yeah, right) called the cat Duncan, so I caved in, and that's his name.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets