Monday

The Name of the Game

You may have gathered we've been down on our pet luck lately.

(A few months ago, one of our kitty's disappeared and never found her way back home. And then our bunny rabbit was killed by a wild animal and in softening the blow to our kids, we somehow semi-promised them a horse).

And then my hubby didn't get a promotion to a more rural area that would have led to a potential horse purchase.

You could say there's been some animal-related guilt in our grown-up world.

So.

I might have mentioned getting a dog to the family the other day. 

Because I like to mix up the crazy.

I figured it would take months to find a dog with these specifications: smallish, good with kids, shed-free, Terrier (because according to my Twitter friends, they are swell), not a puppy, but not too old either, female, house-broken, crate-trained, spayed and preferably, free.

I'm not picky, just specific.

My daughter has been Googling with my supervision "cheep dogs that don't bite kids" all weekend.

And guess what her prayer request was in Sunday School?

Yep.

It looks like God is on the Throne. And He is speedy-fast.

Because The Almighty not only provided everything on our list, he provided it TWICE.

They are called 3 year old Miniature Schnauzer sisters. The sweet family looking for a home for them is facing some hard times and they just wanted to find a nice home.

We fit that description 2/3 of the time.

They are getting up to speed on some vet stuff tomorrow (courtesy of this family) and we'll pick them up on Tuesday.

My daughter composed this comprehensive list of potential dog names in preparation of God's answer: 


My personal favorites are Key Lime Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Kit Kat, Skittles and Whip Cream (but that may be just because I'm hungry). Her personal favorite girl name was Claude.

But since they aren't puppies, we decided it wouldn't be right to change their names: Dusty and Sasha. 

However, because Sasha is nicknamed "Cha Cha" it only seemed appropriate to give Dusty a nickname.

I thought is would be cute to come up with a rhyming name for Dusty since I think of my dirty house when I say her name. (Because it's really all about inflection on a dog's name, anyway.)

We racked our brains over dinner. There just aren't that many names that rhyme with Dusty.

But my kids really liked one:  "Lusty"

So, we decided Dusty wasn't so bad after all. 

Since "Cha Cha" is also a great dance, we thought it would be fun to nickname Dusty "The Pachanga," but the kids liked "Disco."

I hope these dogs are ready for The Crazy.

Because that's the name of the game.

Around here.

********************************
And this is where you tell me YOUR pet's name and how you came up with it!



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99 comments:

Jamie said...

Good luck with your new family members. Our dog is named Jack. It's unimaginative, but Jack sounds like a friendly dog who would wear a bandanna and, so, the name suits our Jack. ;o)

We get much more creative with the cat names, but then we don't have to yell for hte cats outside ever.

Britta said...

I have a german shepherd, when i brought her home i really wanted to give her a name that would be a german word for dummy, or stupid (i am german so i know a lot of words =) )..you get my point, i wanted to hear my boyfriend outside calling her and not knowing what it actually meant, my plan was to sit by and get a kick out of it..well my plan didn't work out, everything i suggested he couldn't pronounce, i finally went thru herb names since my b/f loves to cook..her name ended up being Sage.
My daughter has a little mutt she named him bandit

amanda said...

We got our first dog (a black lab) when she was a puppy 5 years ago. My then-6-year-old daughter pulled the name Sharla out of thin air. Don't know where it came from or why, but that's her name.

Our German shepherd is named Remus, for Remus Lupin in Harry Potter (Lupin's a werewolf, the dog looks a little wolfie).

The big doberman came from rescue at the age of 5 named Iya (ee-ya) and it seemed imprudent to change it.

The little doberman (mix of something but looks *just* like a smaller Iya) is named Riley. When we got him from the pound they told us his name was Willis, but then on his vet paperwork it said Willis (Riley)...we don't know why that is, but Riley is much better than Willis so that's what we call him.

Anonymous said...

I haven't had a pet since I left home, but our cat when I was growing up was named C.C. C.C. was short for Christmas Cat, since he was born around Christmas time. NOt very creative, but it worked.

I love the names Key Lime Pie and Skittles. We've been discussing the "let's get a dog" topic around here. I have a feeling that there will be one in our near future.

Anita A. said...

Our first, and only so far, family pet was a Boxer who we called Rudy. We came up with the name while eating BBQ. Need I say any more?

Caryn said...

I adopted my dog when a neighbor found him at his work (which is an elementary school). We're a pretty musical bunch and I wanted to do something musical. I ended up naming him Banjo because he doesn't belong in a symphony, most of the time he's just a little off. ;)

tarajo said...

LOL our dog's name is Spot

not too original but the way she got it has always been a fun story.

When i got her it wasn't in the plan to get a dog that day, but at some point in the future so our family of 3 were not quite ready and didn't have a name picked out. Since we spent 2 days arguing about what the name would be we settled on a diplomatic solution. we each got to put 3 names on sheets of paper (2 of mine were Pickle and Monkey and i can't remember the 3rd, it was after all 10 years ago) we took the 9 small pieces of paper and scattered them on the floor in front of the puppy and the one she grabbed to chew on said Spot and that was that :)
one of the other options was Fred (yes it was a girl puppy)

MahoneyMusings said...

My childhood cat's name was Fat Albert. He was a very chubby kitten. I was 6, that was my favourite show and my parents let me name him. He was the best cat in the universe.

Our little poodle terrier mix who passed away at the beginning of the year was named Bear. Our daughter was almost 3 when we got him as a puppy. She named him Teddy Bear and of course, being 3, kept shortening it to Bear, and that's what he would answer to. A 7 pound dog named Bear. We got a lot of flack for that over his 14 years.

Robin said...

We adopted two 6 week old lab mix puppies from the same litter. (What were we thinking?) We knew we liked the name Buddy, and wanted a name to match, and we live in Nashville, so something musical seemed appropriate.

Buddy and Holly are their names!

Building Dave said...

Last week we just had to put down our beloved cat "olly" who we had for 14 1/2 years. She was named Olly because she looked almost identical to "Molly" my husband's childhood cat, who died when SHE was 14 years old.

Our dog was a newfoundland mix (water dog) and my husband put alot of time into researching names and decided to name him Mac Lear which had something to do with Prince of Water or whatever. However, AFTER the puppy started coming to its name and then we took the dog to the vet for its second round of shots (first were on the breeder)....it was a female. That's how we had a female named Mac.

(we are sooo THAT family)

Megan said...

When we got our min pin, we wanted to give him a "big" name to be funny, since he would never weigh more than 10 pounds or be taller than 1 foot. At the time I was in college and there was a guy in my algebra class named Magnum. I swear that was his God given name - I don't know what his mother was thinking. Anyway, Magnum is his name, and even though he's small in size, his personality definitely lives up to his name.

The Mom said...

We adopted to litter mates from the humane society. Their names are Levi and Wrangler. Those were the only two names we could agree on. After getting to know their personalities we should have named them Cliff and Norm.

Amanda said...

We don't have pets at the moment, but my last dog's name was Kiara. She was a black lab and we named her after the girl lion in the movie Lion King.

Oonie said...

My fourth birthday present was a mini schnauzer puppy. I could not possibly have had a better companion for my growing-up years. NO hair to shed all over. A little yappy (but so am I). Sweet, content, laid-back, cuddle-lover but ok on her own...she was a great great dog.
But...be forewarned...she did live to the ripe old age of 18. I left for college before she departed this earth. Which did not please my parents, who would have cheerfully sent the dog on and kept me at home.
Still--great choice--enjoy these dogs (and I think Dusty's nickname can be Lucky!).

Anonymous said...

I do not have any animals but my close friend has a dog named "haywire". I have always thought this was so cute.
I love your blog and read it when I get a chance. I think our family was the original "that family". WE are 3 generations that equal 99 people and if it's happened to anyone it has happened to US. Thanks for making me feel normal. LOL (that stands for Lord oh Lord)... Cindy from Alabama

Nancy M. said...

Good luck with your new dogs! It really must have been meant to be! We have like a million pets or something. I named a rooster after Kid Rock, the singer, because I thought he had attitude. I named another roo Prince, because he was at the top of the pecking order. My son named a hen daredevil because when she was a chick she did flips. He named his dog Little Anne after a character in Where the Red Fern Grows. Ok, I'll stop now, cause I know you're tired of reading all my pet names.

Hillary @ The Other Mama said...

All I can say is I'm glad you didn't go with Busty!

angela said...

We knew for over a month that we were getting a beagle puppy soon... this sparked a month long debate over a name for the dog. Being Redskin fans my dad and I wanted to name him Gibbs after the former coach, my mom wanted no part in that. Ruckus was thrown out there but dismissed - then someone said what about toby - to which someone else said Kobe, and everyone liked it - so then we had to fight about the spelling... Now we have a 3 year old Kobi who is great.(no relation or homage paid to Kobe bryant) I personally name all my personal pets after my favorite sports players, I had 2 turtles named Javy (javy lopez) and b-rob (brian roberts) I had a fish named portis (clinton portis) Not very original but it works

Unknown said...

We just got a puppy after years and years of begging from the kids... yes, we lasted that long! After initially settling on the name "Lucy" I decided that I didn't want to sound like Ricky Ricardo all the time. We just tried out a few names for a couple days until one fit. Her name is Bailey... and it fits.

We named our dog faster than we named any of our children.

Kara said...

Our dog growing up was Annie Lee Anderley...yes, a rhyming dog name. My mom had wanted to name our youngest sister Annie, but got outvoted (and now that I've named my own child, I realize how amazing it was that she let us have votes!) Anyways, later on like you, we adopted an older dog. Her name was already Annie, so we just added the middle and last names.

Rach said...

My mom and I got Scottish Terrier brothers to celebrate the end of her successful treatment for cancer. We had a Scottie when I was a kid who my mom adored, and she'd always wanted another one. After her ordeal, she figured, "why wait?" I had been wanting a dog for a while and we thought it would be fun to have brother dogs. So we got little Pip and Higgins. I named Pip after the main character in Great Expectations, and mom chose the name Higgins just because she liked it. They still love playing together, but they have totally different personalities. Pip is the sweet, lovey one and Higgins has more of an attitude!

Michelle said...

What I loved best about this post is how you've shown them that when you're open to the possibility, it will be provided.

Our cat is Dexter after Dexter's Laboratory, Monty is our dog after Montgomery Burns on The Simpsons.

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Sounds to me that you are extremely lucky. How sad that they have to give up their dogs but you are being blessed with them. How exciting. I can't wait to see them.

Jenna said...

I had a schnauzer growing up named Duchess and I LOVED her- they are great dogs!

Right now we have 2 Shichons and they are named Boaz (because my husband wants to name our first son that and I refuse, ergo we gave it to the dog!) and Leah. I'm not really sure where I came up with that one from, but since then I've heard several AMAZING sermons about Leah and Jacob.

Kinda strange but God has shown me a lot about my life through my dogs name!!!

Unknown said...

Good luck with the new pups!

Our dog is named Zoe. We had originally gone to the shelter to see a dog named Zoe but when we got there she had been adopted. Just as I was walking out, in the back of the kennel, I saw our baby (the dog). She is my husband's first dog and he really thought she looked like a Zoe so that's what we named her. Come to find out it means "life" and believe me...she is full of "life". :)

Amber said...

I have a terrier named Killian. I got him on St.Patricks Day, so Killian seemed very fitting. Have fun with your ne furry family members!

Jamie said...

Just a rabbit here at our house, his name is Max. My daughter, who shows him in 4H, pick out his name. Loved the list of names your daughter had written out.

I bet your kiddos are going to love having dogs!

Me Too said...

My wonderful 15 year old rescued-from-the-pound doggie is TeddyBear (which is what he looked like when he was a puppy). . . but only because my mom wouldn't let this then-teen name him my first choice: Venus. She didn't want to be misunderstood screaming THAT name to come inside. "(V)enus - Get in here now!!!" :)

Maria D. @ DownrightDomesticity said...

When my husband and I were babysitting a litter of kittens, all of them were easy to name... except one. After a few weeks, and still no name for the little guy, I declared his name to be "Meatloaf" in honor of a cat from this game mentioned in my post. People always laugh whenever they hear that we own a cat named Meatloaf (yes, we ended up keeping him, as well as him brother Mel-- because he's so unbelievably mellow).

Kristin said...

Our dogs names are Cocoa and Sugar

Cocoa happened because my husband badly wanted a black dog - he found one on the internet and started calling him Cocoa before we even got him. I had not even said yes at this point. Months later "Cocoa" was still available so we got him.

Sugar is our white with soft brown spots - her full name is Brown Sugar. I picked her out and Sugar goes so well with Cocoa, it works! My husband was pulling for Snowy, but since she ended up not being full white, Brown Sugar works better!

Peta said...

We had two dogs called Ollie and Luna..I chose the names from the harry potter movie..Ollivander the wandmaker and Luna Lovegood.lol

Becky @ Our Sweet Peas said...

Hysterical post and I look forward to posts about the "fun" that these dogs will bring. The "lusty" things is hilarious. ;)

Rita said...

We adopted a Boston terrier and a yorkie as puppies. I chose names ahead of time by looking at pictures and youtube videos online of those particular breeds. I tried to pick names that I thought would suit both their looks and personalities. The results: we now have a Boston terrier named Capone and a yorkie named Miyagi (remember Karate Kid?).

Rita said...

I forgot to mention that I used to have two female rats named Lucy & Ethel (as in, I Love Lucy).

Sara said...

We found our dog at the local pound via Petfinder. They had given her the unfortunate moniker "Sparkle." I'm sure it was due to her sparkling personality and their need to quickly find her a home, but I just couldn't get behind it. Upon her adoption, the two names we were thinking of were Claudine and Matilda. (Tilly for short) After we met and got to know her, Claudine seemed far too dignified for the crazy dog we adopted, so Tilly it was! And turns out Tilly rhymes with "silly,"--even better. And now? Silly Tilly fits right in with this crazy family. Having a dog named Claudine would have been too much pressure for us... ;-D

One More Makes Four said...

We have a fawn pug, he is so sweet! Although he sheds enough to fill my vacuum canister each day!!!!! His name is Milo. Everyone thinks we got his name from the movie, Milo and Otis. Not so much. My daughter at the time LOVED Miley Cyrus. So because he was a boy, he got the name Milo. My husband just found this out after 2 years and sticks with the story that we got the name from Milo and Otis haha :) ~Jessica

Rhonda said...

Dog #1 (lab/shepherd mix) was given the name Barney by the old woman who took him off the street. We decided to keep that name. One year later, we agreed to "foster" a dog (mutt, looks like a 60# St. Bernard) for a friend (that was in Nov 2004). This dog's name was also Barney. Huh? So, we have two dogs named Barney. Dog #1 nicknames: B1, Barn Dog, Barney Bruce (boy#2 gave him a middle name). Dog #2 nicknames: B2, Bubba, Bubblelicious, Sloppy, Soggy. It doesn't really matter what we call each dog...they both come running.

SJL~ said...

I had miniature schnauzers when I was growing up. They are wonderful dogs! I want to get another one, but hubby is saying no pets!

The English Bull Terriers (Target dog or Spuds McKenzie) I've had most recently were named Abbey (we went to baby name websites and picked that one!) and Nigel (he was named by his previous owner, so we didn't change it)

allisonwest said...

We have two English Bulldogs. Our first, Precious, was an adopt and has given herself her own nickname-"Toots". I'll let you figure that one out...both names are equally embarassing when you are trying to reprimand a 12-inch tall, 60 lb. wad of muscle.
We just bought her a baby brother, whom I had named in a dream 2 years ago-Gus. I think it is perfect.

Bailey's Leaf said...

We have a cat named Smudge. She came to us at about 4 weeks old. She was a dump at a park where my husband worked as a Park Naturalist at. She was following people through the parking lot, trying to get anyone's attention. Then she got the attention of a hawk who scooped her up, but then dropped her mid-flight. When she came to us, we could tell that she was obviously the runt. She had ticks, fleas, burrs, ulcers in her mouth, her one eye was swelled shut and the front of her kitty face was raw and defurred. Many vet appointments later, our rejected Maine Coon cat was all back on the mend.

Our iguana, Spike, was a rescue while being dropped off to a rescue. Hubs had a rainforest exhibit that Spike was a part of. That rainforest exhibit was disassembled and he was taking Spike to what was supposed to be a guy with much experience and had a "grand" repile rescue. Uh, no. The conditions were deplorable, so Hubs brought him home, too. He originally came with the name "Iggy" but I had to rename him to give him some street cred. Wouldn't you know, now he is a complete pistol? I should have kept his name as it was!

Angela said...

We have a cat named John Wayne. My husband likes the actor and we both thought it was a unique pet name. We got him a girl kitty to play with and we wanted to name her Annie Oakley, but she ended up with the name Georgia Patton, again my husband came up with that name. He thought it would be really funny to name a cat after a dictator. I vetoed Hitler and Stalin and told him this was not a good way to go if our kids grow up and find out who Hitler and Stalin were. So we went with Patton instead since the cat was a girl we called her Georgia. Unfortunately Georgia has not come home in about a year, we miss her dearly and so does John Wayne. Oh John has a few nicknames, the Duke, JW, Pilgram, and stupid cat.
Good luck with your dogs.

Tina said...

Our dog's name is Riley. He came from the Humane Society, so he was already named.

I affectionately call him crack head or stupid dog because, well, he is.

The Furman's said...

We bought a puppy in March of 2008. She is a girl. I wanted to name her something about how she looked and I wanted it to be related to the bible. We came up with the name Carmel. It's perfect because she is a light brown kind of caramel color, there's a Mt. Carmel in the Bible and Bill and I (my husband) met in Carmel, NY. I was so happy!

Kari Anne said...

We have a Malshi (Maltise/Shih tzu) and he is the cutest thing EVER... My daughter named him Behr (after the paint brand...LOL). And he looks like a little bear too...

TidyMom said...

Oh what fun!!!

that's so funny, when my family surprised me with my yorkie for my birthday this year, our 12yo daughter spent all of her time googling breeders! LOL she found the one too!!

We named him Cullen - since we are BIG Twilight/Edward Cullen fans here! LOL

We also have a white germ. shepherd who's name is Tagalong (Tag for short) - we got him at Girl Scout Cookie time, and we all love Tagalongs! LOL

Have fun with your new babies!

~TidyMom

Launa said...

My girls prayed and prayed for a dog also....we also had specifics...we wanted a German Shepherd...fabulous family dogs, an young adult female...etc. of course Free was in there too! LOL!! So really when would that happen right? Well what showed up on our porch and wouldn't leave...you got it! The sweetest German Shepherd you could ever want. But wait! She wasn't fixed!! That was on the list! Leave it to Gram and Papa to pay the vet bill for a Hanukkah present! Prayer request complete! So her name is "Gracie" because it was because of the "Grace" of God that she found us, and the "Grace" of daddy that she stayed!

Good luck with your new family members! Schnauzers are FABULOUS dogs!!

Kris said...

We have three dogs. Two are gordon setters. They are great family and hunting dogs, which is a requirement in this household. Jake is our male. The only reason I can remember for the name is that I had a grandpa who loved to hunt. Molly is our female and she is a character. My dad named her. Husker is our 3rd dog. He is so named because he was the first born of our litter of puppies. And he was born on New Year's Day, just as the Nebraska Cornhuskers won their bowl game. He is 1/2 gordons setter & 1/2 lab. I personally was in love with the names of the other puppies: Alphie, Lola, Vinny and Gordy!

Sharon said...

Our dog's name is Leymus. It's pronounced LAY - MUS. No one knows how to spell it and most often people call him Shaemus or Amos. One creative friend even called him Fungus.

Have you met our dog Fungus? Makes Dusty seem kinda normal.

Congrats on the new puppy, err, puppies, err dogs.

shoutingforha said...

We have an 85 pound dog named Brick. We are crazy about his name but can't take the credit. Here's the story...

His mom was a stray that happened to frequent the neighborhood of a man who does animal rescue. He noticed that her seven puppies were slowly disappearing. He decided to put out a trap used to catch small animals and caught two of the pups. When he lifted our fellow out of the trap he was surprised by his weight and said (in his thick southern accent), "Well, you're as heavy as a brick." The name stuck.

"G" said...

We have three pomeranians... Boo, Dooley and Taz.. Boo is what we called my brother when he was little; Dooley is my maiden name and Taz was named Taz because she is like the Tasmanian Devil!!! We had a German Shepherd many years ago and we called him Harley because my husband has a Harley. We name our pets have family members and things around the house.. Creative, I know!

Amanda said...

Oh my gosh!!! i cant believe your getting TWO!!! oh girl your house is gonna be BUSY!! I LOVE Schnauzers- I bet your mom is excited -her dogs will have cousins! LOL

creditcardfree said...

Growing up I had a dog named Freedom. She was born in the bicentennial year - 1976. We adopted our first cat while my husband was in Iraq and named her Liberty. We call her Libby, Libby Lous and Lib. We then adopted another cat and she was named Riley by the shelter. We liked the name so we kept it. I call her Rileykinz, like Webkinz!

Enjoy your new family members!

creditcardfree said...

Growing up I had a dog named Freedom. She was born in the bicentennial year - 1976. We adopted our first cat while my husband was in Iraq and named her Liberty. We call her Libby, Libby Lous and Lib. We then adopted another cat and she was named Riley by the shelter. We liked the name so we kept it. I call her Rileykinz, like Webkinz!

Enjoy your new family members!

Sharon said...

Sounds like FUN!! Our boy dog is Max or Maximus Littlefoot....named partially from The Gladiator--one of our fav. movies!! His "girl", is Lucy or Lucilla....named after Maximus's girl in The Gladiator. Fits. He is a brute and she loves to play the damsel in distress!

Abbie said...

We have a Callie because I was taking Calculus at the time and because she was a calico cat. We also have a Tilly which is short for something the no kill shelter named her and I think it was Chantilly.

Enjoy your new pets. Can't wait to see some pictures. :)

SoCalLynn said...

God is good! Your dogs sound adorable. One of our cats is named B'Ellanna after a Star Trek character who was half Klingon/half human. We named her after a Star Trek character because at the time we had another cat named Jean Luc, a Star Trek captain. Do you sense a theme? Anyway, after Jean Luc passed away, we got another cat, a Siamese, whom we named Chai, because she looks like a cup of chai latte.

Megan said...

oh my. You have a lot of comments. NEVER EVER LET CHILDREN PICK THE DOGS NAME. I desperately wanted to name our dog Sandball. I thought it was a great name. I was 7. Actually, I still, at almost 30, think it is a pretty good name, but that's another story.

Robin said...

Oh, I just know we are going to get some great stories out of your new dog journey!

We have an 8 yr old miniature American Eskimo named Amy. How she got her name - I just started at the beginning of the baby name book and stopped when I got to one everyone liked. Didn't take long!

And now we have an 8 month old beagle/cocker spaniel named Kona. I wanted to name him Cocoa because of his coloring, but Greg thought that was too girly. So he googled "chocolate dog names" and Kona was one he found. Kona is a hawaiian coffee. We don't even drink coffee, but the name fits him perfectly.

Mandi@TidbitsfromtheTremaynes said...

Can I talk ya out of using "Mandi", since I had a teacher that always mentioned he'd named his dog Mandi in class? I'm still traumitized about it.

Anonymous said...

Chihuahua - "Belle" I named her after Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Our Belle is such a "disappointment" that I have to apologize to cartoon Belle every time we watch the movie.

Beagle - "Gwen" Our daughter put up most of the money for the dog so she got to pick out the name. She has been obsessed with the name Gwen forever and we all knew that's what she was going to pick. Our son still thinks the dog should have been named Waffles.

Morgan Koji said...

We have a Golden Retriever named "Andrews Golden Sun". To hoity toity for us, so he's Andy, but he answers to screw loose and numb nuts! We got him from a family who decided that he was just to big for them (he's 115 lb.)and I brought him home to my Hub's on our first anniversary. He was 10 mo. old and very well trained. 9 years later, he's the best dog I have ever owned.

bridget {bake at 350} said...

Oh my goodness...THAT didn't take long! I really did like the idea of "Key Lime Pie!" That's a girl after my own ♥ right there! :)

Our kittens are Spike & Bluebell. Spike because the son wanted a pet named Spike, so a fluffy black & white kitten seemed like the perfect fit. Bluebell...we thought she was such a pretty kitten and my "Clementine" got out voted. So, we searched for "flower names." Came across Bluebell, and since we live in BlueBell ice cream country, we thought it was perfect. :)

Fun post! Can't wait to meet them!

Anonymous said...

We have two new kitties we just adopted from the Humane Society, they called them Sugar and Muffy, but they are boys! So we changed them to Steve and Max

We have a 4 yr old lab mix from the humane society, her name is Ruby.

We also have a 12 yr old cat, his name is Webster!

Good luck with the new dogs! I'm sure you will enjoy them! Amy in KS

Lisa Anne said...

I had that same type of dog. Pure bread and everything. She was a good dog, poor thing got cancer though! We had an all black one! I use to be all for having a dog, but they are way to messy for me. Even if they are potty trained they still have accidents. I've never been a cat persona and now, I'm like what have I been missing out on. I love my kitten.

Have fun with your dogs!! I love CHA CHA as a name.

Serenity said...

Oh, I soooooo feel your pain! We recently acquired my parents 2 year old lab (pure bred, I might add, but it doesn't help!) and Scout had done little except destroy things and run away since we got him! Having Scout is harder than having four kiddos (in my personal opinion :). Recently, he added eating a poopy diaper to his list of "naughty tricks". No foolin' he ATE the diaper!
I'm sure you will have some funny stories to tell :) Best of luck!!!!!

LifeAtTheCircus.com said...

Congratulations! My inlaws have a mini schnauzer and love her.. In fact they have always had one... can't remember what they said the first dog was, but the second one (the one my hubby grew up with) was Scruffy. Later they had a Pepper, and finally now they have Skittles.

Anyway, best of luck to you!

Connie said...

We named our mutt, Petey, because he has a dark circle around his right eye, just like the dog Petey in the commercial, and the dog in The Little Rascals...who was a Jack Russel - I think. Petey's not a Jack Russel - but the name Petey fit him to a tee...but maybe more so because he's King of Pee-ing around the neighborhood! (I know, gross.)

Lynn said...

Our dog is a chocolate lab. We got him at 7 weeks old as a surprise for the kids. We left them with my parents and didn't tell them where we were going in case we changed our mind after we met the puppies. We drove about 40 minutes to see the puppies and called out the name of the businesses along the way. In the end his name is Captain Oliver Reese. Or "Ollie". (I wanted Captain) But, I am just the mom!

km said...

Our cat Rex came to us from a rescue. He was 10 (he's 11 now) . He came with the name Kitters. But, he didn't answer to that name. The kids settled on Rex after a long list (Harvey, 'Mater, Riley, Rusty...) The T-Rex was the king of the dions...and Rex is definitely king at our house.

Jana said...

Careful! Those dogs will suck you right in! I have Layla, an Aussie/German Shepherd rescue and I wanted to name her something that meant "protection" but saw the name Layla and fell for it. It's a good thing because in THAT family-style, she'd lick a maurader to death. So, now we have Phoenix, a GSD purebred female who is a true protector. We named her because we're MacGyver fans and he worked for the Phoenix Foundation! Between my two "girls," and my three boys, it doesn't get better than this!! Have fun!

Amy said...

Our Pekingese is named Smokey Joe. We got him when he weighed about 4 lbs and he is the color of smoke (tan, gray, blue, some black) and Joe because my middle name is Jo. There is a pic of him on the header of my blog.

Good luck with your new additions.

Kim said...

My dog is a Poochon. Thats part poodle part Bischon Frise. She is the best dog I've ever had and her name is Abby. When she's a bad girl she's Abigail, which isn't often but just last week she got into a bag of chocolate chips and had to spend the weekend in the hospital. After $450 she's better now. Dogs and chocolate don't mix. Good luck with your pups and I can't wait to hear more about them.

Christibear said...

My dog's name is Miss Prissy because of the girly way she walks with her front paws. My husband's dog is Vader, as in Dog Vader (Darth Vader) because he was the only black puppy from a litter of white poms. Unfortunately, Miss Prissy is missing since someone opened our back gate.

Nancy said...

Our dog's name is Zoe. She's a terrier mix and as a previous commenter said, she definitely lives up to her name that means "life." She is full of it. She's 13 and still acts like a puppy. I can't remember how we finally came up with the name (we didn't know the meaning at the time) but I remember driving down the street reading every sign and billboard trying to come up with something.

Renee Holley said...

You may remember that our Cocker Spaniel is also named Sasha. She came with that name since we got her from another family when she was 4 yrs old. Hope you are budgeting for grooming. And don't forget to make arrangements for the dogs when you go on a trip. I always seem to forget that someone has to take care of the dog while we're away.

Rebecca said...

My all-time favorite name for a cat was my friend, Amy's, name for hers during our single days:

MH for Mr. Hollywood, since he would run into the kitchen and slide on a rug when he heard food being served.

She and I had a falling out when I was engaged, and I haven't seen her in 18 years. Now, wouldn't it be amazing if Amy or someone who knows her were reading this blog and we could get in touch with each other after all this time? I've tried to find her...Google, Facebook, her last name in her hometown...not happening for me. (She has a twin sister named Ashley, I think.)

Jeni said...

We got one of my cats when she was about three weeks old, and had to be bottle-fed. She's a beautiful black & white kitty, so I named her "Oreo" right away. When she got a little bigger, and started zooming around the house, my husband added "Speedwagon" to her name, making her...

Oreo Speedwagon.

Ba DUM bum. ;-)

Anonymous said...

We went through a L-O-N-G period of time where every pet in our house needed to be named after a Disney character. Then we went through a period where all of our birds were named after cars.

Thank heavens we are back to plain old names like Sam!

Jess said...

We are cat people. Our cat's names are Mosey Jo Kitty Boots I mean we live in Georgia where most folks have 4 names. We call her Mosey for short. Our "special" kitty is named Baxter Beans and we call him Beans because after we adopted him (aka wrote a check) the lady informed us that he had...IBS.

Anonymous said...

So, I have a "Westie" West Highland White Terrier, named Nigel... (nickname: Barky Dog). He is a great dog although the barking does get a bit "much" every so often. Good luck with your dogs.... Oh, what's in a name anyway?
With a treat in my hand, Nigel will answer to any name you call him. Good luck!

Fancy Dots said...

I have a mini schnauzer, and they are the greatest! Ours is Rudy, but he also goes by Doodie, Woo Woo, Boo Boo, and most anything else! We also have a lab, named Milo, or Mi Mi. My husband always names our dogs, and I always give them their nicknames.

Petite Mum said...

Haha! We used to have a dog called Rusty, then our Asian friend came to visit, and kept calling him 'Lusty'. Of course, the nickname stuck!

Tiffany C. said...

We've got a pug named Johnny Cash. He's a rescue & came to us at 1 year old & the name Earnest...that wasn't going to fly at our house. Since he's a pug I thought a Men In Black referance would be fun; when I told my hubby he suggested the Man in Black and so Johnny Cash the pug had an offical title that has been very suiting of him

Anonymous said...

Our dog is named Dusty but we call her Dusty mopper. We thought she looked like a dust mop when she was a pup. She is part chow and part toy poodle. When her hair is grown out she looks like a miniture sheep dog but in the summer we have her trimmed up. Then she looks like a terrier. One of the best dogs I have ever owned.

Megreth said...

Our first pet as a married couple was Odyssey the cat, named after Homer's work.
I went to the animal shelter with my mom a year later to pick out a pet for HER and I ended up seeing a black kitten I wanted, too. "If you get another cat, I get to name it," my husband said. He flipped through a book of Indian baby names. Ajala it was.
Our most recent pet addition was a Wheaten Terrier. Our five-year-old son named him Pushbutton. Just cause he could. :)

Loved this post -- so funny!

Anonymous said...

Our older dog is named Pablo. He was 1 1/2 when we rescued him so we kept it. Our younger dog in Ulo (with an umlaut over the U so it looks like it is smiling), pronounced oo-low. My husband made it up. He likes umlauts, our other two pets names end with an o (Pablo and Draco), and another dog we were thinking of rescuing was named Yule which he kind of liked but decided to tweek.

Tracey said...

Murray...for months before we adopted a "free" ($150) homeless cat from a no kill shelter, I had been praying for a friends brother named Murray who was undergoing cancer treatments. I had never met Murray and had no idea what he looked like but I had prayed for him so much I became rather fond of the name. So when we got our cat we decided on Furry Murray.

Miss Mandy said...

We name our dogs after deceased family members. Yes, really.

Our black pomeranian's name is Cora Estelle, but we call her Coco. She's named after my great, great grandmother.

The Martin Family said...

That's so exciting! Those 4 legged kids are going to love the 2 legged ones. My grandparents had schnauzers when I was growing up, and all 4 of them were great with kids and were fun, spirited dogs.

Can't wait to hear how it goes! Must send pics!

Unknown said...

No pets in my house at the moment, Lord knows I don't need an animal, But...Oh. My. Gosh. FUNNY! Out of the mouths of babes! 'Tis priceless! And I don't think, I KNOW God tottally digs those prayers!

Unknown said...

Our (black lab) dog's name is Sarah.

When our kids were almost 4 and barely 2, we decided to get a dog after persuading dad. So we headed to a nearby town (a little over an hour away). As we were driving home my daughter suggests we name her "Buddy'. Since she was a girl and every other boy dog in our neighborhood was named Buddy, she was asked to think of another name. She then suggested Sarah. We thought about it, knew no one by that name (at least that was close to us), so we obliged.

A few weeks later I was in our backyard with my kids. The (fairly new) neighbor behind us was calling to his toddler who was playing outside. Guess what her name was? Sarah (probably without the h).

From then on I felt soooo guilty when our puppy/dog was outside and I had to call her in!

Sulwyn said...

Our dog growing up was Fiona - we were adopting her from a family that told us that the parents had lived in Scotland for a while, so we decided she needed a Scottish name. I had always loved Brigadoon, so we looked up the main female character's names and since my mom's middle name is Jean the other one by default was Fiona. Later we discovered a cousin named Fiona in England!

Jenny said...

Our dog is named Trixie-the-Wonder-Dog. You can read the story of her name here. http://shipfullofpirates.com/2008/05/27/battling-the-flea-circus/

Jamie said...

I rescued my dog four years ago...his name was (and still is) Chester...though we have since nicknamed him CheddarCheese...not sure why though! ahaha

Melissa Stover said...

we've had 3 schnauzers and they are sweet dogs. don't shed and are loyal. however, they have to be groomed and that's costly. invest in a good pair of clippers and learn to do it yourself.

Jessica said...

After a couple months of visiting the local animal shelter we rescued an adorable black lab mix puppy that I wanted to call Lu-Lu. The first day home I had her all to my self and soon realized it wasn't the right name. She was more of the Foxy Roxy type. By the time my kids and hubby came home that evening she was Roxy.

Anonymous said...

When DH and I rescued our girl dog, her name was Mel. We didn't like that name, but we wanted to keep a similar sound to ease her transition, so we changed her name to Millie, full name when she's in trouble is Mildred May.
I got a puppy for my bday in March 2007. I wanted a girl named Clover or a boy named Rocky, after St. Patrick's Day. We settled on a boy puppy, but DH didn't like the name Rocky. We looked online for days and still couldn't settle on a name. Finally, we settled on Kale, Hawaiian for strength, which he would need to keep up with Millie. After a couple of hours of playing with him, we didn't like that name. DH and I are baseball fans, so MIL suggested Cooper, in honor of Cooperstown, home of the baseball hall of fame. It stuck. His full name is Cooper Kale. We call him Cooper Pooper or Pooper Scooper. LOL
My parents have a brown cocker-poodle mix named Chocolate Chip (Chip for short) and a cockapoo/shitzu mix named Dale.

Niki Jolene said...

Since my son is so original we always let him pick. Hence...

We have a Jack Russell terrier named Jack. But when my son gts mad at him he calls him by his full name, Jack Russell. Hehehe...

And we have a Bichon named Buddy. Because this dog was gonna be his new buddy.

Yep, genius.

And we just got 2 new beta fish named Spongebob and Patrick. Well, they do not live in a pineapple under the sea but the do live in the sea, er, um, fish bowl full of water.

And lastly we have 2 bunnies. One is named Alice after the movie Alice in Wonderland and the other is Elizabeth, named after my son's preschool crush.

:)

Heather said...

so, I'm reading this a little late:

We have a mutt named Bon Ami.

After the cleaning supply.

And out of a Don Knotts movie (The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.) Repeatedly throughout the movie, it is mentioned that they couldn't get blood stains out of organ keys "And they even used Bon Ami."

Somehow, in our crazy world, it seemed appropriate for a dog.