What’s in a Name?

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When I was little, I was an only child.  I was often bored and lonely despite my ever present parents. I LONGED for a puppy.  As a parent now, I realize that I of course knew nothing of the responsibility of the dog.  But I thought it would be great to have someone/thing to play with. I begged for a dog and just before my fifth birthday my parents took me to a shelter in search of a puppy.  There we found the ugliest dog I have literally ever seen.  This dog was every color under the sun and had both long and short hair but in random spots.  But that ugly dog had an adorable litter of puppies.  Many of them were already spoken for but I fell in love with the all white, runt of the litter.  A sweet little female whom the shelter employees tried to steer me away from afraid that because they were still so new that she might not even make it.  But I assured them that SHE was the one that I wanted.  So my parents filled out paperwork and we had to wait a few weeks to go back and bring her home.  When we were able to bring her home she was still small enough to fit in the palms of my hands.  Mind you I was 5!  She was little.  But she was loved!  By a 5 year old!  Who also happened to be given full freedom to name her.  And unfortunately for her, I knew exactly what to name her.  You see for some strange reason, at five years old I was also in love with the show Hart to Hart.  This series was about about a wealthy couple who basically liked to play detective.  Sort of like a Castle of the 80s, but not quite so graphic.  Anyway, the couple on this show had an adorable dog (who by the way looked nothing like MY dog) whom they'd named "Freeway" because they'd found him on the side of...can you guess?  Yes, that's right, the freeway.  So my heart was set on naming my dog Freeway.  I don't recall my parents trying to convince me otherwise.  I'm not sure if that's because I was so set on it, or if they really didn't think it was that bad.  But Freeway grew into a terrific dog who never really got into any trouble.  She lived just over 15 years, and stayed with my parents as I went off to college and then moved out into my own place.  But in the mean time, especially in my early teen years, I often wondered, why the heck they'd let me name her Freeway.  People would regularly look at me sideways when I told them her name.  Sometimes they'd assume we too had found her on the freeway, or they'd seem to assume we were just a little off.  But if they held still long enough I'd go into my long rambling story about how she got her name...sort of like this post! 

What are your pets' names? Have you ever had an oddly named pet?


Today, I am talking about my beloved animal as a part of the “What’s in a Name?” Campaign hosted by dog bark collar.