Pets, Names and Lessons Learned

Our pets, in the American culture, are so integrated into our family units that if we look close enough we can learn a lot from them. Since I am a dog and bunny parent I can only write from that which I know......forgive me cat owners,and other important animal owners for not including those in my thoughts but please feel free to express your opinion and thoughts in the comment section!!

We name our pets as we do our children....some go as far as to use middle names. The names may be silly, appropriate to behaviors they display, related to color, breed, genealogy, or in remembrance of something very close to our hearts. Imagine naming our children based on first attributes of behavior....we may have screamer, wailer, pisser, squeaky, squealer, etc... Silly or not, names, and I mean all names have meaning. If this was not true we wouldn't take the time to make sure we had just the right one!

My first dog as a child came with a name, "cocoa" although it fit his color I never felt that connection like I do when we have had the opportunity to name our pets. Our second dog, Sandy, Mom named because she didn't like my name of cinnamon! Mom said "I am not yelling that long name down the road when she takes off, keep it simple"!  I know that dog got revenge because she would look at my mom, laugh and take off knowing she was the only one home. This dog did this so often I use to get home and all Mom would have to do is just open the front door and I would get back in my car, go up the road and call for her; she would jump right in the car for me and sit there with a proud expression saying see I will teach her to rename me!!

You see, Sandy was my baby! I took care of her since she was born at a neighbors home. They went to Africa and my brother and I took care of their pets while they were gone. In that two weeks I bonded with my Cinnamon (Sandy) pup....I use to carry her home and have Mom pet and hold her so she would fall in love and let me keep her; my plan worked! It broke my heart to leave her when I got married but she made my wedding day so special. She didn't like men, if you were not her family and you were a man standing in our home you were basically bait!! But, on my wedding day the photographer was taking family shots etc...and Sandy was locked in my bedroom for fear she would surely attack him.  At the end of the shoot I asked to please let her out because I needed pics with her, she was my family as any other member! Sandy strutted out, walked past the photographer right to me and sat down by my side as if to say "my turn, I am ready"! That dog, who was very protective and made sure every male knew that, sat, posed, and I swear she smiled knowing how very special that day was to me.

What I learned from that day was dogs are smarter then we give them credit for and if  we humans try hard enough we can put our fears, prejudices, beliefs and protectiveness aside to make any type of interaction with each other in any given situation much easier and certainly less awkward for all involved. If more people could actually do this and be an example for others the future certainly could look brighter with less prejudice, racism, and fighting bringing forth more tolerance, understanding, empathy and peace in this world!!! Woof woof woof