Pet Nicknames

The idea for this post occurred to me when I was reading an article recently about the most popular names for dogs. I thought back about all the dogs we've had over the years. Of the 100 names listed only one of our pet’s names could be found and she came with that name, Maggie. Her nickname, however, was Maggie-yi-yi, and when you said it she would howl, I don’t know who discovered this but I do know my husband is the nickname giver, just like his father before him. We had a German Shepard named Cesar a.k.a. Sneeze Bag and a rescued collie named Darius who became known in our family as Big D or Big and Hairy.

My husband’s father, Old Papa, had a dog named Blackie, but nicknamed him Mr. Smell Pretty for his habit of passing doggie gas, especially when riding in the car with his nose out the window. Think air in through the nose and out through…well, never mind. He also had a miniature dachshund he lovingly nicknamed Low Down, for the most obvious of reasons. Old Papa included pet names as nicknames (literally names of dogs he’d had in the past) for his own children too, my husband included. His “pet” names for my husband and his brother were Teddyhanks and Pythagoras.

Over the years, we've given our children and grandchildren nicknames (Starfish for one-you know who you are), but not the names or nicknames of past pets. And we did have one dog that required no nickname at all. Her name was just Bug, and she will always be remembered as my husband’s favorite child.