Naming Levi and Me

Since I arrived at the Rainbow Bridge, I've met a lot of happy, healthy dogs and, let me tell you, the variety of names I've run across is mind-boggling. There's Koobus III, Samantha, Lacylulu, puppy Bijou, Old Goofy, Rose and Sneakers just to name a few of my new friends up here. Someone at 'Dogs With Blogs' should start a topic about how they named their furry children.

When I got my name, Cooper, I was named after a sign along the expressway but that's only half the story. My folks had been swapping suggestions back and forth for over a week. On the day they finally found one that suited me they were doing that back and forth name game while we were all in the pickup truck---me on Mom's lap---and they had resorted to reading street signs and billboards. My humans were only half serious and laughing a lot. Let's face it, they were being down right silly.

One name Dad suggested was Myrtle. I hated that old lady name and I let him know it with a scowl. Dad said I looked at him with major disgust in my eyes, like the name hurt my pride. And it did. I wasn't a girl and I wasn't old back then, can you blame me? Not long after that he suggested "Cooper" and that sounded movie star cool so I wiggled my approval from head to toe. Thus my humans always told people that I picked out my own name.

Levi wasn't so lucky. My dad has a severe language disorder since his stroke so my humans needed to find a name that Dad could say. He doesn't have many words in his vocabulary. So Mom suggested that a good boy's name would be 'Levi' because Dad says that word every time he sees a pair of Levi jeans on someone when they're out and about. Dad liked the name right off and replied, "Father." It took a few minutes for Mom to figure out that Dad's father's middle name was Levi and he was pleased to have the family name passed down. It's hard to figure out what kind of personality puppy Levi is going to have when he's finished making his up but some how the name will probably suit him. He's a sturdy sort of pup, laid back and causal who got his name before he was even adopted.

Mom's other four-legged kids up here with me---Jason and Sarah---have the names of the human kids she was never able to have, so she gave her favorite names to her first two poodles. Speaking of

Jason, I wish I could let Mom know that he's forgiven her for corn rowing the hair on his ears that one time when she got bored. He says letting him get photographed with the Playboy Bunny more than made up for it. That was Dad's idea, but Mom wasn't to sure it was a good idea. Jason had been out in the motor home that night and Dad talked the photographer and bunny into letting him bring Jason into the Playboy Club for a photo shoot.

I'm signing off now to go wander over to Couch Theater. It's a great place near the Rainbow Bridge that's sort of like the old drive-in theaters for humans only instead of cars lined up in rows we have couches where we can lounge to our heart's content. We busy angel dogs love our naps once in a while, you know. ©

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