Pets of many names

Meet Roundie. I found her picture when I was going through pictures I had stored on my cell phone. I had taken her picture one day when she was in the clinic for an exam. Actually Roundie's name is really Calico. I don't know who actually started calling her Roundie first, but it fits because she has the cutest, most perfect round kitty face. So now at the clinic at least, her name is Roundie. It took us a little while to fess up with Roundie's, uh Calico's owner that we all called her cat a different name, but now I think we are all on the same page. Ok, maybe the staff and I are a little nutty when we come to having fun with the patients, but that's what happens when you love what you do.

But all this got me to thinking about how all my own pets have several names and I am not talking about unprintable names that you might blurt out when you come down the stairs in the morning and step in a pile of vomit left on the living room carpet (not that that has happened to me recently or anything). I am referring to names I use to speak to my pets on a daily basis. I know I'm not the only one because I talk about this all the time with staff and clients, and we all do it.

This is my Brittany Molly. Also known as Stumpy. She got that name one day when I was talking to my husband about how she was wiggling her tail. He then reminded me that she didn't have a tail, she has a "stump". Well he's sort of right and sort of wrong, she does have a part of a tail since the rest was docked when she was a puppy. But ever since that conversation, we have called her Stumpy. I must have said enough to her because she used to come when I used either Molly or Stumpy to call her, but now she is old and going deaf so neither works very well. I also used to be able to get her very excited when I called her "Hot Tamale Molly". I think sounding like I was saying her name twice made her really start wiggling her tail, uh stump.


Here is Gabby, my beagle, caught in mid-woo. She has the most delicate little beagle bark when she wants attention. Much different than her BahWOOOOOOOOOOO that comes out of her mouth when she is trailing a rabbit. Her "look at me" bark is very feminine, almost always occurs in twos and sounds like "woo woo". So now her name is Gabby Woo Woo, or just Woo, or sometimes Dog of Woo. Every once in awhile I will call her Gabby Noodle. I think I just got that because Noodle and Woo Woo sound similar.

The list goes on. Dr. Curie's Jack Russell Terrier is known as "Honey", but if you look at the computer medical records, her name is "Ella". Country Doctor Staff pets are the same. Christine's old beagle that recently passed away was named Bwaster, but was called Boy Boy too. Rebekah, our high school mentor student, has a horse name Sunny, but she calls him My Peanut. For Katelyn, her cat Minksy is known as Minksy Doodle Butt or Oodles of Doodles. Ashley's mixed breed dog Bogg is also known as Bogg the Coondog. Ashley says Bogg gets so happy when she calls him that.

So now you know. If you are already a pet owner, then you understand. If you do not own a pet, then at least when your pet owning friends call their dog or cat by multiple names, you will know that it is not because they can't remember their pet's name. Well, at least in most instances.