Commentary by Donna Monday
I’ve confessed again and again that names fascinate me. Even names of pets are fun. Here are a few I encountered on a sunny day in the Village.
Janet Cohen was talking with her neighbor, Martha Ogborn, on Cedar Street when I stopped to inquire about Janet’s dog. The happy little Papillon is named Flora.
Janet, who has a distinct British accent, named the dog after Flora McDonald, who, according to Janet, is “a Scottish clan leader – a woman leader.”
Janet wanted to name her Flora from the get-go, but her husband and grandsons kept thinking there was a better name. “Then,” she reports, “we were on our way to the breeder and saw a huge billboard with only the word – FLORA – with an arrow pointing left. That was it.” She knew she had the right name.
So is Flora a strong female?
“She’s feisty after the mailman,” says Janet. “She goes from window to window woofing after him every day.”
Sophie is the black dog of Black Dog Books on Main Street. She is the second black lab to take up residence there. The first, named Chloe, died three years ago. There was no question as to whether owner Tania Roudebush would get another lab. The questions were only, “How soon and what would the dog be named?”
It didn’t take long until little puppy Sophie appeared. As to why Tania named her Sophie, the answer is simple. Tom Casalini, of Casalini Portraits, was browsing in Black Dog Books, when he mentioned that Sophie is the name of his grandmother in Italy, his sister, and his daughter. The name spans over 125 years in his family.
“I just heard the name and loved it,” says Tania. So she felt it was the right name.
In Raintree subdivision I found a little brown puppy chasing a tennis ball. She was such a happy creature I had to ask her people about her. Her people are the Dutton family, John and Greta and daughters Kate, 8, and Abby, 6.
The puppy is Bella. The Dutton family lived out of the country for nine months and John and Greta decided that they would get the girls a puppy upon returning a year ago. They let the kids name the puppy.
About the naming decision, Abby says, “I just liked the name.”
Kate agrees. “I kind of just liked the name,” she says, adding that she likes Bella “when she’s calm. I don’t like it when she tries to bite my fingers.”
Alan Winters, owner of Control Tech, was at the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce when I ran into him. “Stop by the office,” he said. “We have a dog named Harry.”
“Why Harry?” I asked.
“Because when we got him he was hairy,” said Alan.
Then he laughed. “We aren’t real creative,” he said. “I call my son ‘Boy’ and my daughter ‘Girl.’” He laughed again. “Just kidding,” he added.
A stop by the Control Tech office found 16½-year-old Harry right at home. He has the whole staff trained. He just goes to anyone in the office and looks up with pleading eyes. That person takes him outside and then gives him a treat when returning to the office.
Jane, Alan’s wife, says Harry answers to “Harry, Hairball, or Harrison.” She adds that Harry gets to live the good life in his old age. “We had another dog named C.J.” she says. “He wasn’t calm and couldn’t be at the office; so they were both caged.”
“Harry got penalized because of C.J.,” she says.
But that all changed when C.J. died. Now Harry “gets to live his life,” says Jane. “That’s why I think he’s still alive.”
