What's in a Name?

This is Jet and I the day he 'chose me' to be his person! January 2007

This is Frax and I out for my birthday the year after he came home. He 'chose' me as ' his person' as well in November 2011. The picture above was March 2012.

I thought you might enjoy seeing a side by side picture of my helpers in their fur suits! You can easily tell the difference in the photos I post: Jet was 8" shorter, had a more feathery coat, and a darling #1 on his nose! Frax is big and tall, and his eyebrows are constantly in motion! He also has amazingly long ears....seven inches long!

So, how do the folks at Canine Assistants chose names for their puppies? They try very hard not to repeat a name. They first decide on a 'theme' for the litter. Jet's theme was the "Rocker Litter" after rock and roll icons. He was named for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

During the time that PBS was filming a special on Canine Assistants (you can get it from PBS, it's a wonderful documentary), Frax's litter was born. Danny Moder was the director of the filming, and had been so nice to the Canine Assistant's family, they gave him the honor of picking a 'theme' for the litter, and names. They picked the "Surfer" litter, since they were from California! It came down to one more name, and Mr. Moder was stumped about what to name the biggest puppy...He was at dinner with his wife, Julia Roberts, and their three year old son when they were discussing how difficult it was to come up with a unique name. Their little boy begged and pleaded to be allowed to name that last puppy. They relented, and he named the puppy 'Frax'. No-one knows to this day

where that came from, but there definitely are no service dogs with the same name! It fits him perfectly!

There was just one little wrinkle...my 92 year old mom is rather deaf, and her name is Maxine..."Max" for short. So it took her some time to understand when I was speaking to Frax, and not Max!

In the news recently, researchers for Petplan pet insurance crunched numbers to discover which names of dogs were associated with greater insurance claims. They researched over a half-million claims! It was facinating.

Top accident-prone names for dogs are: Stella, Tucker, Dakota, Emma, Jake, Cooper, Riley, Teddy, Winston and Gracie!

Top under the weather names for dogs are:

Henry, Scout, Kona, Gus, Tucker, Riley, Gracie, Winston and Rocco.

Rather odd, don't you think?

Later...

LV, FX & JT

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#petinsurance #strangenames