Friday, September 23, 2011

The Puppy's Name Is....

When Hudson came into my life there was never any doubt his name would be an homage to the girl who blessed me with Malcolm. Great gifts should be honored thus.
By that time she was living in Manhattan and I didn’t have to scan my memory of the city long before I reached its west river. And while only five years has past, it feels like eons and I wasn’t really certain how I wanted to go about naming our new BFF (Baby Fuzzybutt Four).

Given the giant pawprints before him I decided to travel with him for a stretch and get to know the lil fell’r first.

As everyone who has met him can attest to, he is absolutely fearless. Alone in Patty and Pascal’s Cincinnati backyard with five Bernese Mountain dogs piling on top of him, he never cowered, never whined and indeed set about to attack each one systematically. And of the dozen or so laps he’s ridden in on our daisy chain to Maine, he slept sweetly and soundly.

Okay. So far, he’s adventurous, fearless, and travels well but we had lots of really cool names put up on facebook that could apply and nothing was really standing out.

Some of the ones suggested that appealed to me were Miles, Rio, Montana, Lash (I came up with that one), Huck, Jackson, Aspen, Link, Austin, Bond, Dallas, Hume, Finn, Tucker, Drake, and Kelvin among others… And yet…

I felt no connection to those names. He could be any one of them.

The easy obvious choice was Miles. I liked it as it had a southern, bluesy feel and from a marketing perspective it’s pure genius. But I’m not a man given to gimmicks so I returned to the tradition I started with Malcolm’s successor, Hudson, and that was no easy thing.

The woman who brought Murphy into my life was also one of the unfortunate few who felt I was making him suffer in his last months so I regrettably cut ties with her after a twenty something year friendship.

But that doesn’t mean the tradition shouldn’t carry on…

So uncork your champagne, do a little jig, the national crisis is over… I christen him ‘Indiana’ after the fearless, albeit fictitious, rakishly handsome adventurer who also shares the same last name with said woman.

Cheers to everyone for your creative and at times kooky suggestions and to Ms. Jones for Murphy.

Keep the Faith and Puppy Up!

Hudson, Indy, & Luke

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome Indiana! Hope the little guy stays healthy for a million years

Who Is Olive? said...

One of my very best canine buddies is Indiana Jones, Jr.!

Welcome Indy!

High paws! :)

Anonymous said...

Great name, love it! Congratulations, Indy - may you have many wonderful adventures.

Unknown said...

Job well done. May Ya'll be blessed with many happy miles and smiles!

Solitude.Peace said...

When it was posted that you were working on finding a name for BFF, I thought of that saying 'What's in a name?' I mean really - how hard can it be to name him and then I realized I was looking at it all wrong. It is always nice to read your perspective on life, basically anything at all. I should have known that you wouldn't just name him any name - it isn't like you just walked a block. You put thought into every single thing you do and because of that it has served you well.

I like the name Indiana and I believe he too will serve you well.

Anonymous said...

Indy!!! Love it!!! Urich also gives a big Pyr Paw up. He'd give a thumbs up, but well.... :)

Welcome Indy!

From fellow fuzzy-butt Urich and his humans, Kirsten and Raistlin

Teresa Cash said...

Hooray! It's perfect!!

Anonymous said...

I love it and he fits the part of all but he is a real cutie or should I say handsome young man, Indy is fantastic and congrats on the decision as we all knew you would you picked well..

Kirk Lohse said...

Luke,

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! Fabulous name!

Hope to meet "Dr. Jones" in "pawson" someday soon.

Best
K

cj said...

I lost my girl Pyr Wynnie to bone cancer in 2009. She is in my thoughts every day. I have two newfs now but will one day get another Pyr. Her loss tore all of us apart but seeing baby Indiana makes e want another. They are the best.