So what’s in a name any howllll?
HodgePodge by Charlie Hodge
Don’t get too uppity about the whole thing, Daisy. You only made it onto one list – while I made it on two – so I think I win (though I am not so sure it’s something I should take any great pride or satisfaction in).
I suppose finishing number four out of 10 on the one list may be considered better than my sixth and eight place wins on the two – depending on what kind of pack you run with.
Either way being a human and possessing the same name as that picked by pet owners for their animal pals is not overly thrilling. It’s just one more reason why I roll my eyeballs with carrying the identity of Charlie.
How many people do you know who own a cat or dog (or horse, cow, bunny, gerbil, fish, lizard…) and tag it with Charlie?
Of course the first explanation pet owners say for why the name was chosen was, “because the little puppy or kitten was ‘so cute’ we had to give it a cute name’.” Arghhh.
Perhaps the only thing male humans with the name Charlie hate more than their name being picked for pets is that embarrassing ‘cute’ justification. It makes all Charlie’s around the world cringe.
We hate being ‘cute’.
Charlies want to be ‘hot’, ‘adorable’, ‘macho’, ‘cool’, ‘a babe’ … anything but cute.
In high school, heck even in elementary school playground the mating dance was on. Too stupid or shy to know better we sought the desired attention of the girls by dumb stunts like chasing the girls around the playground, or on our bicycles. Attempting conversation was years away still.
Junior high was reserved for showing our macho or athletic side. If you weren’t a jock jerk you likely gravitated to the parking lot hot car attraction. There were actually only a few hot cars and hot guys that owned them, but their buddies hung out for the action and the girls followed their boy friends so…
Non jocks like me thankfully had the artist flair to attempt. We simply grew our hair long, found a grassy part of the park and found an instrument or writing/artist pad and played hippy. Regardless I was still a Charlie, and it was a name I had to live to work with.
But I’m not alone in the labeling, which is where this column all began.
My good friend and neighbour Daisy wandered through the gate this morning, begging for carrots, cookies and a pet which I happy gave. In reward I received several licks and slurps on the hand and a dozen sound thumps on the leg from her tail. I told her how cute she was and she returned the compliment. (Coming from an animal such endearing terms are acceptable).
My always enjoyable visit with Daisy was once again cut too short by her other human pal (and world’s best neighbour) Phil who interrupted me from spoiling her so they could go for a drive.
At that point I returned to my reading of Castanet which had supplied the list of animal names inspiring this column. It listed the top 10 cat names and top 10 dog. Here they are.
Top 10 for dogs
- Luna
- Milo
- Bella
- Daisy
- Teddy
- Charlie
- Coco
- Cooper
- Max
- Bailey
Top 10 for cats
- Luna
- Leo
- Milo
- Simba
- Oreo
- Loki
- Mochi
- Charlie
- Bella
- Max
Ironically my favourite dog was Teddy who died just a few years back.
I also have three friends named Max, all humans.
Over the years I have known at least two dozen close friends with dogs or cats named Charlie, and one boa, an eagle and three other birds, a pig (thanks Andy), two horses and a wolf.
I dare someone to call the boa or the wolf ‘cute’.
