Love Me, Love My Dog(gie)

I suddenly remembered a line I had read somewhere: "To the prosaic, everything is prosaic; but to the truly enlightened, everything is profound." It occurred to me that if an American cleric bought a black dog and named it Blackie, people might suspect him of having an impoverished imagination. But when a Zen monk names a white dog White [Shiro], it is likely to be perceived as a manifestation of the subtle art of seeing things as they appear, and appreciating them for what they are.



from A Zen Romance, p. 26
Deborah Boehm, 1996.

Recently, the sister has been grousing about people who, when they find out our dog's named Doggie, make snide remarks like "that's really creative".

The same with the girls at the play center. Every time one of them mentions Doggie, they make sure to throw in Doggie's name with an inflection that tends towards mocking ("... your dog, Doggie ...").

Well, Up. Theirs.

I think Doggie is a fine name - at least it's preferably to what Julien called her (Snowy - can you imagine? - and she isn't even white!) and what the boys suggested (Bitchy).

Of course, Doggie isn't without its snags. For example, last night in the park, a petite woman with a pretty smile walking two (what looked like) Bichon Frises or Malte-Poos called out as Doggie and I neared her, "Hello Doggie!" and I thought she'd said, "Hello doggie!"

And I was wondering about the sort of grown woman (without a young child) would call an animal with its dimunitive suffix when her two pooches came over to sniff Doggie out, and she said, "They've met. I live next door to your uncle."

Then did I realize she'd said "Doggie", not doggie.

(But my initial impression of her was validated when we started chatting and she kept saying, "She's so pretty - she has such a girl face! Some dogs you can't tell, but your Doggie has such a girl face - like my Bebe has such a boyface." I politely nodded, but studied her Bebe. Honestly, he looked like he just had a dog face of indeterminate gender to me.)

Anyway, I don't see the deal with calling a dog Doggie - it suits her, with her girl face and all.



And, unlike me and my name, she's Doggie by name and a doggie by nature.