thinking of a name

Once Arabella and Flora were aware that we were planning to get a dog, they wanted to think of a name. Flora can think up a name in an instant. One example of Flora's naming abilities is her name for a plastic horse she owns. It is called 'Double Eck Doo'. I have absolutely no idea where that came from.

The conversation on dog names went like this;
Flora - Can we call the dog Coco?
Me - We are not having a dog called Coco.
Flora - Can we call it Loco?
Me - There's only one thing that is loco round here and it's not a dog.
Flora - Can we call it Moco?
Me - No.
Flora - Can we call it Oh-oh?
Me - No names with Oh-oh in them.

A few days later while we were eating pizza in a cafe the name Zephyr popped into my head which I thought was good for a dog which runs like the wind and Calum agreed. When we got home I checked my 'Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art' which is one of my favourite books. When I looked up Zephyr it said, 'See Flora.' I read the entry for Flora and it said that Zephyr had chased Chloris, and once he caught her flowers spilled from her lips and she was tranformed into Flora. 'Primavera' by Botticelli depicts this moment. Thats great, I like a good classical allusion, so we will call the dog Zerphyr. I tried to tell Calum but he was watching Manchester United play in the European Championship so he didn't want to listen - fair enough.

I have begun to tell people that we are going to get a dog and they always ask which breed. When I say whippet there is a deafening silence. Elise said that she didn't think they were much fun with kids, based on Brendan's ex-racing greyhound showing no interest in playing with their boys. Ushi mustered up the most positive remark by saying, 'My Uncle Lucky has always had whippets.' A few days later she told me that she had never liked Uncle Lucky's whippets very much. I'm sticking to my guns, I'm sure this whippet is going to be adorable and be plenty of fun for the girls and Calum will be very happy with a dog which wants to cuddle into him.

The dog is due to be born on 1 June which is only 10 days away.