What's in a name: an introduction

There are many names I call my dog. There is her name, Topaz. Her mothers name was Pearl and I wanted to name her after a gem as well. I choose Topaz because she was a reddish brown with white markings that  made me think of a golden-brown topaz. Little did I know that the orange topaz is considered a symbol of friendship.

Then, there are the many things family, friends and I endearingly call her that her personality determined. Her first nickname was Spazzy. I am not sure which of my family members dubbed her this. She earned this one by being an extremely hyper, curious dog. If she was loose in the house she spent the entire time running through the house exploring everything. She had to see what had changed, what new smells had developed while she was in her kennel; had to know what everyone was doing in every room at all times. Considering that this meant she felt she needed to know what nine people, two other dogs, and two cats were doing you can see how this lead to the name Spazzy. As time progressed Spazzy was derived to Spazoid as well at times. I had a veterinarian who called her his ADD baby, for similar reasons as to how she earned the nickname Spazzy. Anytime we went to his office she inspected everything- the bags of dog food, the fish tank, the bench, the examination room, any counters, drawers, desks, etc. that she came across. I simply tell her that I am convinced that she is part cat since is so curious about absolutely everything.

My first nickname for her was Houdini because she has accomplished getting herself out of many things. When she was a puppy she was the first to figure out how to get out of the puppy kennel. We had used spare pieces of wood between a dresser and a couch to make a fence with tarp to protect the floor in case they had accidents while throughout the night. She would climb up on the couch, walk down to the arm, then jump down managing to be on the other side of the "fence" and free to do what she wanted. The dog kennel took her longer to figure out- I believe she was about 5 or 6 months old when she realized that if she kicked the door just right that she could slid the bars out and slip out. I tried carabiner clips on the kennel door, preventing her from getting the door open after she slipped the bars. She countered this by pushing the kennel open where the sides connect. I tried zipties- she ate those off, this led to using carabiner clips on all the edges where one would typically put zipties. That led to the end of escaping from her kennel. Of course, there are still the numerous chains she made it off of, the numerous dog lots that she made it out of, and the front screen door that she opens with her nose if we forget and leave the solid door open.

Sometimes, I simply poke fun at her- telling her she is part goat, part cat and part dog packaged in the body of a pitbull. The cat for the curiosity explained in this post, the dog obviously for all the dog characteristics that she has and the goat because she will eat nearly anything (but that is for another post another day).

The name clearly fits her with her gift of friendship that her name will forever symbolize and her uniqueness since no two gemstones are the exact same.