The Dog With No Name

Shhhhh.

You hear that.

Nothing.

The sound of silence.

And doesn’t it sound great.

It's almost midnight and the whining just stopped.

Seconds ago.

As did the yelping.

And the barking.

But I’m sure it will be back.

Before I am done writing.

Just a few short hours ago the in-laws arrived.

And with them came a package of two.

Two from the litter of 13.

Two fuzzy, hairy, adorable purebred German Shepherds.

One for us.

One for my sister-in-law.


Eight weeks old.


It's like having a newborn all over again.


Except this newborn has four legs.


Our babies had a total of six.

I must admit I’ve been looking forward to this day from the moment I found out the momma was knocked up.

I love dogs.

I always have.

This whole “man’s best friend” thing.

It’s really true.

And now that I spend most of my life sitting at home.

Alone.

It’s great to have company.

We’ve had dog #1 since she was a pup.

Nearly five years ago.

Her name is Sport.

My son named her.

He always wanted a brother.

In fact, we had Sport’s sister too.

For about a week.

But we quickly learned that one was enough.

At that point.

So we packed Lucy up and sent her to a new house.

A good house.

But not our house.

To this day that makes me sad.

I realize that two dogs are ten times the work of just one.

But I believe in power by numbers.

And I wish we would’ve kept Lucy.

That’s probably part of the my wife’s motivation for getting a new dog.

We tried a couple of times before to add a playmate to the stable.

But it never worked out.

There was Lucy.

Then Cody.

Then Ryker.

Then Charlie.

And Zeppo.

Ok, not Zeppo.

But all the others each got their 15 seconds of fame.

And all of them disappeared.

For a variety of reasons.

Ryker was actually with us for a full month.

But he hopped one too many fences.

Great dog, wrong dog, wrong place.

Fortunately he found a new home very quickly.

And lived happily ever after.

None of the others were able to make our cut either.

Until now.

This time it’s going to work.

I just know it.

The clock started ticking when these pups were hatched in the middle of February.

And after two months of staring at the pictures on my email.

He is finally home.

He.

Well, he doesn’t have a name yet.

But it’s not due to a lack of trying.

Stone.  Buster.  Buddy.  Slate.  Lucky.  Hammer.

We have considered them all.

But none of them has stuck.

I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a German name for our German Shepherd.

I’m not sure my dad would’ve thought that was such a good idea.

He was true old school.

He wouldn’t even sit in a Volkswagen.

Or Mercedes Benz.

“Nazi car,” he used to say.

So the idea of his one and only son.

His Jewish son.

Having a German dog.

With a German name.

Oy vey.

Then again, he wasn’t crazy about me having a Korean wife.

At first.

Now considering this German dog comes from my Korean in-laws, I’m thinking it is ok.

My father in law told me that he has a friend who is a dog trainer in the old country.

His old country.

And his friend says German Shepherds are the smartest dogs out there.

The internet almost agrees.

According to animalplanet.com, the German Shepherd is the third smartest dog.

Behind the Poodle (#2) and Border Collie (#1).

Considering there are more than 300 breeds of dogs, the bronze medal is not so bad.

But it doesn’t matter how smart this dog is.

If he doesn’t have a name, he’ll never fetch.

So my son and I sat at the computer a few days ago.

And we searched the list of “most popular dog names”.

When two of those names were the same names as two of my kids, it was time to try a new plan.

Enter Google Translate.

We typed a series of english words into the box, looking for the German equivalent. 

And we tried a bunch.

Dog... Hund.

Barker... Marktschreier

Buster... Buster.

We kept searching and suche-ing.

But at the end of the day, we had nichts.

Nothing.

Except for a new dog.

A fuzzy, hairy, adorable, purebred little dog.

And that's something to celebrate.

In any language.






For the story behind the story of the pups, check out this blog:
The Barker's Dozen