Naming Dixie

DIXIE AND ME

I haven't talked much about Dixie's name, so I'll do it here.

We'd just lost Lady on Sept. 17, 2016, and we went to the Forsyth Humane Society 10 days later. The one dog that caught my eye was a three-legged beagle then called Lacey.

Lacey was a perfectly good name, but it was too close to Lady. So it had to change.

My wife Holly wanted to call her Daisy. I had a friend at the dog park (John) who had a small dog named Daisy. I knew a second Daisy at the dog park, so I didn't want my dog being named Daisy.

Our former neighbor, Mrs. Tuttle, used to have a sweet basset hound named Dixie, so I always said I'd name my female basset hound Dixie. We don't have a basset hound, but a beagle is pretty close.

So I chose Dixie.

Dixie quickly got a nickname. I called her Dixie Doodle, and that morphed into Doodle Bug. Then I rhymed with Not a Poodle, or a Pug.

I'm glad I named her Dixie. It fits, and it reminds me of the sweet, bellowing basset hound that lived next door.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

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• What I do when I'm editing

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