Pet names

Have you ever seen the "buddies" movies? You know Snow Buddies, and Space Buddies, and now Santa Buddies? Well, I have been in the room/car when they were playing on more than one occasion, but I have never really watched them from start to finish. That is my disclaimer if I really screw up any details in this post, K?


Last Christmas, both kids asked Santa for Snow Buddies, and they got it. They had seen the commercial for years, and Jessa even has a Husky stuffed dog who is named "Snow Buddy." They enjoyed the movie pretty much and later, for another occasion, they got Space Buddies. The premise is that there are these 5 adorable Golden Retriever puppies who are thrown into wacky situations. You know, ending up in Alaska to fulfill some kid's wish about having a sled dog team or accidentally getting launched into space and meeting up with a Russian space dog named "Sputnik." Oh, and the dogs talk. I mean, to each other, the people cannot hear them. And the names are all special, besides Sputnik (who speaks with an adorable Russian accent), the husky is named "Shasta." Let's not forget the buddies, they are "Budha," Rosebud," "Budderball," "B-Dawg," and "Mudbud." (OH MY GOSH! OK, so I have heard their names 1, 000 times, but only now as I looked on the DVD cover at the names to make sure I had them right did I realize that they all have something like "bud" in the name. I am slow.) So you with me? Charming, silly movies just right for the kiddos.


Well, Bay went out of town the other week. Actually David was out of town, too, so we were totally man-less for a few days. When Bay leaves, we get to keep Miss Abby at our house. The kids LOVE this. Stewart does not. I mean with 3 dogs, they are practically a pack.

Well, one morning while Abby was here and Jessa was at school, Spencer and I were in the kitchen. I realized that I had not fed the dogs their breakfast (they get dry food in the morning). So I said to my best helper boy Spencer, we need to get those dogs in here for their breakfast. And my clever boy said, "Want to know their names?" And I was puzzled because I thought I knew them already. But I played along, "OK, son, what are their names?" Well, the little brown girl dog, her name is Ash-uh-ley (that is how he pronounces Ashley)." And the white dogs are named "Snowball and Tastebud." I thought I would cry I was giggling so hard. TASTEBUD? Really? I can only assume that is a shout out to Rosebud from the classic Buddies films.

So besides the names being pretty original and silly, we have the added problem that the dogs do not know that they have new names. Almost every day, we have to call the kids different names. They change their names all the time. (For the record: Jessa is usually Shelby Marx, Shelby Macurdigascar or Chloe and Spencer is either Toby or Stewart) But that concept is somewhat hard to explain to 3 dogs who know their names very well. Plus, dogs are not huge into the whole play pretend, imagination thing, you know?

So I start to fix 3 bowls of dry food for 3 sweet terriers. And I without thinking, I tell Spencer to call Abby, Dunken, and Max. Spencer gets upset with me and scolds me because those are not the names of our dogs. So he calls out, "Ash-uh-ley, Snowball, Tastebud! Breakfast!" And not surprisingly, nothing happens. No hungry dogs. No collars jingling. Nothing. Crickets. So he says again, louder, "Ash-uh-ley!!! Snowball!!! Tastebud!!!" Still nothing. So I try to help by saying, "Abby, Ashely, Max, Snowball, Dunken, Tastebud!" He gives me a look like I am the dumbest woman ever. "MO-UHM! Their names are Ash-uh-ley, Snowball, and Tastebud." (picture a look that is usually reserved for 13 year old girls on his face as he says this).

Eventually, he lost interest, and I was able to get the confused and very hungry dogs to eat their breakfast.

Tastebud?!