Happy Sophie & Shamrock Saturday!

Quickly…

Do you know the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald?

Are you familiar with Gordon Lightfoot’s Song about the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald? If not, you can listen here with lyrics.

In the song, they mention Lake Gitche Gumee, which is the Native American name {or a version thereof} for Lake Superior.

Rob has always loved this song and put it on a few of my Mix Tapes CDs he made for me to listen while driving during my Wine Tasting Consultant days. In our early days of dating, we even spent a cold November weekend on Lake Superior at Bluefin Bay when he found a great “Gales of November” deal that allowed us to bring our dogs. A friend of mine suggested that he thought Rob might propose that weekend. {He didn’t. I had to wait a few years later. Ha!} 

It was bitterly cold that weekend. I remember that there wasn’t much to do because of it. Sure, snowshoeing would have been nice, but not the way that wind was whipping! Rob spent some time out by the water in the dark and windy cold weather one night while I sat inside warming up by the fire with a glass of wine.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a haunting melody that sticks with you. When Rob came in and poor Benny Bear was wet and shivering with icicles hanging from his fur, I’m sure they got a truer sense of how miserable it may have been like for the crew on that fateful night.

Side Note: Great Lakes Brewing Company out of Cleveland makes an excellent Edmund Fitgerald Porter!

So why am I telling you all of this on Sophie and Shamrock Saturday?

Because the pooches have a visitor this weekend!

Meet Gidget!   

 

So what’s the connection?

My friend Stacy often calls her Gidgie. I am not sure why, but out of the blue one day, I started calling her Gidgie Gumee. I call her this lovingly, of course!

Little Gidgie Gumee spent Christmas with my family in Green Bay one year. She became fast friends with everyone, but especially my dad. 

What’s a little sad is that after two years of visiting my parents in Green Bay, Shamrock still shies away from my dad, who has done absolutely nothing to him to make him fearful. Sham is afraid of men in general, but he has been getting much better.

Still, I think it’s funny that we’ve always given our dogs additional nicknames. Our dear, sweet departed Benny was called these:

• Benny
• Benny Bear
• Bear
• The Bear
• Bear-Bear
• Bear-Bears
• Benjamin McBears

When Rob and I were dating, I adopted Sophie. One day, out of the blue he started calling her Sophie Jean. It stuck. We now call her:

• Sophie
• Sophie Girl
• Sophie Jean
• Jean
• The Jean
• Sophia

She comes to all of those names, too! That must be the smart little poodle in her.

Now Shamrock was named before we even adopted him. “And we will call him Shamrock,” was the exact email I received from Rob when it was decided we would call to try to adopt him. But for some reason, one day, I started calling him my little Bugaboo. I don’t even know where it came from! After weeks of calling him this, I googled it to see if it really was a word that I heard somewhere. It’s a brand name of an an urban stroller. Nope. Not how I heard it. We now call him:

• Shamrock
• Sham
• The Rock
• Shamrock Bugaboo
• Bugaboo
• The Bugaboo
• Bugs
• Little Man
• Mr. Nibbles

He wags his tail at all of them; but I’m not sure that he comes to all of those. He’s not quite as smart as The Jean; but he also has more names.

It’s not just us either… Our friends have dogs named DaVinci and Cleopatra. They often call them Bub-Bub (or Bubs) and Peeps, respectively. We get to watch them next month!

My friend Jen has a dog named Finnegan. I think the only other name she gives him is Finn. But Rob likes to call him Finn-again The First Time. 🙂

Why isn’t one name sufficient? I think it’s funny that we give our pets “pet” names. HA!

Did you ever give your dogs any additional names?

Do they come to them when you call them?

Cheers~
Carrie