Meet the Crew

My original plan for this litter… was to name the girls with Wyoming names, and the boys with Nebraska names. On my trip to Dally’s rendezvous, I’d jot down names of creeks, counties, rivers, or roads… whatever caught my eye.

Wyoming is pretty slim pickings for girls names unless you want to go with popular choices… and I’m usually not one for choosing popular things! Plus I was trying to focus on what I saw on my trip, so I didn’t want to go with Sheridan or Beulah or Frannie… I didn’t go through there!

Nebraska gave me plenty of boys names… maybe not ones I was in love with… but good enough!

Puppy buyers can rename their pups… I just prefer to give them names while they’re here, so I can discuss them with other people. Actually, about 50% of my buyers KEEP the names I give the pups, so I do like good dog names… aka Names You Can Yell Out the Back Door!

Dally then presented me with a dilemma.

Seven girls.

Two boys.

Then the idea struck with all the flooding and storms, that perhaps water names might be more appropriate. It was tempting to delve into water spirits, gods, and descriptions.

A quick look at Water Deities on Wikipedia dispelled any ideas of using most of their list. Arnapkapfaaluk, an fearsome Inuit sea goddess, does NOT work when standing there with the screen door open… Then again, most were water *gods* not *goddesses* anyway. I *did* like the suggestion of Noah… but decided not to tempt Anyone with ideas of more rain.

Back to the original plan. With three exceptions.

What can I say?

I waffle, flip-flop, and can’t make up my mind.

Meet puppy #1, small little Rainy. Uh, because it’s been Rainy lately.

#2 pup is Windy. Because this spring, if it hasn’t been Rainy… it’s been Windy. Plus it was Very Windy that day in Nebraska…

Then there’s Niobrara. A Wyoming county and river that flows into Nebraska. Nioby for short. Niobrara doesn’t roll off the tongue like Nioby. Plus Niobrara is a Ponca/Omaha Indian name meaning Spreading Water. Really.

Next is Joss. The Joss family were early settlers of Niobrara county and I can’t remember where I saw the name, but it’s a good name for this little girl. She was born at midnight, straight up!

I then took a break from naming girls or maybe I fell asleep. All I know is I got done with my list, looked down and I’d missed poor little #5. I’d run out of Wyoming girls’ names… looked at Rainy and Windy and decided that one more in that vein would be just fine. So meet Stormy. I am nothing if not inconsistent… does that make sense?

Finally, a big boy came along. This is Dawes, as in Dawes County, Nebraska. He has the most white of all of the pups.

Next was another boy… and to recognize his daddy, Hustler (whose name is a mix between his mom Holly and his dad Buster), plus a nod to Nebraska… this one just had to be Husker. As in corn. He barely has any white on his face.

Back to girls again with Shawnee. Shawnee is a tiny little place not far from Douglas, Wyoming.

Jireh, I’m pronouncing it Jeer-y, was a failed Christian college and town. Though it thrived for 10 years, from 1909 – 1919, once the college closed, the town drifted away as well. It does have an interesting story, but reflects again the hardships of early settlers.

Jireh also means “the Lord will provide”… and since this sweetie was born *after* I went to bed… seemed like a good name to choose for one that was born unsupervised… by me anyway.