It’s official.  We have welcomed our puppy home and just as we suspected, he has rocked our world.  For all of you pet owners out there who brought their puppies home and they slept through the night…we don’t want to hear from you.  We are just trying to get through each night by stringing as many minutes together as we can.  So far, there have not been many quiet, consecutive minutes.

While we had been looking for a puppy for a while, we only had one week to actually prepare for the little beast.  The worst part was picking a name.  After having several dogs over the years I believe it was easier when the girls were small.  Nobody questions your pet’s name when you have toddlers running around your house.  You can call your dog anything and people just assume your kids named it.

Our youngest is almost 17 years old.  It seemed we would have a sophisticated list of names to choose from, right?  Think again.  Let’s just say Snoop Dog was in the running. The hubby and I tried to remain neutral, but we have a line and we weren’t about to spend the next 10 years yelling Snoop Dog in the backyard. I realize we already have Stevie Nicks and to some of you that might be cringe-worthy, but in our defense she came to us with a name.  The musician-themed pet name was a must though for our youngest. She really didn’t want to venture outside that box so we stuck to the plan throwing out everything from Lenny Kravitz (my favorite) to Bowie as in David.

The favorite among our girls though was Paul Anka.  I know many of you are asking yourself, “who?”  Our youngest is infatuated with Paul Anka, the singer-songwriter who was popular in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  If you who have watched Gilmore Girls you know that Lorelai brought Paul Anka back to popularity by naming her dog after him. Alas, that is not how Paul Anka found his way to our list.

For those of you who follow us on a regular basis you may know that Paul Anka has been mentioned before on our blog.  It’s true, there was a little scandal about a year ago when we found out that Paul Anka was our mother’s secret crush back in the day and that there had even been a kiss.  Check it out if you are intrigued.

Back to our puppy.  So, Reese really wanted to name our puppy, Paul Anka.  Can you just see us yelling, “Paul” down the street?  It really just rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?  Or how about going to the groomer and signing in Stevie Nicks and Paul Anka?

So, on the way to pick up our puppy I asked Reese about Paul Anka and her interesting infatuation.  She explained it like this:

“About a year and a half ago I was scrolling through Instagram.  I stumbled upon a video clip and heard someone singing, ‘Put Your Head On My Shoulder.’  I stopped to listen.  I thought to myself who is this BEAUTIFUL MAN?  You guessed it.  Paul Anka.  I started googling him and entering his name into iTunes.  Soon I had songs to last me for days.  I will admit that I  was a little sad to find out he was no longer the young, beautiful man that I had watched on social media, but a much older version of himself.  It hasn’t stopped me from learning every song he has ever written.  I just love his music and that is why I want to name my puppy Paul Anka.”

 

I have to admit that I was sold at that point.  I am a sucker for a good story and THIS was a great backstory for naming our pup, Paul Anka.  The hubby was NOT having it.  He didn’t care about the backstory or how good-looking Paul Anka was back in the day, he was not calling his dog Paul!

So, we spent hours looking up every male musician’s name and comparing it with our puppy’s face to see if it was a match.  In the end we let Reese name him with the stipulation that the name had to fit his personality and that we could survive calling him that for the rest of his life.

So, welcome home Huey Lewis!