Dogs

Over the past 20 years, I've named each of my dogs after a city or a state -- similar to this. Usually these were locations that had some meaningful correlation to whatever was going on in my life at the time.

Of course, each of the places was a favorite of mine -- for some very unique reason.

How Our Dogs Got Their Names

I was living in upstate New York at the time, and was getting bored with the mountain-man scene when I decided to seek out a new puppy for companionship. Since I found him just after a carefree vacation of a lifetime on the New Jersey Shore (a great ocean, great bars, and great beach rentals), I named him Jersey so I'd always have a part of the beachy life by my side.

We were planning a vacation to Destin, Florida the weekend we found him. In the end, we decided to forego the trip, in order to have Destin in our life all year long rather than just for a weekend! We also like to think that we were "destined" to have him...

Tenor has been singing the Blues since the day we brought him home (...long story). But we actually chose his name for the state we were living in at the time: Tennessee... and this being Music City USA. Coincidentally, "tenor" also means "uninterrupted course" -- which is exactly how things have gone in our dog-owning life: UNINTERRUPTED to say the least! Tenor brings our current dog count to: 3.

Other Cities & States That Would Make Great Dog Names

I've always thought that the following places could lend themselves to some pretty cool dog names:

• Dallas (...for a girl dog)
• Boston (...call him "Boss" for short)
• Aussie (...he'd surely start barking with an accent!)
• Cancun (...warm thoughts every time you say his name)