WOODS DOG

When Ranger was young, I tried to keep things very consistent for him. He ate the same food all the time. He was regularly exercised. Our training sessions followed similar patterns. My commands were always the same. You get the point. I also wanted him to know his name very well, so I didn’t have little nick-names for him. I simply called him Ranger and did so consistently. But, as you either already know or will find out as you raise your own pet, pure consistency is practically unattainable when other people get in the mix. Remember Jeannie, our office secretary in Tupper Lake? She was the one whose desk got all messed up when I let Ranger stay alone in the office one day. Well, she had a slew of kids and once in a while she would bring some to work with her. They were no trouble and if Brian and I were at the office, they always spent quite a bit of time playing with our dogs. The youngest boy was unable to say his “R’s” and when he would call for Ranger it came out like “Wayne-yo.” It didn’t take long for Brian and some of the other guys at work to catch onto this and a nick-name was born. They knew it drove me crazy, which made it all the more fun for them. Even now, fourteen plus years later, when I sent word to Brian about our new pup, Timber, he emailed back, “Teem-bo!”