There are names that are common for humans and unsurprisingly, there are names which are common for dogs; Aristotle is not one of them! Our breed has a system whereby most breeders when they have their first litter use names beginning with A. As lots of people only have one or two litters that means there are an awful lot of dogs whose real names begin with an A. I am not one of them. Where I come from it goes according to year and as I was born in 2005, the fifth year after 2000, mine started with the fifth letter E. My real name is Einstein. In her infinite wisdom, our Mistress decided at home I would be called Alfie. At that time she did not know about the naming convention system. Now, despite there only being 73 of us in the UK, there are three of us called Alfie. I am the first, but I’m not the one who was actually given it as a kennel name. Oddly he is from a litter where there are two Alfies, his brother Ashdon having been renamed Alfie at home as well. Our Mistress has been trying to make sure that breeders choose different names to avoid the whole repeat name thing. Anyway, the point I was about to make is that the real Alfie has been living in San Francisco for a few years, so we’ve had less in the way of confusion. Now he’s coming home, so it could get a bit more complicated, not helped by the fact that he blogs as well. He’s much better at photography than I am, but doesn’t do quite so much writing. Early on we did have a discussion to clarify things, I’m obviously Alfie Dog whereas he calls himself Alfie Entlebucher. I couldn’t use my real surname of Dog on Facebook as it seemed to think dogs didn’t have friends. Anyway, for that I borrowed my Master’s surname of Platt, which has worked just as well but I suddenly realised that pages have changed over time, so I’ve asked Facebook to change to my correct name of Dog. IO’m waiting to see what they say.
On balance, despite the confusion, we’re really looking forward to having Alfie, who was actually originally called Alfie, home again.
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com
Alfie’s Diary – the Book as well as our other books are available HERE
Roooo Alfie – I can’t wait to come home to the UK again *waggy tail*. Over here in the US our name is really unusual and I haven’t met any other dogs called Alfie – it’s pretty cool as I feel like a celebrity, but it also means I can’t get away with any mischief as everyone knows who that Alfie is!
I don’t think there are many in Switzerland either. Please don’t get up to mischief and pass the blame my way, I can cause enough trouble already. Have a safe journey and Wilma is very much looking forward to meeting you.