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The Citizen, 1995-05-10, Page 5Arthur Black International Scene THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1995. PAGE 5. Some insight into the Dog Name Game I've always thought of a dog lover as a dog that was in love with another dog. James Thurber Ah, Thurber, thou shouldst be living at this hour. The 1990s are curb to curb and chock a block with dog lovers, all of them two-legged. Why, just this week I've seen a Bouvier with a red bow on its head, a poodle with - I swear - pink fur and a low-slung mutt of indeterminate origins wearing plastic booties on its paws. We have strange ways of showing our love, we dog lovers. For one thing we name our canines. Nomadic indians used to keep dogs, but they didn't waste their breath naming them. Same with the Inuit - you think all those ravening teams of barely domesticated huskies answered to sobriquets like Rover, Spot and Lassie? I personally am responsible for giving the world pooches called Willie, Shiner, Duchess, Toke (it was the 60s) Angus, Beulah, and my current resident canine freeloader and layabout, Rufus. Out of the frying pan During the long years of the "cold war" it was not difficult to know who the enemy was. All our thoughts were concentrated on the possibility that we might have to go to war with the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies; there was even the faint suspicion that the adversary might be Communist China. We never really thought much about fighting the two at the same time since the Soviets and the Chinese seemed to dislike each other even more than they did us. Having been through all this before with Nazi Germany, it was not hard to find a number of similarities. Because the government was bad, everybody living in the country was equally bad. The press carried very few human interest stories about nice things happening there but by now I think you get the picture. In short, we concentrated our dislikes and even hatred• on a specific country and this served to focus our attention on doing what was considered necessary to counter any threat from that country. One of the threats was, of course, the nuclear bomb or, more precisely, a whole lot of them and there was an understandable collectable sigh of relief when the Soviet Union packed it in as a superpower. Now, it was argued, we could get down to some real pleasant living. We were, it seems, a bit naive. The better part of a decade has passed and we are just as uptight as we were before. One gigantic world threat has been replaced by a whole series of smaller ones. People who once feared being obliterated in a nuclear holocaust, now fear global warming, joining the long-term unemployment lines, free trade, domestic violence, federal debt (something that I thought a background like that might give me special insight into the Dog Name Game. Until I heard about Bairbre O'Malley. Ms O'Malley is a veterinarian who practices in London, England and has done so for the past 15 years. Not only does she see a lot of pets that go by a lot of different names, she claims that she can see developing trends in those names. "In the 80s" says O'Malley, "the ultimate fashion accessory was the 'Yuppie Puppy-. She says back then, her waiting room was full of cats named Puma and Reebok, plus upscale dogs that answered to names like Gucci, Dom Perignon and Ralph (as in Lauren). She says that 10 years ago, her dog patients let her know who the top dogs were in Hollywood, as well. In fact, she thinks Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the most popular source of most macho dog names - Arnie, Schwartz, Conan and Terminator to name just a handful. "We saw lots of bull terrior puppies called Rocky and Rambo...but now these dogs are middle-aged, running to fat and hobbling in for arthritis tablets." As for more 'sensitive breeds - poodles, whippets, afghans and the like - Ms O'Malley says snooty names such as Oberon, Heathcliffe and Wellington are not terrifies the Belgians and Italians, not to mention the Canadians), AIDS, cancer, etc. In fact, the list is almost endless. It is almost as if, now that the Soviets are out of the way, we are bending over backward to find things to fear. It is small wonder that the sale of tranquillizers is increasing each year. I wish that I had an answer for all that ails the world. Alas, I have not! I do, however, have a few suggestions that might mitigate the situation somewhat so that it might become bearable. For openers I would remind the worriers that part of the problem is simply a lack of adequate knowledge on the above mentioned anxiety inducing subjects to really make a satisfactory decision on them. To start with global warming, even the scientists do not have enough knowledge on which to base corrective action. While it is agreed that an increase in carbon dioxide will boost global temperatures, it is unknown by how much. Will the increase, if it happens, be steady or spasmodic? What measures will be feasible and which ones might hurt us more than it slows down global warming? There is a lot of work to be done before we know really what to worry about. I am on a bit more familiar ground when I talk about climbing national debt so prevalent in many countries. But what constitutes the danger point? Canada's is running close to 100 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product but Belgium has hit 140 per cent and that country is more likely to suffer from linguistic dissension than it is excessive debt. In the aftermath of World War H we had a debt load of well over 100 per cent and no alarm bells rang. As with global warming there are a lot of variables and two countries with the same debt load might well suffer quite different consequences. Sometimes it is simply a question of our willingness to come to grips with problems and not put them off. A case in point is nearly as popular as they were a decade ago. "In the gritty Nineties, you're more likely to meet a Bottom, Scud or Mutant." High Fashion has left its mark on feline nomenclature. Bairbre spends a fair bit of her working day giving shots to Burmese and Siamese sporting names like Linda and Cindy. Twiggy, she says, is fast becoming a classic for long lean kitties that look like they could use a good meal. Oh, and if you were wondering about pet names and the Information Highway, fret no more. Ms O'Malley says 90's dogs and cats are 'on line'. "Virus, Apple and Mac are very common these days. I even ran into a Ginger Tom called WordPurrfect." Some pet owners are so computer savvy they can switch filenames if necessary. When Chippie, a German Shepherd pup remained a runt due to a hormone deficiency, the owner blithely switched his name to Microchip. Ms O'Malley's favourites? Well, there was the three-legged cat found abandoned in a phone booth. His foster parents christened him Tripod. And there was the Tortoiseshell who was a champion mouser. They called him Cornflakes, because he was a 'cereal killer'. Then there was the spoiled Pekingese who never left his owner's arms. Her name? Laptop, of course. cancer, one of the more dreaded diseases of the world. I have the distinct feeling that a lot of cancer could be prevented if we were to take proper preventative action i.e. diet, exercise, giving up smoking, or greater use of naturopathic medicine. Certainly such things as chemotherapy, radiation or surgery cannot be considered as dramatic in their effect although they have had some success. It is a moot point, however many people want to lead the kind of life that would conceivably lead to a reduction in deaths from cancer or AIDS. I may be wrong but I would like to see this given serious consideration. I also wonder if much of our global anxiety has to do with a lack of spiritual roots in a majority of people in the western world. People have perhaps had a false set of standards at worst or the wrong priorities at best. I would hazard a guess that people with a strong spiritual base are not popping tranquillizers on a regular basis. The Soviets may no longer be a threat to our security. However, the so-called peace dividend has turned out to be a meagre one. What a pity! Looking back through the years Continued from page 4 Coumey, Kim Denomme, Jennifer Acton, Mike Cooper, Ashley Gropp, Adam Hall, Ginny Wildman, Steven Young, Brad Willis, Lindsey Schwartz, Jason Snider, Arnie Cheverie, Tammy Vincent, Nathaniel Peel, Darryl Houston and Nicole Procter. Stitches opens on Blyth main street. Rita MacNeil show sold out. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Give a little I had a really nice weekend. A date with longtime friends, dinner with family and surprise visitors made my weekend unusually full — not unusual in that I don't always have busy weekends, but unusual, in the way I spent it. I don't know about other working moms, but personally weekends really aren't as socially fulfilling as they once were. When I was younger I was rewarded for hard work, by having two days to play, sleep in and basically be irresponsible. The only commitment I had was church, which there was no question that I would be attending, regardless of how late Saturday night was. These days, however, Saturdays and Sundays just seem to be an extension of my workweek, with more assignments, more responsibilities. That is except for one — church. As we are getting busier and busier it is true that many people of my generation are staying home Sunday morning. "It's the only time I can get some relaxation," a friend once told me, explaining that after working all week and housecleaning all day Saturday, she fought the idea of having to go somewhere on Sunday. And, unfortunately, I can quite understand what she means. With all the other extra curricular activities this past weekend, Sunday morning was my only opportunity to get caught up on some work at home. It is something I certainly don't feel good about, but it is also something that I, and many others like me, will probably continue to do. Yet, while people are not going to church the way they did 30 years ago, the vast majority of Canadians do consider themselves to be Christians. In fact a survey from Maclean's two years ago showed that of 4,510 Canadians 78 per cent, or four out of five, identified themselves as Christian. I will presume with the trend for declining church attendance getting consideration, that the majority of those four are not in church every Sunday either. I have seen the un-Christian-like ways of too many regular church attendees to believe that being in church on Sunday is what it takes to be a good Christian. Yet, complacency, as this attitude might be identified, may provide us with little credibility when we defend our religion and its beliefs. Twenty per cent of the people in that survey declared themselves to be either of no religion or atheists. The remaining two per cent are all other religions combined. Therefore, Christians are the obvious religious mainstream, yet their survival may be threatened and we might be partially to blame. We raged that The Lord's Prayer was to be taken from the classroom. We argued against Sunday shopping. Yet, while we speak out against the stomping on of our Christian traditions, we don't attend church. Our children know more about the Easter Bunny than the resurrection and just ask a little one what Christmas means to them. Now, I of all people am certainly not suggesting how anyone else should spend their Sundays. Considering I drive 25 miles to attend church, work weekends and am just plain exhausted on many Sundays, it is unlikely that I will get to church much more frequently than I have been. But I do wonder if vie can protect our traditions and beliefs, which seem to be increasingly denied, if we don't somehow try to give a little more of ourselves to them.