Name that dog

Fontana and I were out for our evening walk Tuesday night when this guy barreled into our lives. He had no collar or tags and was just wild. In the process of trying to get him to our house, I took Fontana's collar and leash, figuring Fontana would just follow along. Instead, the stressed-out Fontana took off. I was about to just let the dog go when a neighbor offered to keep it for the night and try to find its owner the next day.

She did a great job, plastering the neighborhood with "found dog" signs and taking him to a vet to scan for a microchip (there was none). I did my part on the phones, registering him with Animal Services, contacting rescue groups and scanning the local classifieds. I found a local Weimaraner group and let them know I had him so they could spread the word. My neighbor, who is used to little lap dogs, had her hands full with this hound and was ready to take him to Animal Services. I didn't want that yet, so I offered to take him for the night, hoping another day would yield some results.

Fast forward to today. The wildman has calmed down. He was obviously wigged out from being lost/dumped. He and Fontana are already best buddies and they do a great job of wearing each other out with no intervention on my part. He's fine around our cats. He's well-socialized, knows basic commands and listens when off-leash. Nobody has come forward to claim him. He's looking like a keeper. The final exam will be this weekend when we'll see if he has what it takes to be a trail dog.

We couldn't keep calling him "hey you" or "puppy". He needed a name. Keeping with the tradition of naming our dogs something relevant to the events around them coming into our lives, Lauren though of "Derrick", which is an alteration of the town name my beloved Razorback park was in (Reddick).

I thought about all the trail names at Razorback: Grannie's Revenge, Miller's Mile, Big Gulp, Rollercoaster, Tree Slalom, Longest Mile, Clay Climb, Hero Hills, Dempsey's Doozie. "Miller" or "Dempsey" were the only possibilities. Nah. I started calling him Derrick and he picked right up on it.

Now the consensus among our family and people we've talked to is "Reddick" is better. It's more unique and doesn't sound so dorky.

He's not our dog yet. We have to wait a couple of weeks to give the owner a chance to come forward, but if nobody has stepped up to claim a dog that they probably paid a lot of money for (he obviously came from a professional breeder) by now, they probably aren't going to.

So, what do you think? Derrick or Reddick? Have any better ideas? Post your comments and let me know!