Temporary Names

We give each litter a theme which helps us in grouping the litters by their registered names. It also assists us with temporary names as I like to refer to the pups by a name and not just 'boy 1' or 'girl 1'.

I try to make the themes something important to us such as an event that occured at the time of birth or significant before the birthing, or reflect something special such as a trip.This litter is named after the events that happened prior to the actual breeding.

I had written earlier about the selection of Itoh and snippets of our trip to the coast for the dog show so I'm going to continue with after the dog show. We actually have never traveled to the island together before and my previous trip to the island was with my parents close to 30 years prior. Daryl and I spent the next 5 days on the Vancouver Island...all by ourselves. It was interesting that there was only two pups born - one male and one female. Significant of the time that Daryl and I had alone.

I had lots of places I wanted to visit: Victoria and several places within the city, The Buchart Gardens, and the rest of the trip was open.

On the ferry to the island

Going through the many islands along the way

At the Buchard Gardens

In the Japanese Garden

With an open agenda we walked along the bay, looked at the ships, enjoyed the period buildings and took in the tourist hotspots. Daryl likes to drive so we opted to head up the coast stopping at many small towns along the way where we'd get out, walk and take in the history.

We stopped at a small town called 'LadySmith' and went for a walk along the docks. Daryl was busy looking at the boats but a flash in the water caught my eye. I got down to water level and was amazed to find tiny jellyfish swimming in the water. Further investigation under the dock and I found anemones, crabs and lots more jellyfish.

The jelly fish that first caught my eye

The tiny crab looking for it's dinner

More of the life under the dock

I find sea life fascinating and this was one of my favorite stops.

Daryl and I continued up the coast stopping at every small town, getting out and walking along the shoreline. After our long walk at Nanimo we decided to make a trip across the island to the west side and Port Alberni to see my brother who recently moved there.

On our way to Port Alberni

Trying to capture perspective

Some of the carvings at the Port Alberni coast

The famous 'Goats On A Roof' store & restaurant. Goats put away for the night.

We spent the next several hours there, walking the coastline, seeing the last of the salmon who had recently swum upstream to spawn, appreciating the native influence and bringing home more than just memories.

So what does this all have to do with the theme? It was a special time for Daryl and I as we had the time to relax and absorb our surroundings as we both love the coastal waters.

We gave the male pup the temporary name of 'Costa' which is Spanish/Cuban for 'Coast'. Meaningful for us as we truly enjoyed our drive along the coastline and stopping to enjoy each and every little town along the way.

The female was given the temporary name 'Lacey' in honor of our stop at LadySmith. Kim and Kayleigh encouraged the temp name Lacy as I said the name reminded me of the delicacy of the jellyfish, sea anemones and other water life at LadySmith.

We anticipate that the two families who will be adopting these very special pups will likely rename them, and that's okay. We have already narrowed our list of registrable names that will keep alive, for us, the Coastal Escape memories.