Naming Man's Best Friend

Panda meets lots of dogs on a daily basis, which means that Maggie and I meet lots of dog owners. There's a routine that almost every encounter follows:

1. We are asked whether Panda is "une femelle" (a female). We assume we get asked this because many French dogs aren't fixed, so every dog-meets-dog moment could quickly turn into a catastrophe.
2. The other owner gushes over Panda's distinctiveness, grace, athleticism, and/or beauty. We murmur our appreciation, awkwardly.
3. We are asked how old she is.
4. We ask how old the other owner's dog is. Sometimes our conversation ends here and everyone moves on.
5. However: If their dog was already off-leash, they'll ask whether we might want to let Panda off-leash. If their dog wasn't off-leash, they often suggest we let both dogs off-leash. We let the dogs off-leash.
6. Panda runs really fast and the other owner comments, "Gee, she sure likes to run!" or "Wow, look at her go!" 
7. The other owner speculates about Panda's ancestry. Usually people guess lèvrier (greyhound) or chien de chasse (any hunting dog or hound). We respond that she's a mix of German Shorthaired Pointer (braque allemand) and something else, on sait pas (we don't know).
8. By this point, sometimes Panda has sprinted far away from us, leading the other owner's dog away too, and we both start calling our dogs back. Or, if the dogs are still close, we re-leash them, and go our separate ways.

The flexible part of this ritual involves asking what the dog's names are. Sometimes you find out a dog's name when the other owner screams it across open space, hoping his/her dog will come back. Other times you never find out at all, and because of this I've taken to asking. Partly because we're a little crazy, and partly inspired by the awesome list-making book (Listography) that Eden and JP brought us for Christmas, we've been keeping track of all the dog names we learn, and this is what we've got so far:

Clovis, Nehdi, Gigi, Chaplin, Lila, Vif, Sun (Sonne? Son?), Kapringa, Georges, Lotus, Vinyle, Cookie (pictured above, with the little girl), Voyou and Lou (pictured above, with Panda), Amandine, Duschka, Dolly, Hieroglyphe, Coca, Ehtu (sp.?), Jenny/Génie, Emma, Hermione, Jack (short for Jack Russel), Bristo, Eliose, Yuna (Iuna?), Charlie, Titi, Ulysse, Douglass (pronounced dew-glass), Balthus, Lasso (3-legged), Vanda, Chippy

Remember that you have to pronounce all of the seemingly English-language names with a French accent, which immediately makes them equal parts charming and nearly incomprehensible. It's all part of the fun of dog-ownership in Paris.