Name Confusion

[Pickles4Me]

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool dog lover.  In 1998 I got a puppy from an animal rescue.  His name was Shadow.  He was a cocker spaniel-terrier-daschund-poodle mix----a breed you couldn’t make in a petrie dish if you tried.

Although I adore my 3 kids, Shadow was the 4th love of my life.  He was only $50 and most people that knew him said it was $49 too much.  He was one of those dogs that never did anything right.  But, oh, the love between us;;;;

At 5.5 years old he developed lymphoma and, despite treatment from a university veterinary clinic, he simply couldn’t stay in remission and in 2003 I had him put down.

After a couple of years I was more than ready for another dog.  Enter Boomer, a fun-loving, hilarious, full of life Schnoodle.  He’s now almost 2 years old.  His playfulness wears EVERYONE out so recently I added another Schnoodle—Pickles.  She’s just as fun-loving as Boomer and together they play, romp and chase and it’s a true hoot.

What I’m puzzled about is why, since I’ve gotten Pickles, am I calling Boomer “Shadow?”  The first couple of times I called him Shadow I caught myself, but now the name just rolls off my tongue.  It’s been 5 years that Shadow’s been gone.  It’s disconcerting and sort of spooky.   I'm the last of 7 kids and my Mom would invariably run through all the names until she got the right one.  :)   That's not the case here.  

I’m not sure what this means.  Any thoughts?

Thanks so much!

P.S.  I may post this question on more than one site to get various input.

[chihuahuagrandma]

To: Lonewolf07 My chi in trouble now name is MOOMOO!!! LOL
To: Pickles4Me, go to the conversation about the pet Named "Peanut", I believe you
will find your answer in the forum conversating, Peanut just past away, and there is
a lot of discussion regarding a loved one lost in the past and how it comes to the present.
Your loved ones never leave you, they always love you!!!

[RubyWitch]

I think what you guys are talking about is a very common thing when we have lost a dog we really loved and bonded with. We lost our dog Otis about 2 years ago, he was the last of the three that had grown up together. He was quite old, deaf as a doorknob and blind from the diabetes we had fought so hard to control. He was a very special dog, a huge part of our lives. When that horrible day came when we knew it was time to put him down, it was, for some reason, harder than any of the other dogs we had loved and shared our lives with. It took us almost a year before our hearts could open to new pups. But it did and we love our new guys so much. Our house feels like a "home" again with their antics and toys and bones all over the place. But one of them looks very similar to Otis. They are entirely different breeds, but Axel is dark, like Otis and about the same size. Both my husband I often call him "Otis." At first we were a bit confused, because it didn't start to happen until Axel was almost a year old. But now we think it's because they share so many personality traits that they just trigger memories of Otis. Now instead of feeling kind of sad when it happens, we feel like the spirit of Otis is with us, letting us know that he has come back for a short time to let us know he is happy and well, no longer sick all the time or blind and that he likes our new dogs. You probably think that is stupid. But now if I call Axel "Otis," I swear, I can feel his cold nose touching my hand again. It no longer hurts when I go out to call the dogs in for the night and I yell out "Otis." I now know he is there with me.
As wolfie said, I think it is an honor to Otis.

[lonewolf07]

A few years ago one of our Siberian huskies passed on.  His name was MooMoo.  We now have a three yr old female husky and often we call her MooMoo by mistake.  They don't look alike except for the blue eyes and their personalities are completely different.  I think we call her by the other dog's name because we still think about him.  It's not a negative thing if anything it's a tribute to MooMoo's memory.

This is far from being a great answer but it's the only one that popped into my head.  In some way we see Miss Puff (our present husky) as MooMoo.  But don't tell Miss Puff = )

lonewolf