Amy has, repeatedly, said that she wants to "re-name" Echo. I have kept that from happening.
Until now, I didn't know EXACTLY why, but I knew it was the wrong decision for us, and her.
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First reason:
Since early 1996, all of our dogs have been "foreign nationals".
Tasselhof and Radar were born in Panama. Gimli was born in Germany. Echo was born in Canada.
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Second reason:
All of the AAD dogs had names that were pertinent to the goal of the program: "Liberty", "Freedom", etc.
... And, in the blur of information that I was given initially, I was told that "ECHO" was a "Canadian thing" of similar standing.
It wasn't explained to me. I don't know if Jean knew the specifics or not ... We have not had the time to discuss it.
I, just, accepted it.
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Well, I, finally, found out what my "little girl" was named for.
She was named for the Canadian Forces "Operation ECHO".
While it wasn't the Canadian commitment to D-Day or Passchendaele, it was significant for it's era.
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AAD, already, had "Freedom" and "Liberty".
What else could expect for a name, given that the dog is Canadian?
Well, there is Quebec, ... given the the French influence, you could expect "Equality", or "Fraternity".
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But, REALLY?
Okay, I have a Cana-dog. (Not a problem. Tas and Radar were Pana-mutts. Gimli is a Deutschland Dackel. (Dackel is German for dachshund))
There is NO WAY I am going to look into this sweet face and call her: Equality, Fraternity, or Passchendaele. (The last one is the most acceptable of the bunch.)
That leaves "Juno", and "Echo".
She's not a "Juno".
Besides, given the multicultural nature of the people that are in and out of my house, Amy and I would offend some of our closest friends, if they heard: "Jew, no!"
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So, she is going to stay my little Echo, the Cana-dog, eh.
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I still kick myself for not making "eh" her "marker word"!
Sorry Kevin I thought sure I told you the story of how Echo got her name. I knew it from the beginning.
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ReplyDeleteI remember hearing that it was some kind of "Canadian patriotic" thing. Other than that, I was focused on the things I needed to know at the moment. ... I figured I could figure out where the name came from later.
ReplyDeleteThe kennel where Echo came from is named LestWeForget and all of our dogs are named after Canadian Military concepts. This was the Peacekeeping litter - so all 8 pups were named after Canadian peacekeeping missions. They are named LestWeForget Operation... Echo (Kosovo), Lance (Rwanda), Boreas (Bosnia), Jaguar (Jamaica), Eclipse (Ethiopia), Snowgoose (Cypress), Harmony (Croatia) and Torrent (Turkey earthquake). The entire litter was donated to various service dog schools in the us and Canada. The mother was part of the Afghanistan litter (operation Athena) and her brother is a service dog named Operation Apollo. Echo's great grandmother is named Vimy.
ReplyDeleteWOW! Thanks, Kristine. I'm something of a military history geek, but I must admit that my knowledge of Canadian military history is a bit lacking. Given that WWI, and WWII history is more in my area of expertise, I, immediately, recognized Vimy. It's nice to have something of a personal connection with her name. While I never went to Kosovo, many of my friends did, and my next to last unit went there several times, before I got there.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, I'm not sure how much of "peacekeeper" Echo is. On a regular basis, she gives my 7-year-old dachshund fits.