Old Dog...... New Tricks

Last night we fell off the wagon
My sister cooked the family a fantastic "St David's Day" meal.
And so mentally we threw away the weightwatchers manual and just enjoyed the food for what it was!
tapas nibbles, prawns in white wine and garlic,pate and hummus, lamb shank that melted in your mouth, potatoes in a creamy sauce.......chocolate cheese cake and of course too many gin and tonics........
We ate as if it was our last supper and enjoyed every friggin' fatty, fat bastard bit of it......
Tomorrow's weigh in shall be interesting
Anyhow
At the moment I cam cooking a somewhat "pared down" Sunday lunch while Chris is in Church
The dogs have all been out for their long walk and are lined up waiting for their dinner, and I have just realised that Mabel now understands that she is indeed now called....Mabel!
It has taken her a while to learn this.
For the name she was originally christened with, was a somewhat saccharine sounding "Jasmine"

Now as some of my regular readers will know only too well, I absolutely love irony....but even I would draw the line at naming a bulldog, with a set of front teeth like a row of bombed houses such a flowery name.
Indeed when she first arrived at the cottage only a few months ago now, Chris' eyebrows did some of his characteristic Roger Moore arches, when I told him her name, especially given the fact that she was at the time farting with all of the delicacy of the Queen Mary's fog horn
"Jasmine" he repeated with a sigh, as another fart rang out " How appropriate!"
And so I felt a new name was in order.
People who own more than two dogs ( Kim?) will tell you that naming a dog is not as simple as it may appear. The trick with a name is to pick one that is individually "sounding" whether it be a different number of syllables to the other dogs' names or a very different delivered name.
Something like Muffy and Fluffy is not really a wise choice.........not unless you want the neighbours to realise that you are an Essex Girl and you are happy owning a pair of effeminate sounding dogs with an identity problem

I have always named our dogs with old fashioned "proper " names....
and in "Jasmine's" case the solid, farmer's wife name of Mabel seemed to fit perfectly
Mabel is the name of a woman with ham like arms, a big bosom and an even bigger heart!

Today I whispered her name as I cut the greens for lunch, and slowly she dragged herself off the kitchen sofa and came to see what I wanted......
success........

41 comments:

  1. Yay for the success of "Mabel" ! I rescued an Old English Sheepdog not to many years ago, her name was Mugs, which actually suited the girl. Not to worry about the falling off the waistline wagon, John. You might be surprised once you hit the scale, as sometimes a huge meal,on occasion, shocks the body and has a bit of a loss or no effect at all. Keep up the great job, as it is hard work, as I well know when I gave up the smokes 3 yrs ago & grand old menopause moved in last year. *Sigh*

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  2. enjoyed every friggin' fatty, fat bastard bit of it......

    I would love for you to be a food critic LOL

    One of our dogs is called Roobarb. she arrived from the rescue thus named and it suits her, as she is a very silly dog. I only wish I had a £1 for every wit who quipped "Is the other one called Custard?" like they're the first to have thought of it!

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  3. I have a friend who believes that no dog should be given a human name, so I told him that I knew a man called 'Towser' - I lied. My other friend's dog is 'Dolores', so - of course - gets called Dolly, which sort of fits. My friend was just about to call for Dolly when I noticed a mistake I had just made and said, "Bollocks". He ended up shouting "DOLLOCKS!" at the top of his voice.

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  4. Anonymous12:58 pm

    Good for Mabel although her feelings may have been hurt to have her lovely fancy name of Jasmine changed to Mabel.

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  5. I'd better get my name changed to Mabel then ...'ham like arms and a big bosom'.

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  6. Anonymous1:01 pm

    well YAY Mabel! Interestingly enough I have a similar vision of a woman named Mabel. A good stout substantial name!

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  7. I always wanted to call my dog 'Jesus', but I was sanctioned. Our 'Bok' was actually named 'Pok', but we always thought they were shouting 'Bok'. So 'Bok' it is, even though on his passport is says 'Pok'. Both stupid names.

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  8. My grandmother was called Mabel and you just described her!

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  9. Smiling here. Hooray for Mabel.

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  10. We tried all several names on our rescue dog and he just ignored us. The only one that made him look up and wag his tail was Jack, so Jack it was. Which was a pity because I wanted to call him Billy.

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  11. I think she looks more of an Ena. ;)

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  12. Her name is perfect!

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  13. Good name. Try whole food. Your body will eat it up, believe me.

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  14. You're going to hear it from all the Mabels out there!

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  15. I love Mabel . . just as she is :-)
    jealous jealous jealous
    [the sight of the hot dog was just too much, wasn't it :-D ]

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  16. I agree. Mabel is much more suitable.

    The battle continues here on the kept pup's name. I call him Junior, due to his astounding intelligence. Papa called him Billy Jack after the old movie hero and Andrew calls him Lil Gibson after his favorite guitar...no wonder the dog is brainless!

    Have a wonderful relaxing Sunday.

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  17. I can't remember meeting a single Mabel in my life, but that's certainly the sort of woman that's conjured up. Usually the big heart lurks under a no-nonsense, do-what-I-say persona.

    Hadn't thought about the problem of naming two dogs in a way that doesn't get them hopelessly confused. Interesting point.

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  18. I can't remember meeting a single Mabel in my life, but that's certainly the sort of woman that's conjured up. Usually the big heart lurks under a no-nonsense, do-what-I-say persona.

    Hadn't thought about the problem of naming two dogs in a way that doesn't get them hopelessly confused. Interesting point.

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  19. She really looks like a Mabel....Jasmine? WTF?
    Jane x

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  20. Way to go Mabel! Glad you were able to enjoy your spectacular meal....

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  21. Well done, Mabel, lovely name! As for the meal you can have too much of anything - including moderation.

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  22. Her name seems to suit her sweet looks and aiming to please personality. You have been wonderful in bringing her along in her new life.

    Pleased to hear you enjoyed every morsel of your dinner. Hoping the scales will be kind to you.

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  23. Muffy and Fluffy!! Love it!

    That meal sounded DELICIOUS!! Got to 'take a break' every once in a while from WW!!! You're only human!

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  24. especially given the fact that she was at the time farting with all of the delicacy of the Queen Mary's fog horn
    Hahaha!!!

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  25. Man cannot live by WeightWatchers alone!
    I found out what the 'something good out of something bad is"...with all the drama and back and forth to the hospital last week...I've reached my goal weight without even trying! LOL!
    Love Mabel's name...it is so her!

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  26. Anonymous6:26 pm

    Jasmine? Definitely a Mabel. (Bertha also fits your Mabel description.) I gave my cairn the unimaginative name, Terry's Mister Wizard. Shortened to Wiz it's a perfect fit. If I didn't see him staring at me from the door and accident was bound to happen.

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  27. Denny was a nearly a year old when we rescued him and was already named Denny and responded to that - we saw no point in changing it and, anyhoo, it suits his lean and rangey 1/2 Pointer breed.

    I think Mabel suits your girl!

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  28. I've never tried changing a pet's name, even if i would have called her something different given the chance.

    I did try to adopt a cat from the sheler as she spoke to my heart, but my other three were NOT happy about it. The shelter had named her 'Velvet' which i didn't think suited at all (she had been a stray, so no one was sure of her name). When i was trying out names, she always looked at me abruptly when i said 'Cleo'.

    But i realised by the end of the week, that Velvet/Cleo wasn't going to meld with the household. I was sad to return her to the shelter; she didn't like it, either. When i returned home with the empty cage, there was a collective feline sigh. They were glad i came back to my senses.

    megan

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  29. Mabel does suit her. Molly's name at the shelter was Ursula, what a horrid name, Molly suited her better to my mind.

    Gill

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  30. We rescued a male standard poodle that came with the name Pepe.
    He was nothing like a Pepe at all. Imagine what it would have been like, shouting "Pepe" at him to leave off as he broke his lead and mounted an unsuspecting elderly male spaniel with horrified owner as they passed our gate at just the wrong moment.

    We had already re-named him Rufus, which suited him much better.

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  31. ...and what did you want? A big fat plate of steak and ale pie with roast potatoes and gravy followed by some nice spotted dick with fresh cream.

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  32. Our Border Collie named Baker demonstrated the huge intelligence that Border collies possess by answering to Beansie or sometimes Mr Beans.
    He understood the association : Baker... Baked Beans... Beansie... Mr Beans !
    Cheers

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  33. I pigged out on pizza and zinfandel last night. Only noticed a pound more on the scales this morning. Your supper sounded much better than mine though!

    I was going to name my little Siamese kitty Layla, but we ended up with Gracie. She was not laid back enough for Layla! Mabel's name seems perfect for her. But, if she is a prissy dog, Jasmine might have been the right name.

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  34. John, I really enjoyed this post! I'm so glad you had a good time last night and didn't 'worry' about what you ate!!! You're 'back on the wagon' and that's what counts!! Second, you're so right about the names. Only one time have I given a dog a name that was not a proper one. And I'll admit that I put way too much time in thinking of the perfect name that fits them just right--I did that with Todd, but doubted myself from the first time I called him that, even though 'Todd' was who he was meant to be, just like Mabel!

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  35. We just love Mabel! I wish we could pull her right out of the photos. I think she'd be a great companion for Finny!

    Finn came at 16 weeks having been called "Joey " but it just didn't fit. With the exception of Goldie, our family dogs have always had "proper" names as well... Maggie, Molly, and Shaughnessy.

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  36. Wagons are for diving off from time to time.
    Our cats were both rescue cats and came to live with us (a year apart) already names. Jewel I could cope with but Jazzpurr made me feel a bit pukey. He is now Jazz.

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  37. Anonymous6:49 am

    Good girl, Mabel!

    We changed Dane's name when we first brought him home from the shelter, too. "Zeus" seemed imaginative but misguided (there was nothing either Greek or godlike about him.)

    I've been missing your Monday weigh-in posts since we always weigh in on Wednesdays. But Cal and I have each lost 30 lbs (2.14 stone) so far. I also threw discipline to the wind while we were snowshoeing last weekend and ate about two pounds of dark chocolate covered pomegranate-flavored goo I found up at the cabin.

    I have no regrets (poo on regrets) and I still lost a pound and a half...but that was only because we earned about 80 activity points(nearly dead from exhaustion but thinner dammit. Thinner.)

    Dia

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  38. Our pets have always had proper names too: Barney (previously called Blue), Tim, Arnold, Maisie, Eddie, Daisy (previously called Lady ~ hubby just couldn't bring himself to call her by that name LOL) ~ all moggies. Amber (my beloved greyhound, who passed away last year) had been named Avon at the shelter for some reason best known to themselves! Our latest family additions (rescued greyhound and lurcher) came with the perfectly fine names of Matty and Nikki :-)

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  39. She always has that enormous smile on her face...very loveable...

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  40. Mabel is a perfect name for her. Mabel was the heroine in 'The Pirates of Penzance' which didn't suit her at all! The hero's mother was 'called Little Buttercup' and she did look like a Mabel!Funny thing about that name -- it's probably derived from the French Mabelle -- as in Paul McCartney singing, 'Michelle, Ma Belle'... But in the U.S. Ma Bell was the nick name for the much hated Bell Telephone Company.

    You've got to 'fall off the wagon' once in a while or you'll lose your humanity! ;-)

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  41. What a wonderful post. You can take such a mundane thing as naming a dog and breathe life and humor into it. (The idea of Mabel being called Jasmine is utterly ridiculous! Whatever were they thinking?)

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