This is incredibly dorky but…that has rarely stopped me from making many of the choices I’ve made in life. So here goes: I was reading one of my perennial favorites, Sancta Nomina, and I got to wondering if anyone out there has ever polled the audience on how many Catholics out there use, ahem, magisterial monikers for their furry family members.
I’ll admit to having a cat named Pia, dubbed thusly after a somewhat traumatic pilgrimage to Italy including stops at many of Padre Pio’s notable locales.
I’ve also got friends with a dog named Newman – yes, for that Newman. And I recall meeting a plump, orange tabby named Bonaventure who was at the time in residence with the CFRs in the Bronx.
So, there are weirdos out there like me who name their pets after saints. I have a pocketful of rejected baby names, like Tiber, that were simply a bridge too far for Dave (pun intended), but might conceivably one day end up affixed to a creature without a rational soul as a sort of consolation prize.
What about you? Would you ever name a pet after a saint, or a saintly place? Do you have a dog you call Avila, and your neighbors don’t quite grasp the significance of it? Or do you think it’s completely bizarre?
Pia the long-suffering and resigned.
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