Prick-Eared

Well, the puppy was originally named Stanley, but I couldn’t connect with “Stan,” “Lee” or even “Stanley.” It just felt odd: no emotions, no harshness, no gentleness. So I decided to do a bit of word-play.

Well, considering “tod” is Scottish for foxes, I decided to look up Old Norse which has a multitude of words. Two, well three, I particularly liked from the database: Rakki, Old Norse for “dog,” Finnish for “mongrel,” and Icelandic for “dog;” Odin’s ravenous pet wolf “Freki” paired with the greedy “Geri.” Of course, “Fenrir,” “Skoll” and “Hati” interested me. However I love how “rak-ki” plays out in my head.

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why Rakki was phonetically addicting to me. All I could think of is a mongoose. It couldn’t be from Kipling’s “Jungle Book,” could it? I means I remember an animated short and a 90s TV series. So I punched into Google “rakki mongoose” and indeed it was: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi! Of course, my simple mind is instantly hooked onto that.

Go figures, I get to name a dog after a ferret-like figure from a Chuck Jones production and a similar figure, hanging around a posh British girl, from a dubbed anime. I like it.

- Dave

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