(AF) Naming the Fur Ball

Some of you may remember the little Fur Ball I rescued from certain death a couple of weeks ago. I still have him and he is doing well. He is getting along amazing well with all of the farm animals, except that he sometimes likes to chase them, simply because he is in the mood for a good run. If they don't run, he just stands there looking at them, all disgusted because they are spoiling their fun, or pokes at them with his nose to try and get them to run so he can chase them. I am trying to break him from it, but it is pretty funny to watch. Now, getting along with my other dogs? That isn't going so well, so they have to stay separated.

The pic you see here is him the first day I got him, showing how bad some of his mats are. I have been cutting and trimming them off, but there are so many, and many are matted so tightly to his skin, that I have basically been cutting the them off about half way down with the intent of letting them grow out so that I can continue to trim them until they are completely off. It is just too cold to give him a real close cut right now. So now he looks like he has dread locks! It is a pretty funny site. I will have to take some new pictures of him soon. He is just a hard one to get to stand still for a camera.

Okay, so what to name him. I sure wish I knew what his name was, because I always hate giving a grown dog a new name. It is so confusing and unfamiliar to them. But I have to call him something. When he decides to take off and give a chicken a chase, I have to able to call him back, lol. So for days, I mulled quite a few names over in my head, calling him by some to see what his response would be. Initially, I had decided upon the name Matt (yes, *groan*, because of all the mats he had). But he wouldn't answer to it at all and I didn't blame him.

Then one day, as I was cleaning his face off and laughing, it hit me. That whole first week he was here, he thoroughly explored my house, especially under and behind places I hadn't been in awhile (shame on me), And after each exploration, he proudly trotted back to me, looking up at me with a face covered in dust bunnies! His face always got the bulk of it, but all over his body, stuck to all of those remaining mats, were globs of dust bunnies that took some work to clean off. He was so proud of himself, like he knew what he was accomplishing .... cleaning my house. I do believe it is time to move that furniture that hasn't been moved lately, and give it a good sweep, or just move it out and let this dog run around it a few times, ha, ha.

Well, I can't name him Bunny, because I already have a dog named Bunny. So ..... DUSTY it is. Amazingly, the first time I called him by the name Dusty, he perked his ears up, cocked his head, and got all excited! And every single time now that I have called him by his new name, he has run to me, or at least stopped and immediately looked at me. Or is it his new name? He is acting like that has always been his name. Wouldn't that be neat! He is mostly black with a little brown edging on his face and back end, with a 'dusting' of gray all down his back. Whatever his name once may have been, DUSTY is a very comfortable fit for him.