So ages ago some guy named William Shakespeare, in a little thing called ‘Romeo and Juliet’ wrote the line ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’, but today I would like to dispute it…  I think there is a lot in a name… in fact sometimes I think that the name of a person or a animal can shapes who they are, perhaps I am wrong but let me give you an example.

I have a dog and his name is Dexter…  I have blogged about him before… 8 times there, also a couple more times here… in fact I have even blogged about this exact issues on a few occasions, but it’s time to bring it up again because the more I know Dex, the more I think it’s my fault… Now before we go any further I need to you understand that I really do love my dog… I mean what’s not to love about this:

But sometimes my dog makes me really really mad…

Just to be clear Dexter is named after the serial killer in the TV series Dexter, because as graphic and as morally disturbing as that show is… I love it.  He is not named after Dexter the robot from ‘Perfect Match’ or Dexter from ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ although both of those shows did have their moment.  He is most defiantly names after the serial killer… and I think it has affected his personality as Dexter is a Destroyer… of everything… and most recently my shoe…

Never in my life have I had a dog that is able to destroy things like Dexter does… new toys are gone within minutes and recently we had to get him a new bed because he had ripped his own to shreds… and in the past he has:

Chewed through a seatbelt
Destroyed a leather chew toy
Brought us dead rats… often the same rat more than once.
Plucked a dead bird of its feathers and…
Eaten an entire collection of play dough

Now I know dogs often destroy things if they are bored or not walked often enough, but he is, and he has a massive back yard in which he can do as he pleases… Dexter destroys things because he wants to and because he enjoys it and I can’t help thinking if I had named him something different… well I might still have my shoe…

Perhaps if I called him Spot he would just love hide and seek… or if I called him Barry or Bruce he would be a better guard dog… or perhaps if, like my cousins, I called him Oink… he would be so confused that he wouldn’t have time to destroy, as he would be consumed by his thoughts, pondering exactly where he fits in the animal kingdom… Perhaps not, perhaps it doesn’t make any difference and he was always going to be a destroyer, but I have to be honest I do feel a little responsible.