The names we give our pets

The dogs I've named all have had literary value behind their names: Ajax and Hamlet.

I was going to name my next dog Strider for a sire or Circe for a dam, but the dog we have came fully equipped. We got her used the pound, and her previous owner had been calling her Sandy for over nine years.

I only named one fish that we had. It was called "Old Fart" because it wouldn't die even though we really wanted it to, since we had decided we'd rather use the aquarium for a turtle.

Naturally, when it did die, my younger brother Ward and I celebrated, and our mother was so incensed we weren't allowed to get anything for the tank for a year.