Some Things Just Won't Be Denied

The cute guy to my right is our dog, Bowie. My wife picked him up at the pound a few years ago and brought him home unannounced. Today is our son's 19th birthday and the thought of birthdays got my wife to pondering Bowie's.

In the case of Bowie's birthday, he was a stray when first brought to the pound, so there is no record of his actual birth date. That means we get to choose one for him. Ah, the responsibilies of pet ownership!

When my wife began cruising the pounds looking for a new dog, she was not overly impressed by a dog the pound people had named Elvis. He was sort of funny looking and very noisy; Elvis sang. He would howl when he was happy or when he wanted attention and it was this habit of howling that earned him the Elvis moniker. They named him after Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll.

Eventually though, my wife was won over by the sweetness of Elvis and brought him into our family. At first I was the only one not sure about the dog, but everyone agreed that we did not like the name Elvis.

There was no denying that this dog was a singer though and my first suggestion was to name him Torme, since he seemed like a crooner to me. My wife nixed that idea along with Sinatra; she couldn't see herself calling out, "Here Sinatra! Here boy!"

Which is how we ended up with Bowie. Our dog is named after David Bowie, which brings us back to the question of birthdays. We could have given him Elvis's birthday, since that was the name we first knew him as, but my wife was against that. You see, she and Elvis share the same birthday, January 8th.

"No," she said. "Let's give him David Bowie's birthday. He is named after David Bowie so he should share a birthday with him." Fine with me. I looked up David Bowie's birthday; it's January 8th.

Some things just can't be denied.