There Are No Mongrels Here

When I was visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico, a friend and I were walking along a road on the outskirts of the city and a van stopped and offered us a ride.  We hopped in the van, and I turned to the dog sitting in the back, and said: “Hello, Ralph”.

The dog wagged its tail and the driver expressed his amazement: “How did you know my dog’s name is Ralph?”

I said: “All dogs are named Ralph.  Just ask a dog what its name is, and it will say ‘Ralph! Ralph!’”. 

I did not go on to explain that I learned this fact when I was a teenager and a big fan of Pogo, the comic strip.  In the strip, all the dogs said “Ralph! Ralph!” instead of “Woof! Woof!”

I have always wanted to name a dog Ralph, so that I could get a chuckle out of asking my dog “What is your name?” and hearing it respond with “Ralph!”

I moved to Nigeria in 1975 to teach at the Advanced Teachers College in Sokoto.  I got a puppy and named him Ralph.

The name became problematical.  Nigerians had difficulty pronouncing Ralph --- it came out as “Raouf”.  OK, so I switched the puppy’s name to Raouf, the same name as the cheerful pot-bellied Arabic teacher at the college where I worked.

Now the name became even more problematical.  I found out that Raouf is one of the names of Allah.  It  (الرؤوف) means God The Kind One.  It is definitely uncool, if not blasphemous, to give a dog one of Allah’s names.

I was at a loss, and mentioned to some Belgian friends that I had a problem and needed a name for my puppy.  “What kind of dog is it?”  “Oh, he’s the typical Nigerian mongrel.”  I got scolded.  “Oh, no – no, no, no – the dogs here are not mongrels; they are sloughis.”

To drive their point home, the Belgians got out their illustrated French dictionary and showed me a picture of a sloughi.  I came to two quick realizations:

    1. Sloughi must be the French word for saluki.

    2. My puppy looked nothing like the dog in the illustrated French dictionary.

I wondered if the Belgians were playing a prank on me.  But, never mind, my problem had been solved.  

I anglicized the French word, and called my puppy “Slouggy”.  Nigerians could pronounce the name, the name had no connection to the Muslim religion, and I always got a chuckle out of knowing that my mongrel dog had a pedigreed name.

- . - .- . - . - . 

Here is a 2-minute video of a saluki singing along with Eva Cassidy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0h25RVd5LI

Here is a 7-minute video of Eva Cassidy (solo) at the Blues Alley.  Four years after her death, this woman, virtually unknown outside Washington DC, climbed to the top of the charts in Britain and has sold over 10,000,000 CDs worldwide.  A history of her career is at the end of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzFdlLzhVhM

- . - .- . - . - . 

NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com