Mama Mia!

Now that the newest HP puppies have gone to their new foster homes and begun their lives as service dogs in training their new foster families have the joy - and angst - of trying to find the perfect name for their pup. Helping Paws has just three simple rules regarding naming:

• Sponsorship = Right of Naming
• Foster = Can be "sponsor" and thus name the pup
• The name chosen cannot have already been given to a Helping Paws dog - either living or dead, in service or retired.

One of the fosters in Belle's Big Dog class is also the new home for
Peanut - the pup from Tiga's litter selected for the breeding program. Little Peanut was at class last night and naturally the talk turned to what her foster family was considering for a name. Peanut's foster mom stated that they wanted a name that related to motherhood - the Peanut's chosen "career" with Helping Paws.

This morning I decided to have some fun and googled "famous mothers", "greek pantheon", "roman pantheon", and "mother goddesses". After a great deal of laughter and yes, some horror at what I read I realized I had the makings of a great blog. Here's just a sampling of what I found:

Famous Mothers:

• Marie Curie - Not only was she a Nobel prize winner herself - she also raised a Nobel prize winning daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie. Although we don't expect HP breeding dogs to be Nobel prize winners we do expect our breeding dogs to produce incredible service dogs. Possible name suggested - Curie.
• Clara McBride - aka "Mother Hale" who started the Hale House in Harlem to care for infants born to drug addicted moms. On second thought, maybe "drug addiction" and HP Breeding bitch isn't quite the right association I'm looking for here.
  

Mother Goddesses:

• Juno - a Roman goddess with an epithet that means "she who brings children into the light". Juno is also known as the "Queen of Sex" - hmmm, maybe not such a good choice for a home that has human teenagers as well as HP breeding dogs.
• Nona - a Roman goddess known as the guardian of gestation.
• Holda - a germanic goddess tasked with bringing children to expectant mothers. She has a dark side, however, and her full story makes her sound like the witch in Hansel and Gretel.
• Nanshe - a Sumerian goddess that healed her fathers paralysis brought on by her mothers curse. She is symbolized by both the fish and the pelican. The fish represents the love of water and the pelican the role of protector and caregiver. The pelican has another skill - upchucking food for the young ones. Given that Peanut is a daughter of Tiga, this trait sounds familiar!
  

There were a host of other possibles, but in the interest of keeping this blog brief, that's all, folks - at least for today.

One more thing. I was absolutely shocked to find that my name wasn't listed first (or anywhere for that matter) under Mother Goddesses. I've just got to get cracking on those kids of mine.