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Christina M. Currie

Christina M. Currie's Touch of Spice column appears Fridays in the Craig Daily Press. E-mail her at director@craig-chamber.com

Craig — Even in the most surprising circumstances, people have nine months to get used to the idea of having a baby. I have to say the closest I've come to that type of commitment and responsibility - outside of my own children - was getting a puppy.

And I had about three hours to get used to that idea.

Originally, I saw this as a family project. I really wanted my 6- and 7-year-old girls to feel this was "their" puppy.

The first item on the list was giving him a name. The girls were impatient. They absolutely abhorred calling him "the puppy" and demanded that we christen him as quickly as possible.

I put a lot more stock in names - as someone told me, he's too special to have an unspecial name - and urged them to consider carefully.

This process scared the heck out of me.

Six-year-old Nikki has a small, white stuffed puppy that she's named Snowy Rainy Currie. Another white, stuffed toy carries the name Snowflake Icicle Currie.

Nikki's very descriptive. A bear won at the carnival has been dubbed Blueberry Lavender Purple (bet you can't guess what color he is) and yet another stuffed dog is now Purple Lavender Currie (again, guess).

You can see where we're going here. I'll give her points for picking fitting names, but none for originality.

It is funny, though, that when I suggested Blue as a puppy name (everyone comments on his brilliant blue eyes) she balked. I'd have thought that was right up her alley.

But, you can never guess when it comes to kids.

Because our new addition is an Australian Shepherd, we first went to a map of Australia looking for names of towns or tribes that might work.

That was a bit too outlandish for the girls, especially Katie, who was sold on "Charlie." I just started putting words together and then sounds.

It's a bad idea to brainstorm out loud with children around. When you hit on something they like, they're instantly sold and ready to close the process no matter what you might think.

I kept saying, "We'll put that on the list. We'll put that on the list."

Kids don't like lists that are not the Christmas or birthday sort. They were ready for a name.

We were still working on it as we drove home.

I started thinking about character and working my mind around the word mischievous. We'd only spent a few hours with the puppy, but what puppy isn't mischievous? He was a herding dog, in my mind, mischievous was a given.

"Pan," I mused, unaware that I was saying it out loud until I heard simultaneous shouts of "yes!" from the backseat.

It only took me a moment to figure out why that was so appealing. Peter Pan, Pan's Labyrinth and The Golden Compass were movies not far from their minds.

I wasn't totally convinced.

"We'll put that on the list," I said, and endured the groans.

I turned to Webster: "Pan. noun. Gk. Myth. The Greek god of shepherds and flocks. The god of woods, fields and flocks."

"Girls!," I yelled, running outside.

When they looked up I revealed, "He's Pan!"

And it was done.

Our choice does confuse many people.

"What's his name?"

"Pan."

"Pam?"

"No. Pa-nnnnnn. Na. Na."

"As in frying?" they ask, completely nonplussed.

"No, as in the Greek god of shepherds and flocks."

"Ahhhh," they say as the light dawns. We mostly get reluctant acceptance. Makes sense, but doesn't quite fit right.

But that's OK.

The girls and I understand our choice, though our reasons are each different.

And bottom line, that's the name he comes to.

Took him a lot less time to get used to his name than it's going to take us to get used to him. Dogs get nine weeks to prepare for a litter. They obviously adapt better.

Give us nine months, we'll be totally prepared.