Why we call him “Paws”

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: August 28, 2008

I recently had a vet appointment with Luckie and was explaining to Dr. Quatmann that he has a lot of nicknames… she told me that was very normal and appropriate that our furry friends have endearing names we use interchangeably. 

Aside from Luckie.. there is “pupalupagus” (name rhymes with the giant sloth from sesame street), gus- gus for short and more and more we just refer to him as “Paws” because if you look at this picture for such a little dog he has some pretty big paws and they turn out as if he is always in a little bulldog stance…

When I adopted him from the SPCA… I didn’t care that he only has one ear or that he is much shorter than “normal” beagles.. I could just tell he was a good dog that needed a home and he has been by far the best pet Matt and I could ever ask for… people have told us he is what is known as a “bench leg” beagle.  His little legs almost look like the legs of a bench so it made sense to us and again we don’t really care what kind of beagle he is as long as he is ours… anyway we were having a conversation with a man who says he is a beagle breeder and he was inquiring about our dog… after I described Luckie… I am not kidding this is what he said… oh that is a deformity… we kill that kind (referring to the short legs)  if one is born in a litter… you could have picked up my jaw from the ground… we were outside of church so I restrained myself and said…“Well, that is the only kind we like…“  I had to then immediately remove myself from this person’s presence…

I think that our differences give us character… both in people and in pets…