Facts On Fido

A Look At Middletown's 2,300 Best Friends

June 01, 1997|By STACY WONG; Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Roll over, Rover.

The most popular dog name in this city is Max.

And if Max was a ``typical'' Middletown dog, he'd be a Labrador retriever. Neutered, too.

Sorry Max, but those are the facts.

This profile of the most common aspects in Middletown's canine population comes from records on the city's roughly 2,300 licensed dogs.

The records show Middletown residents are in sync with the rest of the nation in the trend toward owning bigger dogs. And the city's top 10 list of popular breeds closely resembles the national top 10 list issued by the American Kennel Club.

But at the same time, the records also reveal a canine culture as diverse as the city itself, with a range of dogs mirroring the diversity of its human owners.

The dog names, said Middletown veterinarian Robert Olson, can be important starting points to understanding the dogs.

``We look at the name and read through that to see how the owner relates to the dog,'' Olson said. ``Obviously, Rambo is different from Fifi.''

The Pieper-Olson Veterinary Hospital, where Olson practices, cares for about 150 pets named Max. Max is also the named of a retired city police dog.

What to make of the golden retriever, Rhubarb Banks, then? Ah, owner Elaine Banks is a garden club lady, and one of the prime movers behind the restoration of Long Hill Estate.

A member of Rhubarb's elite Indian Hill Cemetery morning walk group is a soft-coated wheaten terrier d'un certain age named for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

``Just like the Iron Lady,'' said Maggie's human companion, Katchen Coley. ``But Maggie's temperament is more like [her husband] Dennis Thatcher's, except she doesn't like alcohol.''

Most of the city's popular dog names are not so wittily derived, however. Jake, Brandy, Molly and Ginger top the list; the most popular cross-species moniker is Bear.

Then, there's Mork.

The young Pomeranian owned by 12-year-old Diane Eager was named for the visiting space alien played by Robin Williams in the old ``Mork and Mindy'' television series.

Mindy, the family's first Pomeranian, was named for a child Diane's mother saw on ``Rescue 911.'' Diane added a middle name, Zackery, for Mork, and used her paper route money to buy him a black leather jacket and cap.

On a sunny day last week, Mork Zackery Eager, sporting a colorful cat print kerchief, sat with his eyes half-closed in contentment as Diane biked him around the neighborhood in her basket.

``He gives me a sad look, and I end up picking him up,'' said Diane of her chauffeur duties.

Mork actually bucks Middletown trends in two ways.

First, he's a little dog in a city dominated by bigger breeds such as Labrador retrievers, German shepherds and golden retrievers.

These three breeds rank first, second and fourth on the city's list of popular breeds; the third biggest category belongs to mixed breeds.

Second, he is the only Mork in a city with 10 Mindys. If he ever makes a run for it with the Mindys in tow, it should be easy to get him back.

``Only trouble is, he doesn't answer to his name,'' said Diane's father, William Eager.

Mork lives on a street where other famous names abound. Across the street lives another dog, Murphy Brown, and a cat named Lucille Ball.

Allan Leventhal, a Bolton veterinarian, said dog names tend to reflect whatever popular film, movie or comic strip characters children happen to like at the time.

At one point, there were a lot of Lassies, Totos and Snoopys, but today there are Simbas (from the ``The Lion King'' movie), and Pongos (from another film, ``101 Dalmatians'').

Olson said he can sometimes tell about how old dogs are by their names. ``I just had Laverne and Shirley come in, and sure enough they're about 9 1/2 years old,'' he said.

Of course, the popular names and breeds do change from year to year. During the June dog license renewal month that starts today, poodles may move up a notch and displace beagles for fifth place in popularity in Middletown.

In general, the number of dogs licensed in Connecticut has declined over the years, according to the animal control division of the state Department of Agriculture.

Department figures show Connecticut had around 205,500 licensed dogs in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 1996. That's down about 26,100 dogs over the past 11 years.

But officials and veterinarians feel there aren't any fewer dogs around -- which means more dogs are going unlicensed, a problem in many communities.

``The greatest problem is not people not renewing, it's people not registering their dogs at all,'' said Jaime Seixas, Middletown's animal control officer. ``If they get a license, it's not a complicated thing to get their dog back.''

Seixas will wait at least a week before putting a dog up for adoption, or having it euthanized. But that's a short time because many dog owners often wait to see if their dog returns, she said.

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