You seriously don't want to know! THere are so many of them I'd be here all night just typing their names :P I can tell you though that all of my dogs I have had as an adult have all had American place names... My first dog was a golden retriever called Indianna.. we all know where that came from and in the film the dog was called Indianna and Indianna Jones took his nickname from that.. My next dog was called Wyoming.. Why for short ... I thought it would be hysterically funny to be out there calling, ' why, why, why' in a loud voice.. It was funny too... for 2 seconds and that was it!
And we are going to be getting a new baby dog soon.. my daughter has already named her, even before she was born.. Cali - short for California :)
Ohhh I also had a cat once called Mississippi - she was an awesome cat.. brown... and we were sooooo in love with her..
LOL nooooooooooo it's a measure of my fondness for America.. honest answer and no, much as Americans seem preoccupied with the independence thing.. to us it was a tiny blip on a very busy history.. I remember an AMerican saying to me once that he couldn't believe that Brits weren't taught about the American war of independence.. Thing is.. it was just one of very many, to us relatively small events.. The absolute truth is .. if you ask almost any Brit.. we don't think about it, we don't care about it.. it's not something that is important to us.. it was all a very, very long time ago.. and the troops we sent out were a small number which when you bear in mind all the other things we had going on at the time.. is kinda interesting... and says it all..
You have to remember, and I have heard Americans so many times go on about our empire and American independence.. like I said it was a long time ago.. we are a nation that has a LONG history, long, long.. it's insignificant to us.. but more than that..for the most part we know that those times, (which are way more complex than most people seem to understand) were not times we are proud of.. for the most part in almost every independence we had.. there were Brits campaigning for and helping it happen.. ditto India.. and ditto that much as we had slaves and were instrumental in the slavery trade WE were at the forefront of ending slavery..
SO i really hope you understand what I am saying.. I truly do want to inform and help people understand things.. especially as I have heard a number of Americans express that sentiment.. we truly don't even think about it.. it's not important.. it was a tiny event on a very busy history line.. so no we don't regret it.. for the most part we think, and were instrumental in returning independence to many of the nations we once annexed, (annexed remember WITH the help of their own people). It's way more important and a relfection that we have, for the very largest part stayed friends and on good terms with pretty much all of the nations that were once part o f the empire..this includes, I might add America.. one of our closest friends.. so I think that's something that is telling.. they mostly those we annexed chose to become part of the commonwealth.. chose, weren't forced.. We did wrong, and I personally have never heard anyone say otherwise. we learned from it for sure, but as I always say.. this must be put into context... those times were barbaric times when ALL of europe were doing the same thing and often worse... and it was a long time ago..
As I say ... I hope you find this helpful.. I do hope you will learn from it.. I am surprised to hear you express that but fortunately I am not offended as I have encountered this before from Americans. If you think about it, and hopefully knowing what you now know.. the much more lkely explanation is. that I am fond of America and Americans.. I care about your country.. and my fondness comes from having a good many friends out there.. I say it often.. when I first got online in 1994 there were few Brits online.. so I met and made many AMerican friends.. many of them are still friends over 20 years later.. awesome people.. In some cases I have been able to actually meet the friends I met back then in person.. the last one was last year when she and her husband came to the UK.
Ooh one other thing I usually include in discussions, that I seem often to have with Americans who seem to be being taught a rather simplistic version of events and don't seem to really understand how it all panned out.. is that we must also remember that during those times, and it was a VERY long time ago, MOST of the Brit people were NOT in charge, they had NO say... so what I am saying is... that during those times, which are understandably SO important to you and your nation, most of us, the Brit people were little more than slaves ourselves... Back then aristocrats ruled, people who were rich and powerful... Lord this and that.. back then mostly only they and their kids got an education.. most of the rest of them, my ancestors were poor and didn't have any say in what happened.. CHildren were sent out to work at a young age, there was no healthcare, poor people couldn't afford medicine or doctors, we were ruled, just as say India was by these aristocrats..
I guess this is another reason we don't even think about it. July 4th is celebrated here. we happily allow Americans here to enjoy themselves.. we know what it celebrates but we don't care.. because we don't feel it affects us or is relevant to us.. it's harmless... no threat whatsoever... because quite simply most of our ancestors were servants in large houses of the rich and powerful or in factories owned by the rich and powerful.. we had NO say. Most didn't even have the right to vote.. only wealthier more educated people could vote.. and the majority didn't fit into that category... so we don't feel it's any reflection on us as such.. had the common people had a vote and say back then, no doubt we would not have approved of the things that were done.. I often say.. it wasn't MY ancestors who made the decisions to exploit and annex other countries, ( remember it was never that simple anyway it was ALWAYS working with leaders and locals so they must take some blame for exploiting their own people and in the case of America many of you came from Brits to start with...it was natural at some point you would want to be self determining as all teens desire) MY ancestors were little more than slaves.
It IS interesting to note.. that things were changing... more and more the common people WERE given education.. so some aristos were actually beginning to see the error of their ways I feel.. we were given the vote.. well men were.. the common people, us ordinary folk began to be empowered.. by the aristos arguably..and it seems that for the very most part us common folk believe it's wrong to take advantage of other countries... As you can see - it's really not as simple as many Americans seem to be being taught.. but that's sorta it from the Brit side.. we, as a nation ally ourselves with America - certainly more than we do with Europe.. we tend to feel closer to US/Canada than EU ... perhaps a language thing.. we truly never think oh dear I wish we still ruled the States.. it would be hard to meet any Brit who thought America should not be independent.. it never crosses our mind.. we don't lament, as some would love to believe (again oversimplistic and poor teaching) the loss of the empire... almost none of us think that was a good time in our history.. nor was slavery.. all appalling and we are a very different people... mainly perhaps cos the common man has much more power, education and say now... I've never met anyone who said they are proud of what happened.. we learned lessons and for the very most part we do NOT exploit or rape other lands now.. that isn't the case with some nations.
Why why why did you name them after States because your extra patriotic or was there another reason. I think its really cool. THanks Adaydreambeliever. ;)
The first half of the one crazy cat's name is Luna (can you guess the rest?). The semi-feral cat is Seal.
One of the cockatiels is Pearl, the other two are nameless.
The two hayburners are Sadie and Aspen.
The "semi-tame" ones, like the raccoon that hangs around looking for handouts has no name but there is a crow that's not terribly skittish (tolerates me walking around outside) I call Jasper.
Stew? We stuff 'em and roast 'em, just like possum and whistle-pig (nothing better than that "Truck-Struck Woodchuck" over at the Road Kill Cafe).
But our pet raccoon isn't really a pet, just a wild one that's found the cat food bowl for the outside feline and the suet block for the woodpeckers. The crows too (Jasper and his murder), but we do encourage them to hang out as they were great hawk and fox alarms when we had chickens.
You have woodpeckers? We have tree holes that make our trees have bad pock marks. Our Racoons eat all our outdoor cats food also. We were shooting at a rocoon once and accidentally shot one of our cats. It was a sad day. ;(
Adaydreambeliever 