Naming

I'm still at that stage of raising rabbits where I love naming the babies. I don't know if I'll ever get to calling them by their tattoo number. Somehow, cooing something like "you're a handsome young buck, Mr. TO12," just doesn't appeal to me.

I don't name the babies, however, until I've decided to keep them. The pets have to wait for their new owner to christen them. And I save the names I like best for the really good babies. It's harder to cull a baby with a cool name.

I like to line-name my babies. For example, my doe named Tippie has several daughters: Taylor, Tripod, Twilly, Tinsel. When I see a doe whose name starts with "T," I know she comes from Tippie. That works pretty well except Tippie is a good doe and I have a LOT of "T" names in my barn.

I also like to dig out the dictionary to find names. That's why I have names like "Tripod" and "Chambray" rather than real names. There aren't any Sarahs or Millies in my barn, although I did capitulate to Chloe once.

Timothy, being a somewhat normal 13-year-old, thinks my method of naming is weird. He prefers Bionicle names. If you don't have a 13-year-old boy, you may not know Bionicles but think of them as Lego action figures on steroids. They have their own names and storylines.

All of which to explain why we have a Matau and a Nokoma in our barn. Don't ask me any more about those.

I once tattooed a baby "KO" because her parents were Kashi and Oreo. So Timothy named her "Knock Out." We're nothing if not inconsistent in our naming.

I have friends who name their lines based on cookie names: Oreo, Macaroon, etc. Another breeder used Beatles' names. Not just John and Ringo and Paul, but names from songs. So they'd have Eleanor Rigby or Strawberry Fields.

When my friend, Kay, gets a Holland from another breeder, she likes to name it after the breeder. So she has Ted and Jason and Kathy and Timothy caged up in her barn.

But my friend, Patty, is anxiously awaiting the day that I totally lose my marbles and name a baby "Frying Pan." And I'm thinking about it.