Becoming Chivas...

A while back, we bought a sweet cute little Jack Russell puppy.  Almost too cute to be a real animal, and at times I thought of her as a stuffed animal that came to life somehow. 
Her name had already been thought out by my daughter, and as we walked through the front door with puppy in hand, my daughter said; " I know the name!"
"Oh yeah, what?" I asked...
"Her name will be; CHIVAS!"

Sounds good I thought, and we proceeded to carefully and patiently say to the new puppy her name.  Over and over, we pronounced; Chiiiivassss...chivassss, chiiiivvaassssss......drawing the name out, and slowly saying it over and over.  Surely this puppy will soon learn her name, and wont mistake any of our other human words to be connected with her! we thought.

We had illusions of granduer for this puppy, and poured hours and hours into her, making her responses to us almost human.  And, at first she was always referred to as: C H I V A S!  
She learned to come to us by that name, rollover by that name, sit and laydown by that name... she learned what 'NO NO meant, after we called her by name. 
It was very apparent that her name was; Chivas.

I dont know when it happened, but slowly it all started to slide downhill.

No one thought much about it, but, it dawned on me, we hardly called our dog Chivas anymore!
She was now being saluted by such terms as:  Chivie weevie, neeners, Chickie Wee Wee, Chickie su mamma, Girrrrrrrrrrrllll...... and guess what?
She responds with happy leaps in the air, tail a waggin, and sometimes a bark or two!
We still call her Chivas from time to time, mostly when others ask us; 'What is her name>?  We make sure to answer, very distinctly and clearly; 'Chivas... (lest anyone call her anything different than her real name...)

I wonder why the digress?  Why cant we just be satisfied with the name Chivas?
Maybe its just human nature to do the baby talk thing...
as a matter of fact, I can think of a few 'pet names my kids have adopted over the years as well, but that would be for another post!