Several weeks ago we posted about our pet’s nicknames on our social platforms. The response was overwhelming and completely entertaining. We were relieved we aren’t the only ones that call our dogs whatever comes to mind at the moment. However, there is more to the story for us and a much deeper correlation to our letters in the book. If you’ve read it you’ll understand…. If you haven’t, well it’s time to get to work and purchase a copy here. For crazy Amazon Prime members like myself, you can find it here!
Throughout the book there are several stories about Toby. Toby is our rescue from day one and he’s always a source of creativity. More importantly are the many names he responds to, and the roots for how they came about.
As my son grew up, our family saw his love for humor and creative nicknames. At family dinners, he always had a new name for his sisters, which led to much laughter. Friends and family started asking him for nicknames for themselves, their friends, or their pets. Sometimes he’d think about it for months; other times, he’d create one instantly, and they were always perfect. All his soccer teammates had nicknames that even the coaches used, and the boys loved them.
Many of those nicknames stayed through high school and now into college, so it was natural to include my son’s creativity in our book.
The letters in the book are 1,000% true. Toby was a disaster at first—he tore through couches, ate mattresses, and destroyed toys. Despite this, we kept him because my son insisted, and in my heart I didn’t really want to let him go. My son created the alter ego Gilbert, which turned into Glibbert, Gibbs, Glibs, and Gibby. When Toby was being a nuisance he went buy the names associated with Gilbert. Toby also became Tob, Toes, Tovasclio, and Tovas. His sisters have many alternate names as well including Cluck and Bug. While they might have nicknames for me I don’t want to hear, I’ve always been called Dad, I’ll always be Dad and I’m OK with that.
Share your nickname adventures with us. You never know when your pet could end up in our of our books!
