I invite you to take a little journey with me into the world of the Expat Dog Life! To entice you further, the international pet truly brings to light various underlying gems of intercultural living that our human masters might not see on the surface. So come along and walk with me a minute as I tell you my tales. It happens to be time for my daily walk anyway…
The saga begins…
My many tales begin when some “soon-to-be” empty-nesters purchased Me (an English Springer Spaniel) from an English woman living in France. They took me to their home several hours away where life soon took on quite an adventure!
You see, we live in France, but my owners are not French. So begins my international lifestyle as a dog.
Instead, my owners live and work here in southern France, serving in a church filled with people from all over the world. Imagine what luck! Even though they may only be human, to have other internationals around me was flip worthy to be sure!
The stories need to be told
But behind all the excitement that comes with international living, trust me when I say that things keep happening to this transplant of a pet. So I thought that I would begin to record some of my present and past exploits.
As the years have rolled by my stories have seemed to pile higher and higher and they just need to be told! I also thought that these little nuggets of adventures and tidbits of life would bring a smile to your face as you hear what life can be like living in another country and culture.
How You Name Your Dog in France
Our first trip down memory lane occurred when it came time to name me. No big deal, right?
One would think.
Actually, there did happened to be more stress than normal in choosing my lifetime name. You see, in France names for dogs need to correlate with the year in which they were born.
“Like hurricanes,” Robyn said.
I wonder why she chose that analogy? Hmmmm.
There really is a sensible reason for this national rule even though it seems so specific. With this regulation in place, anyone can determine the year of the dogs birth by the letter of his/her name. Voila! C’est très simple!
Stretching the Rules … just a bit
Now, in 2012 – the year of my birth, the letter to be used was the letter “H”.
(For those quick with math, that would currently make me a “grandpa of a dog” as I have now reached my tenth year! But oh, the stories that I can tell!)
My masters struggled for days with coming up with a really cool “H” name. The interesting thing about the letter “h” is that in French, the “h” sound is normally silent, so the pronunciation often comes into play as a name is chosen.
I bet you can currently think of several names right off the bat that would fit the bill. But trust me when I say, back in 2012 … nothing was cool!
In the end, being the non-conformists that they are, my masters registered me with the name “Happy.”
I beg you not to ask any questions at this point!
The good news is that since John is Greek by heritage, they decided to privately call me “Tzatziki.” And in case, you didn’t know what tzatziki is let me expound.
Tzatziki is that really delicious Greek cucumber sauce that all good Greeks enjoy with bread, feta cheese and olive oil and … ! I’m sorry. Just getting hungry, I guess. Yep, being a lover of every food available, I am cool with their name selection.
Living a “Different” Life
Life in France is all that I’ve ever known, but I certainly don’t mind sharing some of my thoughts on what it looks like to live here … as well as what it’s like to be different. Because, in the end … God made us all different! And we should not shy away from that fact, but instead enjoy the journey and laugh at ourselves when our “differentness” sticks out just a little more than normal! Trust me, I have history on this point.
I look forward to sharing with you some of my daily adventures both past and present, as I,
- being an English dog
- with a Greek name,
- live life here in France
- with American masters.
Please don’t ask … it really gets so complicated!
Welcome to the world of the expat dog!
