Once upon a time…
In the very earliest days of the breed, Keely Collins created the first Silken Windhound e-group on the platform then known as E-Groups. Keely owned a male called Mystic Caravan’s Merlin The Magician – a so-called long-haired Whippet, originally from Claybrook kennel, but renamed by Keely herself.
Keely also ran a New Age–oriented website, very likely under the name Mystic Caravan. Among the items she sold were handcrafted leather works.
One of them was this book cover.
At the time – around the year 2000 – it was outrageously expensive. Roughly the equivalent of 1,000 SEK. But I could not resist. It was a book: a blank notebook, bound in embossed leather, its pages completely empty.
I gave it to my mother.
When she passed away several years later, she had never written in it. But inside was a small handwritten note that read:
“The longest journey is the journey inward.”
My mother was a seeker. And I believe she knew.
After her death, I felt that the book had to be used for something special. Not simply as a notebook.
It became my Name Book.
Whenever I hear, see, or think of a word that could work as a puppy name, I write it down in the book. Often it leads to more names in the same spirit – a theme slowly taking shape.
Sometimes there are many names, sometimes only a few. Some suit bitches only, others males.
When a litter is born, and I know the number of puppies, their sexes and colours, I return to the Name Book to see whether one of the themes fits that particular litter.
There are two problems.
One is that many names are never used – there simply are not enough puppies in that litter.
The other is that the book now contains so many names and themes that even if I were given another lifetime, I would never manage to use them all.
Still, I continue
Whenever a good word appears – in conversation, in a book, or in passing – it is written down. The Name Book is still being filled.
It is not finished.
It is in use.
by the pen
Susann Stjernborg
Silken Windhounds since 1998
