I have been asked quite a bit lately where the name Oscoey came from. For some reason it always catches me by surprise and I have to wing a response that is short and somehow makes sense and doesn’t turn into an awkward conversation so I thought I would write a little bit about it today. There is a story behind it and I came up with the name many years ago when I first started thinking about blogging but life and children became my priority and I did not get around to actually starting a blog until March of last year.
So where did the name Oscoey come from? When my husband and I first started dating many, many years ago we were dogless and that was a sad state of being since we both love dogs. Then one day my dad called me up and told me about this black and tan dachshund that was his coworker’s. She had divorced and moved across the country with her two dogs and since she was now single she was working 14 hour days her dogs were all alone for that entire time. Needless to say they were not happy being stuck in an apartment for 14 hours a day by themselves and since she loved them and was a responsible owner she was trying to find someone else to take them in. One of the dogs was a lab mix that was too big for us but the other was a black and tan dachshund and if you know me I have a huge soft spot in my heart for dachshunds, especially black and tan ones. His name was Oscar and my daughter and I took one look at him and brought him home with us.
We kept the name Oscar but also gave him the names Mr. Oscarpants and Mr. Stinkerpants and he was the sweetest dog. He loved to cuddle and would sit patiently while my then 8 year old petted him and snuck him treats. His favorite thing to do was to headbutt you until you gave him a good pet. We fell in love with him immediately and my husband would come over and we would all go out to the park to run around.
Let me tell you though, he was a trouble maker! He was completely obsessed with food and everything had to be kept up and off the tables or he would eat himself sick. He had developed anxiety after being left alone for so long in the apartment and any time we left the house he would howl until we got back. My husband was in his first apartment with a “real” job and he caught dog fever and started looking for a dog of his own. He came across this red haired dachshund that was a wild puppy at nine months. She was from a family with little kids that really could not handle her wild puppy ways so he took one look at her and she became part of our family. My husband named her Zoey and Oscar took to her immediately.
We started leaving them alone together and Oscar’s anxiety majorly calmed down. Fast forward a few years (ok many) and my husband and I moved in together and got married. I came up with the name Oscoey during this time. I combined Oscar and Zoey to make Oscoey and told myself if I ever wrote a blog that is what I would name it. The other option was Zoscar but it just doesn’t quite have a good ring to it does it? Zoey and Oscar were very happy together. We called them secret best friends because even though they loved each other so much, they rarely snuggled when we were present. We caught them on camera many times snuggling when we were gone and they were constantly checking in on each other to make sure the other was ok but when we were home they really just wanted to play and get lots of love from us.
We had to let Oscar go shortly before our middle daughter’s first birthday. As is typical with dachshunds, the older he got the worse his back problems became and at some point we had to make a difficult decision. He was refusing medication and even though we were doing everything we could to make him comfortable he was just ready to go. I still think about him almost every day. We all do. He was a wonderful dog and we all miss him. Zoey was kind of lost for a while when her sidekick was gone. Now she is the older dog and starting to have some health problems of her own but luckily her back is strong and we haven’t had any issues with it so far.
It took us almost two years to even consider getting a new dog but we added George to our life in November of 2016 and even though his puppy antics are legendary we absolutely love having him in our family! Zoey usually does not like other dogs but she immediately welcomed George into her flock and George has learned to be careful with her and not squish her with his giant puppy feet.
So there you have it! Oscoey came from the combination of our original dogs’ names Oscar and Zoey. How do you come up with creative names?
