What's with a name?

OK, you've just brought your new dog (or cat) home. "Hey, you" won't do for very long, so you begin the search for just the perfect name. I have friends who manage to do this in a snap -- my friend Shirley, for example. "Nash" she announced in all confidence in an e-mail to me, literally moments after she'd brought home a kitten so tiny he still needed to be bottle fed.

Me? Names are a bit more complicated in my universe. I think it's because I'm a writer, but maybe it's just some strange personal quirk of indecisiveness that can paralyze me every so often. I often spend days poring over lists, my own and others' (if you're not aware, there are exhaustive lists of pet names now online). I bounce various possibilities off friends, I try a few out on the dog. I wring my hands, I say to myself, "It's OK, but .... there must be a better name out there, somewhere. And so I stop thinking about it altogether. 

Last weekend, I adopted a new dog, a border collie. She is beautiful and she came with the very appropriate name of "Purdy." That's a fine enough name, except I've discovered that I absolutely cannot say it without using a long, hillbilly twang. "Purrdeee." I am making both of us crazy. 

The right name will come. I'm simply named out. So for now, it's "Hey! You! -- Purrrdeee."