By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Everyone loves Raymond Orr. Else is not the name of a new television sitcom. This is the name of an eight-month-old Akita who is in the running for the title of best dog in National Wacky Pet Name Contest.
Pet parents Brad and Rachel Eckhart of Bowling Green put a lot of credentials into the name of their new Akita puppy, who at eight months old weighs 100 pounds, which is not a puppy.
Like the many layers of an onion, “his name is a combination of one of the shows we love and the names of two of the Boston Bruins’ best defensemen, Raymond (Jean) Bourque, and another great player of Beantown hockey, Bobby Orr.” said doggie dad Brad, who is a longtime Bruins and Red Sox fan. The puppy’s name also unofficially has the initials JBD (Jean Bourque Donovan) at the end for Ray Donovan, a fictional television and film character from South Boston.
The “tall, nice, big ham guy” is also known as Ray Ray, Sweet Baby Ray and Donnie, the favorite nickname of a Boston-based niece.
The Eckharts have bred Akitas for many years, including Chewbacca, Fenway Baahk (another nod to a landmark and a Boston accent) and Ray’s current brother, Tessie, named after the Red’s rally song Boston Sox by the Dropkick Murphys.
“Akitas are a different breed but very trusting and loyal,” he said. All of their dogs are owned by a group in Oklahoma and were trained to be service dogs for the husband and wife team, both military veterans. Brad is also retired from the Bowling Green Fire Department and is employed post-retirement.
They weren’t sure if they were ready to take in another dog after Fenway’s death. But when the breeder said he had a sweet puppy like Fenway, they relented. And when they picked him up when he was about nine weeks old, they immediately fell in love with the puppy because of his sweet nature. It grew like a weed and will probably reach 120 pounds or more when fully grown, Brad said.
They were nervous about Tessie’s reaction to a puppy in the house. By facilitating introductions, they got along wonderfully. “Tessie is sometimes annoyed by his goofy puppy antics, but they’ve never had any problems,” he said.
Everyone loves Raymond Orr. Else is currently undergoing “good citizen” training before starting her service training. He was initially cage trained, but quickly learned to live free, said his proud puppy dad.
He won a place in the Nationwide Wacky Pet Name competition after his family took out pet insurance in his full name. They have already lost Chewbacca to leukemia and 12 1/2-year-old Fenway Baahk in May 2022 to detrusor-urethral dyssynergia which causes bladder distention and quality of life failure. They were able to get pet insurance for him when he was 11, which helped cover expenses incurred during numerous vet visits, Brad said.
“The company has been phenomenal throughout the entire process. They paid the claims without question. We couldn’t have asked for more,” he added.
Because they saw how beneficial pet insurance was for Fenway, they purchased policies for Tessie and more recently Everybody Loves Raymond Orr Else. This is how Raymond was included in this year’s competition.
As the only contestant from Ohio, Raymond is competing against nine other dogs with names such as Barkimedes, Doc Pawlliday, Scooby Moo, The Dude LeBowWowski and Maple Bacon on a Biscuit.
There are also categories for cats and exotic animals. Cat’s competitors include Business Cat, Green Bean Catserole, Spicy Beef Purrito and Sir Catrick Stewart. Audrey Hopbun (ny), Rabbit Downey Jr., Birdie Sanders the parakeet and Me’Shell the turtle are among the competitors in the exotic animal category.
The craziest names in each category will be determined by a public vote which will take place until Friday June 9. People can vote once a day at petinsurance.com/wackypetnames. The winners will be announced on June 13.
“It’s fun to be a finalist, even though we don’t know what we’ll win besides the title,” Brad joked. “We promoted it on our Facebook and Instagram accounts to our family and friends.”