Under normal circumstances, a dog’s name should be decided by the dog’s owner. A battle of the name is up for debate when a dog owner brought out the family drama to a public Reddit forum. An anonymous person shared their story of adopting a three-month-old puppy from the humane society and they named the new addition as Clover.
During the excitement of puppy days, the owner was posting pictures of their puppy to their Facebook account. Things were adorable until one distant family member got a trip down memory lane after reading about the puppy’s name. They had a dog named Clover who died and commented about the tragic loss.
Sympathy is a natural response but things start to feel unsettling when she feels entitled to that name. The commentator’s husband reached out to the dog owner and told her to change the name. He stated that the posts were making his wife depressed, so the supportive husband reached out to fix the situation.
The poster replied saying: “I already decided it’s her name and didn’t name the dog after her dead dog if she isn’t happy seeing it then just unfriend me and you won’t.” It seems like a valid response but the husband put his foot down. He argued back that other family members would see it and keep bringing it up in discussions.
The poster was confused since she doesn’t know these family members well and they are pretty much strangers. The dog has been called Clover for over a month now and it’s not worth going through the hassle of changing the name for a random person. Despite her gut instincts, she needed external validation. So is she the asshole in this situation?
A person replied: “Nobody ‘owns’ a name, whether for an animal or for a human. Sure it’s hard (at first) to see another pet with the same name but if you liked the name you have to understand that someone else is also going to like it. NTA. Please pet your dog from me.”
People were shocked to see this form of entitlement play out: “Strangers don’t get to determine your life. The world is not her safe space, can’t believe that behavior is coming from a grown man and woman.”
There are more than two dogs in the world with the name Clover. The woman is going to have to eventually learn to live with that loss and her savior husband will have to accept that.