Meet Romulus Siberius (aka Apollo), originally uploaded by Christopher [cbpix.com].

So yesterday on our way home from shopping, we stopped at the place we get our pet fish to say hello to a young African Gray parrot with which my wife has had many conversations. Next thing I knew this little guy was in our living room.

Normally I can resist either the puppy, or my wife’s cajoling, and we leave sans puppy. In this case though, I was overcome.

Heather tends toward yippy little dogs that our cats would eat, so I was thrilled that she took interest in what will be a fairly large dog.

The name Romulus Siberius came about from a combination of some things. We got him on a Friday in March. Romulus was the son of Mars, the God of War, after whom the month of March is named, and who was the lover of Venus, after whom the day Friday was named. Siberius is a combination of Siberian and Tiberius (thanks to ShutterBugGeek for the suggestion!). Siberian is self explanatory, and Tiberius was named after the Tiber river, where Romulus and Remus were set adrift as infants before being raised by a wolf. It is also, of course, the middle name of Captain James T. Kirk.

While I think Romulus Siberius is a bad ass name, it’s a bit of a mouthful; so his call name is Apollo. Well, it’s really because my wife didn’t like Romulus, so we compromised…

And now, if you’re still reading, you know more than you ever wanted to know about the etymology of our new puppy’s name!

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