This article was submitted by my mom.
Everyone who is introduced to little Nebula loves her instantly. She is only 10 weeks old, who doesn’t love a tiny puppy? Monsters, obviously. But when I tell people her name, I sometimes get blank stares.
“The alien chick from Guardians of the Galaxy?”
While I don’t hate the reference (some of my favorite movies!), I do think it’s funny that this is what first occurs to people. But this begs the question, why Nebula? Here’s the story:
My husband (Sean) and I had been browsing rescue sites for several months trying to find the right dog to fit in with us. Honestly, I would have taken just about any small dog (small because we live in a one-bedroom apartment downtown), but Sean had his heart set on a puppy. He wants to be with them from beginning to end and gets a kick out of training them to be the best doggo they can be. With his preferences in mind, I’d been searching a while. One evening, I stumbled across a pupper that I knew in my heart was THE ONE.
Brighter Days Dog Rescue is an organization run out of Boulder, CO. My sister had adopted a puppy from them in the Fall and told me I should follow them on Facebook. I’m thrilled that I did, because I found little Neb through them! When I saw her photo on their site and read the description, I knew she was the one for us.
After submitting my interest in adopting her, I was suffering from severe impatience/anxiety. That night and the following weekend, I thought for sure someone else already had dibs on her, that I hadn’t been quick enough to inquire, a whole host of thoughts ran through my head on how it could go wrong. I, nearly tearfully, exclaimed to Sean, “but she’s my soul-puppy!” to explain to him why I HAD to meet this dog.
Sean said, “Well, if we get her, we can name her Soul.”
Now, I didn’t think Soul was necessarily a great name for a tiny girl puppy. It seemed a little bit hippie, a little bit like naming your son River or your daughter Spirit. All names are well and good if that’s what you’re into, but they didn’t really fit my vibe. I replied, “maybe S-O-L? Like the Sun?” Hmm, yeah that seems trendy and on-vibe, but not necessarily a name that lets you know this is a girl-dog. For some reason, these things are important to me.
The next day, I learned that Sean and I would get to meet her! This meant we’d set up a meeting with the foster and be able to adopt her on the spot. It was a big night of celebration! After we wound down, it was time to start seriously thinking about names.
“How about Star?” Sean suggested. Literally the same meaning as Sol. The Sun = A Star.
“Well, if we’re going with an astronomy theme… How about Nebula?” I recalled my favorite astronomical feature from high school astronomy class. I’ve been obsessed with looking at them ever since. I love galaxy print accessories, I usually set my desktop backgrounds to one, the current background on my phone was a nebula. The gas and dust clouds that produce stars have fascinated me for many years. And once I let go of how geeky it sounded… it made a pretty good puppy name.
Once we actually met the tiny puppy, no other name seemed to make sense. She will forever be our little Neb. ❤
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