Some of you know my trip to Nashville was a mission to get a new Smooth Fox Terrier puppy. We hadn’t expected to find the perfect puppy so soon after Oscar’s sad passing. I’m not sure we are quite ready for a new puppy just yet. But Smoothie puppies are hard to come by, and when you see a good one, you go for it.
Our new little fellow is Jetstream’s Suit and Tie. And his little black head is a perfect match for Sally’s (although Sally has a tiny white snipe on one side of her muzzle.) So the picture above is from when he was a little tyke.
Of course, we won’t go around calling “Hey, Jetstream’s Suit and Tie” every time we want him to come. While purebred dogs get a fancy kennel name, they also get a shorter “call name”. All our other dogs have been young enough that we’ve discarded the suggested call names and given them our own. But I have always felt that, if a puppy is already responding to his name, you can’t really change it. This little guy knows his name. So despite our long-standing tradition of giving our dogs fancy English names — or our newer tradition of naming them for Liberal heroes — the name sticks.
And what is that name? Well, if you picked up that “Suit and Tie” came from a song, you can probably guess.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. I have found Justin Timberlake to be an engaging actor. And I do give him points for having been a Mouseketeer. But he’s not my kind of musical artist.

Ranch Manager Louis says I should name him after the Justin work boots that so many of our ranch guys favor. I even have a pair that looks like this.
On the other hand, naming a little Tennessee pup after one of Tennessee’s most famous celebrities does have a certain symmetry.
And just for kicks, here’s that other Justin:
He is a little love. So happy he and Sally Yates get to grow up together. I guess maybe calling out JT might sound a lot like Sally. Justin is a good name too and the Tennessee roots are there. Time will tell as his personality continues to emerge.
They may have dissimilar body types but the heads and faces could not be more in tune. Loving this new chapter’s beginning. Helps heal the sorrow.
Handsome dude! We got our Django in Nevada, and his AKC name was Reno. That had to go. Django was an easy transition and an appropriate name as he’s a little Gypsy dog known for his hot licks.