Dogs with a name for knowing their place

SIR – Lord Carrington owned a pair of long-haired miniature dachshunds named Keith and Prowse (Letters, December 24). The ticket agency’s motto was: “You want the best seats. We have them.” Peter Wellby Chiddingly, East Sussex SIR – I did indeed name our pug, Trump, after William Hogarth’s pug of the same name (Letters, December 19). Sadly, he died last year aged only seven years.

The only consolation we have had is that we do not have to call out his name in Richmond Park and see the look of horror on fellow dog-walkers mistakenly believing we had named him after Donald. Loretta Prentice London SW14 SIR – To celebrate my daughter Alice graduating with a lower second class honours degree, we named our new Burmese kitten Tutu. James Logan Portstewart, Co Londonderry SIR – The son of a guest remarked on the strange names my neighbour had given his two labradors. “I heard him calling them in the field,” he explained. “Come here, Damn You, come here, Will You.” Joyce Muir Rudgwick, West Sussex SIR – Some years ago, my wife and I accidentally caught an American movie of the Fifties or Sixties, title unknown, but we will always remember the family’s dogs’ names, which were Get off the Rug and You Too.

When we were adopted by a stray cat, in addition to our own, he became Spare Cat, definitely under the inspiration of those dogs’ names.

What was the film? It was fun. Barry Westwood New Malden, Surrey SIR – A while ago, near here, someone called the police to report a man loping across fields crying “Help me! Help me!” An impressive response involved cars, plus a hovering helicopter.

It transpired the man was trying to get his dog, Alfie, to come home. A H Lee Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire