By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Everybody Loves Raymond Orr Else is not the name of a new TV sitcom. It’s the name of an eight-month-old Akita who’s in the running for top dog in Nationwide’s Wacky Pet Name contest.
Pet parents Brad and Rachel Eckhart of Bowling Green packed a lot of references into their newest Akita puppy’s name, who at eight months weighs in at an un-puppy-like 100 pounds.
Like the many layers of an onion, “his name is a combination of one of the shows we like and the names of two of the Boston Bruins’ best defensemen, Raymond (Jean) Bourque, and another Beantown hockey great, Bobby Orr,” said doggie dad Brad, who is a long-time Bruins and Red Sox fan. The puppy’s name also unofficially at the end has the initials JBD (Jean Bourque Donovan) for Ray Donovan, a fictional TV and film character from south Boston.
The “big, gentle guy and big ham” is also known as Ray Ray, Sweet Baby Ray and Donnie, a Boston-based niece’s preferred nickname.
The Eckharts have raised Akitas for many years, including Chewbacca, Fenway Baahk (another nod to a Boston landmark and accent), and Ray’s current sibling Tessie, named for the Boston Red Sox rally song by the Dropkick Murphys.
“Akitas are a different breed but very trusting and loyal,” he said. All of their dogs are from an Oklahoma group and have been trained to be service dogs for the husband-and-wife team who both are military veterans. Brad is also retired from the Bowling Green Fire Department and working a post-retirement job.
They weren’t sure they were ready for another dog after Fenway died. But when the breeder said they had a puppy that was gentle like Fenway had been, they caved. And when they went to pick him up when he was about nine weeks old, they fell in love with the pup right away because of his sweet nature. He’s grown like a weed and is likely to reach 120 pounds or more when he’s full-grown, Brad said.
They were nervous about how Tessie might react to a puppy in the house. By easing the introductions, they got along great. “Tessie gets annoyed with his goofy puppy antics sometimes, but they have never had any issues,” he said.
Everybody Loves Raymond Orr Else is currently in “good citizen” training now before he starts his service training. He was crate-trained initially but learned quickly to be free-range, his proud puppy papa said.
He earned a spot in Nationwide’s Wacky Pet Name Contest after his family purchased pet insurance in his full name. They lost Chewbacca to leukemia previously and 12 ½-year old Fenway Baahk in May 2022 to Detrusor-Urethral dyssynergia which causes bladder distention and a failure in quality of life. They were able to purchase pet insurance for him when he was 11, which helped with expenses incurred during many vet visits, Brad said.
“The company has been phenomenal throughout the process. They paid the claims without question. We couldn’t have asked for more,” he added.
Because they experienced how beneficial pet insurance was for Fenway, they purchased policies for Tessie and more recently for Everybody Loves Raymond Orr Else. That’s how Raymond was included in the contest for this year.
As the only nominee from Ohio, Raymond is competing against nine other dogs with names such as Barkimedes, Doc Pawlliday, Scooby Moo, The Dude LeBowWowski, and Maple Bacon on a Biscuit.
There are also categories for cats and exotic pets. Cat competitors include Business Cat, Green Bean Catserole, Spicy Beef Purrito and Sir Catrick Stewart. Audrey Hopbun(ny), Rabbit Downey Jr., parakeet Birdie Sanders and Me’Shell the turtle are among the competitors in the exotic pets category.
The wackiest names in each category will be determined by a public vote that runs now through Friday (June 9). People can vote once a day at petinsurance.com/wackypetnames. Winners will be announced June 13.
“Being a finalist is fun, even though we don’t know what we win other than the title,” Brad joked. “We’ve been promoting it on our Facebook and Instagram accounts to family and friends.”
