The story of my name

In late November 2007, my parents were shopping at a supermarket and there was a pet shop there. A Golden Retriever puppy was so cute that my aunt, my mom's sister wanted one right away. My parents wanted a puppy, too, but did not want to make a hasty decision.

Prior to this, they had seen an adorable stray puppy, and they wanted to adopt him when returning home, but the puppy was never there when they returned. Lucky me.

So, they returned home after shopping and they took the decision that night, after hours of debate. They decided for a German Shepherd and a boy. Mom searched for names and they decided to name the boy Max, but just in case she also searched for girl names - she loved Emma.

The people who had a German Shepherd kept delaying things - December passed, January came almost to an end and my parents already had puppy fever. One day dad took mom shopping, tricked her and got her into a pet shop. There was a Golden Retriever girl mom played with and visited lots of times, and dad told her "pick a puppy" Dad wanted her, mom too, so they came a long way from a German Shepherd and a boy! Emma, the Golden Retriever, came into their lives tail wagging - she knew she was going home. Unfortunately Emma crossed the bridge after fighting the terrible distemper virus. She was a true fighter, so bold and courageous.

My parents decided to wait, so that they didn't expose a new puppy (me) to the terrible virus. They contacted a breeder and waited for months for me to be born and finally come home. In the days prior to me coming home dad changed his mind about the name and told mom he wanted to call me Karma - my official name they both love.

My mom still wanted Emma a lot. On my way home, in the first half an hour or so, I experienced motion sickness and I threw up twice. Mom freaked out, she had flash backs of Emma (not me) being terrible sick and refused to call me Emma. So I got to be called sweetie pie, cutie, etc till I got home - no name mentioned. Once home, mom was trying to make me come by calling my name - Karma, clapping her hands, uttering my name cheerfully, etc. But I was looking to her with " WHO are you calling that?" kind of eyes. I am Emma. Yep, after that she made the mistake to call me Emma once she was away, she just called me in a regular manner, not the way you teach puppies their name, and I answered right away. Dad laughed a bit, mom tried several times to teach me that my name was Karma, but each time she did that, I was just looking at her. They eventually decided that I would only respond to Emma as name and that was it. I have answered to this name right away, no training needed at all.