société centrale canine (13. 160)

The shelter where we adopted our rescue dog has the convention of assigning unknown birthdays to the Fourth of July, as a touching sign of independence (see also here and here). In France, however, one’s fellow-walkers and veterinarian can surmise the age of one’s companion by their name (which to my mind might impose the potential for compromised passwords) by a tradition established in 1926 by the registry of pedigree dogs that pairs a letter of the alphabet to each year. Not enforced by nearly universally adhered to (though we suspect all pet parents give out several names and find ways around prescriptiveness), the options cycle back every twenty years rotating through twenty initials (with the exclusion of some deemed too difficult, K, Q, W, X, Y and Z as difficult to find French names for, like for hurricanes in the US). Last year as a century ago was an A year with 2026 back to B for the puppies. They’re all good girls and good boys.