Dog Names Meaning Kind

Famous psychologist Sigmund Freud had lived 70 years of his life dog-free. However, Freud's life took a dramatic twist when his adult daughter decided she wanted a canine companion to go on walks and brought home a large German Shepherd named Wolf. Wolf was Freud's first exposure to dogs, and he was instantly hooked. Freud was so moved by Anna's dog that she wrote,  "I did not give Papa a present for his birthday because there is no present suitable for the occasion. I brought only a picture of Wolf that I had made as a joke because I always assert that he transferred his whole interest in me on to Wolf. He was very pleased with it."

Freud was eventually given a lovely Chow by his daughter's dear friend Dorothy Burlingham. He named the dog Lun-Yu. Unfortunately, she was killed at only 15 months old in a train accident. Freud was grief-stricken. He eventually accepted Lun-Yu's sister Jofi into his life. She would become his non-stop companion through many hard times such as when Freud underwent operations and treatments for oral cancer. He wrote about Jofi,  "I wish you could have seen with me what sympathy Jofi shows me during these hellish days as if she understood everything."

Jofi would sit in on Freud's sessions with patients, which some found annoying because they felt that Freud gave the canine more attention. Hilda Doolittle recalled feeling “annoyed at the end of my session as Jofi would wander about and I felt that the professor was more interested in Jofi than he was in my story.” 

One time when Freud had to travel for cancer treatment, he expressed how much he missed Jofi and he worried about her. He wrote, "I miss her now almost as much as my cigar. She is a charming creature, so interesting in her feminine characteristics, too, wild, impulsive, intelligent and yet not so dependent as dogs often are."

Unfortunately, Jofi would only live until she was seven years old. She developed ovarian cysts, and Freud was forced to have them surgically removed. Jofi did not undergo the surgical procedure well, and she died a few days later of heart failure. Freud was devastated by her loss. After Jofi's death, Freud wrote these words to German novelist Arnold Zweig, "Apart from any mourning, it is very unreal, and one wonders when one will get used to it. But, of course, one cannot easily get over seven years of intimacy."