Dog Names that Start with Li

Our pop culture spotlight today is focused on Liberty, a Golden Retriever, who was owned by President and Mrs. Gerald Ford.  She took the nation by storm when she was gifted to President and Mrs. Ford by their daughter after a beloved Golden Retriever had passed away.  It seems that President and Mrs. Ford felt the loss of their beloved dog so much that their daughter, Susan, began a search for a Golden Retriever to fill the gap in their lives.  Susan enlisted the aid of a family friend and the then White House Photographer, David Humme Kennerly, together they located a beautiful and prized 8 month old female puppy that was a perfect fit for Gerald and Betty.  The most interesting part of the story is the fact that the breeder, who was very conscientious and caring, needed a lot of additional information about the home and the "middle-aged couple" who was interested in her prized puppy.  Not wanting to divulge the identify of the potential purchaser, they tried, unsuccessfully, to keep it secret.  Eventually, as the story goes, the identity of the Fords had to be revealed and the honored breeder relinquished the prized puppy to Susan.  When she brought her home and "introduced" her to her father, President Ford, he immediately got down on his knees in the Oval Office to play with her and formed an instantaneous bond.  Susan changed the pup's name to Liberty and the American public loved her as she was photographed and filmed with Gerald and Betty in many areas of their lives.  Liberty was even frequently walked by the President himself!  Later, Liberty produced a litter of pups and more public twitter flew, with many vying for the opportunity to buy one of her puppies.  The Fords kept one of her puppies, naming her Misty, and both dogs were with them when they left the White House at the end of Gerald's term.

The second of our two famous pop culture dogs with a name beginning with "Li" is Little Nipper, the famous RCA mascot.  Nipper was born in Bristol, England in 1884.  The name of this Bull Terrier and Fox Terrier mix is the result of  his habit of nipping at the backs of the legs of people as he followed them, as many pups do.  When the owner of Nipper died in 1887, he was taken to Liverpool where he lived with the deceased owner's brother, Francis, who was a painter.  While living with Francis, Nipper discovered the cylinder phonograph and would sit for long periods looking at it, cocking his head to one side, apparently attempting to determine from where the sound was emanating.  Francis watched in fascination as Nipper, cocking his head to one side, listening to the sounds coming from the horn of the phonograph, but, it was not until three years after Nipper's death in 1895, that Francis painted, from his memory, the classic picture seen for several decades of Nipper sitting next to the phonograph, head cocked to one side, appearing to be listening.  Eventually, Nipper was pictured next to a gramophone and the image, labelled as "His Master's Voice", became trademark of RCA Records.