Austin -- allergy capital

Upon hearing the names of our newly adopted pups, our friend T asked, "Did you name them Dante & Allegra because you live in allergy hell?" That was almost four and half years ago and while we've received some ribbing about the names, no one doubts that Austin is allergy hell and a new study proves it.

BTW, for those interested, we did not name Allegra after the allergy medicine. We had selected the name Dante before we even selected the dog. After all, it fit with the household naming convention -- Dara, Doug and Dexter. However, when we found Dante (named Inky by the shelter) he was with a litter of abandoned pups. Doug really wanted two, so we adopted his cute sister (who the shelter had named Luna), but we couldn't agree on a D name for her. Dinah? Dixie? Delta? Diana? Nothing seemed right. Plus we wanted the names to go together. Dante & Delta just didn't seem to work. Then we thought about The Inferno. Dante's guide was Beatrice, but let's face it, that name doesn't work for anyone under 80. Plus imagine, "Beatrice, here Beatrice! Come!" No thank you.

For those who don't know, Dante's (the writer, not the dog) last name was Alighieri -- Dante Alighieri. Alighieri, Allegra, not too far off. In music, allegro means lively and that seemed to fit her. In Italy, Allegra is a somewhat popular name. Best of all, the names Dante & Allegra seemed to fit together. So Allegra it was.

Of course, we never even thought of the medicine. If we had, Allegra's name may have ended up as "here, girl." The irony of the whole thing is that Allegra has some wicked airborne allergies and has to take allergy shots. Guess it was a good thing we decided against naming Dante "Claritin."