SCRUFFY DAMMIT, MR. RUSTY PICKLES and TUFFY-FEATHERTAIL: Excerpts from the city pet license database
If you follow me on Twitter, by now you’ve figured out that I’m poking through the Sioux Falls pet license database for a story running this weekend.
The cops would release only two fields from the database — pet name and breed — which was kind of a bummer. But I’m still finding some good stuff. Of the 20,000 or so animals registered from 2007-2012, for example, dogs outnumbered cats about six to one.
This doesn’t include unlicensed animals, of course, which could represent as much as half the city’s pet population, animal control officer Missy John estimated. And breed information for about 600 entries was unavailable or garbled.
Here are the most popular names for all six years:
| Cats | Dogs | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiger | Max |
| 2 | Shadow | Maggie |
| 3 | Kitty | Buddy |
| 4 | Lucy | Bailey |
| 5 | Callie | Sadie |
| 6 | Tigger | Molly |
| 7 | Sam | Charlie |
| 8 | Smokey | Lucy |
| 9 | Charlie | Bella |
| 10 | Lily | Jack |
| Dogs | Cats |
|---|---|
| Scruffy Dammit | Scratchie |
| Ruth Malloy | Tuffy-Feathertail |
| Ruby Sioux | Smut |
| Robocop | Scratchie |
| D.O.G. | Robbie Frogger |
| Potty | Scrambles |
| Charlemange | Rumtumtugger |
| Baby Girlfriend (!) | Orange Cat |
| Patches Labsmana | Large Marge |
| New Dog | Mustgers |
| Dog 2 | Miss Nala Nafertiti |
| Dog Dog | Mahoney |
| Mr. Rusty Pickles | Licks A Lot |
| Jigs | Goonpoo |
| Cromwell Flynn | Charmin Ultra |
| Rupert Pugsley | Schroedinger |
| Paddy Pudders | Schroideriger |
| Hurricane Mayo | Stinker Belle |
| Furgy | Purrsnickitty |
Also, two cats and one dog are named Winchester, and two dogs are named Lady Winchester, which I find immensely gratifying. I’ll post the whole thing online once I’m done fiddling.
