Fauna Foods

Running errands today I stopped by my favorite dog food purveyor, but I had to turn carefully into the driveway, because a delivery truck was almost blocking the way. I did not notice the name on the truck until I was leaving the shop, and I smiled to read the words FAUNA FOODS. Of course, what a perfect name for a pet-food distributor! Usually the word fauna is accompanied by the word flora, as in flora and fauna, the plant and animal life of a geographical area. Carolus Linnaeus, the father of scientific binomial nomenclature, chose fauna, animal life, as the partner of flora, plant life; Flora was a Roman goddess of flowers, and Fauna was the sister of Faunus, the goat-footed Roman equivalent of the Greek nature god, Pan. So Fauna Foods provides food for animal life. I also stopped by my veterinarian’s office on my way home and noticed that he, too, has an account with Fauna Foods. From Faunus we also get the word faun, a lesser Roman deity represented with human upper parts and goat legs and feet.