The Mentalist Inspired Dog Names

The Mentalist is an American drama based around the life of Patrick Jane, a fictional character who uses his skills at deduction to effectively play the role of a psychic until his public predictions result in the murder of his beloved wife and daughter. When the serial killer referred to as Red John counters Patrick’s claim that he is a “sad, lonely little man,” by brutally killing his wife and child, Patrick gives up his old career as a con-man and offers his skills to the California Bureau of Investigation in order to find and catch Red John and end his reign of terror.

On March 16, 2011, one day before St Patrick’s Day, the superintendent of a large apartment building in Newark, New Jersey noticed movement in one of the garbage bags that had been thrown down the garbage chute, so he opened it to see who or what was moving inside the bag. What he found was heartbreaking; a severely emaciated Pit Bull-type dog with overgrown nails and a bug infestation. The superintendent didn’t expect the dog to make the night, but he took him into the Associated Humane Society Shelter in Newark in the hope that he was wrong. He was stabilized by Dr. Lisa Bongiovanni, who dubbed him Patrick and transferred him to the Garden State Veterinary Specialists, a 24-hour animal hospital in the area. There he underwent emergency surgery to remove a giant hairball from his stomach and the administrator of the hospital, Patricia Scavelli, slowly introduced him to food again. 

The dog and Scavelli quickly developed a strong bond, and she decided to foster him so she could attend to his needs in her home. Patrick thrived under her care, regaining his weight and his strength and becoming friends with Scavelli’s other pets, a twelve year old Pit Bull-type dog named Lilly and an elderly cat. His previous owner, a woman by the name of Kisha Curtis, was charged with animal cruelty and was ordered to relinquish her rights to the dog, allowing Scavelli to adopt him officially. Curtis was also given eighteen months of probation and a two thousand dollar fine, a sentence that many animal lovers felt was lighter than it should have been. Under Scavelli’s care, Patrick went from his original weight of around fifteen pounds to a much healthier fifty pounds and somehow managed to retain his love of people, frequently meeting guests at the door with his favorite blankie. In March 2014, he was inducted into the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Hall of Fame.