I think it's ok to try create non-existing db using specified credentials:
```python
_url = urlparse(dburl)
dbname = _url.path.strip('/')
server_url = urlunparse((_url.scheme, _url.netloc, '/', '', '', ''))
server = couchdb.Server(server_url)
self.db = server[dbname] if dbname in server else server.create(dbname)
```
in this case user can specify dbname using cli option.