I am SO ENJOYING this festive day! And he would too, if he had any concept of time, past, present, future, or really any thoughts at all in his dumb little head beyond “cold, warm, blanket, food”.

2 years ago, I met Albie Dog at a shelter and they LIED LIED LIED. They told me he was over a year old, his name was “Bubba”, and he was a Chihuahua. None of this was true. What was true was that he had kennel cough and they were desperate to get him out ASAP before he infected the other dogs. So they told me “yes, he is a mature relaxed low energy full grown housetrained dog. Take him take him take him!!!!” And they also pushed really hard for me to pick him up on the last day of February so they could count him towards their February adoption numbers.

So I got him home and gave him 6 weeks of kennel cough pills and at the end of this, I had a dog that was CLEARLY no more than 6 months old, absolutely not housetrained, and very high energy. But by then I had dumped the “Bubba” name and landed on “Albie” and had fallen in love with him, so I was stuck.

And here we are, 2 years later! He was forced to a lower grade of obedience training, I stopped taking him to the dog park because he was too excitable, he still has occasional accidents on the floor when he thinks it is just too cold to go outside, he gets parasites because I can’t stop him eating alley trash, as soon as he is off leash he runs away and forgets I exist until he suddenly remembers 20 minutes later and comes looking for me, and all around he is the stupidest most difficult little dog I have ever had to deal with. And yet, I like him more than a perfectly trained wonder dog! As one of my friends said, when describing why she likes him so much more than another friend’s perfectly trained wonder dog, “he has PERSONALITY”. And his name is “Albie” or “Albus Baxter Barkeridge” for long or “Puppers” for short (definitely not “Bubba”). And I got him a bow tie for his adoptaversary!!!!