MY DOG

PET MY DOG!!!

a large picture of a fat and fluffy black-and-white shih tzu with a puppy cut. she has a white and black flecked body and a black head, with a small white puff of fur on her forehead. she appears to be smiling at the camera, her mouth open to reveal an underbite and a pink tongue. the cursor changes to a hand when the image is hovered over.

name: pookie (known aliases include "pookie pie," "sweet puppy," "the yipy creature," "dog," "duchess")
age: a lot
gender: spayed (just like her aba)
smells: bad

pookie's story

pookie was born sometime near the start of june 2012, and was adopted and taken home just in time for my birthday! we had to wait a little while until she weaned off her mom before i could take her home, but i was happy to wait. she was the only puppy out of her litter not to have an adoption arranged by then because she was the runt -- i remember watching her siblings squeak and toddle around their crate while she laid, limbs splayed out, in the corner. at the time she was no bigger than a can of soda, and her most obvious markings were her big black head with a tiny shock of white on her brow...and a blot of black on her otherwise white back that made it look as though she were wearing a small pair of pants. she was called "diaper dog" because of that, which probably didn't help her adoption chances. i thought her splotch was adorable, and i am still right.

her original name wasn't even actually pookie -- it was duchess. but i have a bad habit of using silly pet names, and i disliked that "duchess" limited her social mobility to below a dog called "princess." i am not kidding. i felt bad that i named my dog after a lesser nobility rank...and just started calling her pookie?

i had just moved away from my hometown, so she was a great comfort for me not only in that period of having no friends, and in dealing with the stresses of home. she was my constant companion, and as weird as it sounds, she helped keep me sane by just witnessing what i had experienced. whenever i was hurt, i could always count on her to come and toddle her fat little body into my lap and put her paws on my chest. she wouldn't lick my face or anything, she just puts her paws there and looks at me with her big watery eyes. she has such a silly face but such a caring, almost attentive expression, that it always made me feel better.

we lived in an apartment complex at the time, and she loved to go on walks with me and generally be outside because she loved to frolic through the tall grasses around the complex. she's only about a foot tall, so she would vanish only to SPROING up like a bunny, her floppy ears flapping up in the air. she did this at another apartment we lived at too, and would accompany me to the lake pictured here just to snuffle through the leaves and the grass. she just loves grass, i guess!

the third time we moved, my home life was very difficult. one day i was told that after i finished walking her, i would come inside and be thoroughly physically punished. so, i ran away with her! i walked a long way and hid in a dumpster for a while. i realized that i wouldn't be able to keep her safe myself, so i came back home. luckily, my mom was so exasperated, the punishment never happened! i don't know what would have happened if i didn't have pookie.

once we moved back to my general hometown area to be closer to my mother's parents following a divorce, she became very close to my grandparents. they kept tons of treats for her and would share their meals. over the course of six years i lost both of them, but in the time between my grandma's passing and my grandfather's, he took exemplary care of her, especially once he moved in with my mom and i. he was a very gentle (and shockingly moral) man, and they grew extremely close. he always wanted something to do, and she could always use more treats, more playtime, more toys, more drives around the city. it was obvious to everyone that she helped keep him going while mom and i were at work and school, and i'm very thankful for that.

this sort of eternal coddling has made her kind of a permanent puppy. she loves to be scritched and petted, she whimpers if she wants attention (no matter how late at night it is), she whines for food off of people's plates, and she is extremely playful even with species-consistent hip dysplasia and age-consistent arthritis. on the national day of mourning (aka thanksgiving), my partner and i had to come to my mom's house. as we were about to load into my car, pookie bolted out of the house and into the street because she wanted more affection from hal, who had gracefully been petting her for like half an hour already.

she's lived with my mom while i've been away at college, but now that i've completed my major, i'm back to live with her. she has since gone blind due to old age, but her puppy-like joy and whimsy remains.

likes	dislikes
back scritches, cheek scritches, giving hand kisses, squeaky toys, tall grass, strangers, peanut butter treats, the mailcarrier (this is in the correct column), all meat, jumping onto furniture when she's excited, playing fetch but only the chasing part, tug-of-war, those oblong plush squeaky toys in the shape of a grinning dog, sleeping at the foot of the bed, laying on hot cement, me, my grandpa	behind-the-ear scritches, giving kisses anyplace else on a person, strangers, sports balls (she loves to chase them but her mouth is too small to pick any of them up, which only makes her frustrated), strawberry tops (the only thing she's never eaten off the floor), haircuts, nail trims, the taste of the ocean, windy days, furniture that she has to whimper to be put on top of, storm drains (just seeing one scares her!)

likes

dislikes

back scritches, cheek scritches, giving hand kisses, squeaky toys, tall grass, strangers, peanut butter treats, the mailcarrier (this is in the correct column), all meat, jumping onto furniture when she's excited, playing fetch but only the chasing part, tug-of-war, those oblong plush squeaky toys in the shape of a grinning dog, sleeping at the foot of the bed, laying on hot cement, me, my grandpa

behind-the-ear scritches, giving kisses anyplace else on a person, strangers, sports balls (she loves to chase them but her mouth is too small to pick any of them up, which only makes her frustrated), strawberry tops (the only thing she's never eaten off the floor), haircuts, nail trims, the taste of the ocean, windy days, furniture that she has to whimper to be put on top of, storm drains (just seeing one scares her!)

the oopy gallery.........

black and white shih tzu curled up in a dog bed with a white blanket and a toy in the shape of a gingerbread man

her curled up in her bed in the living room. she doesn't like to chew hard rubber toys, but she likes to nest with them.

black and white shih tzu standing on cement on a leash

out on a walk, probably moments before she begs to be carried. don't worry, she doesn't usually walk on the pavement. she just prefers to sometimes.

same shih tzu laying on a coral-and-beige comforter that is three times her size and appears to be very cushioned

curled up and happy on a comforter that was just laundered. my mom hates that she tracks down warm blankets and laundry to lay on because the reason it was washed is usually the dog smell...

black and white shih tzu in a beige and brown bed. her name tag is a red bone that reads 'POOKIE.' the light glints off her eyes as she looks into the camera and licks her nose with a pink tongue

her in her favorite bed again with a crinkly squeaker toy. i just think her little tongue and her big shiny eyes are cute here.

same dog in the same bed, her tiny chin and muzzle resting on the 'wall' of the bed, looking very sleepy

bed picture again. she always likes to have her head propped up when she's laying down. my mom and i say it's because of the weight of her thoughts.

black and white shih tzu with many black speckles sitting on her hind legs and facing the camera, looking up at the viewer with a wall-eyed stare

her "sitting pretty" to entice you into picking her up and putting her on the bed. you can tell she needs a haircut because at this age she would grow little fur "horns" like you can make out on the right side of her head here -- my grandpa would call her "devil dog" when this happened.

very fuzzy and unkempt shih tzu sitting on a rumpled carpet and looking at the camera. you cannot see her eyes because her head is so dark.

speaking of needing a haircut. she just turns into a puffball when her puppy cut grows out...

the shih tzu is wrapped in a blue towel sitting on a rug against a wall. only her face is visible, with a wet and unkempt mustache, a small nose, and two sad-looking eyes.

post-bathtime. she looks a little bit like if the lorax were some sad fuzzy caterpillar.

the shih tzu sitting on a brown leather couch, her face up to the camera with her teeth bared mid-bark.

feeling farochish!!! she never barks or bites unless it's playtime. she's barking for her chew toy here after jumping up onto the couch to get closer to my height.

a pudgy, fat toddler of a puppy laying tummy-up in a pink-lined purse-shaped faux dog carrier for toys

one of my favorites. this was a month or so after adopting her, and my mom and i needed to move house. we needed to stop to eat and rest, but we couldn't leave her in a hot car, so i emptied one of those plush toy carriers that come in a set with a stuffed animal and put her inside. she was so comfortable she fell asleep in the restaurant and started making little yips in her sleep, which she's done into adulthood. i wonder what she dreams about!

a dark photo of a shaggy black-and-white shih tzu. she is illuminated from the back and casts a long shadow. her hair is pulled up in a tiny sprig on the top of her head.

we get a little sillay

shih tzu in her bed, covered entirely by a white blanket except for a small black spot where her head is visible.

lost in the sauce.

the same dog in the same location moments later, laying down outside of her bed

too hot in the sauce. (she also likes laying on the floor beside her bed even if she isn't hot.)