Celebrity Dog

Everybody has the cutest and smartest dog in the world. I know I do, and everyone who loves a dog feels the same way about their dog. A family dog makes a huge difference in the life of the whole family. Read on for more:

Celebrity Dog, by Kim Slone, 2016

I have a celebrity dog. I know this because when I was shopping at the grocery store a woman whose name I don’t know stopped me and asked me excitedly if I’m the one who “has Rocket”.

Yes, I’m the one who has Rocket. He’s a cross between an English bulldog and a shih-tzu – picture a bulldog with a lot more fur and less scrunched face. Still the huge head and baby face. If you put “bulldog shih tzu cross” into your search engine, you’ll get a lot of pictures. Most of them are French bulldog/shih tzu mixes.

Rocket is very friendly, hence the people who know his name but not mine. He’s the perfect dog for me, since I tend to be socially awkward. I approach people easily enough but usually don’t know how to break off conversation. Unless I’m at work, and my job is to approach people and help them in some way – standard customer service – I don’t know how to act without a rule book in front of me.

Rocket takes care of all that. Something about a nose in your crotch starts the conversation. Then it’s all about the dog, and when you’re done, you say good-bye. People are usually in a good mood when he gets intimate with them – as a dog can get away with a lot more than a human can!

I wasn’t going to get a dog so soon. I’m a cat person. I love dogs, grew up with dogs, and was planning to get one eventually. I was looking at German Shepherds and Huskies, the wolfy-looking breeds. Wasn’t sure how they would get along with my cats.

A friend called me up to tell me she had a dog. She already had cats. I asked her what she was thinking. She said she was fostering him because he couldn’t stay with his first people. They were a very young family in an apartment and the wife who worked all day, didn’t have time for an energetic puppy. She said this dog was a “bullsh*t” and then she explained the cross breeding. Apparently some redneck decided it would be a laugh to have a dog he could call a “bullsh*t”. Lovely.

The dog’s name was Buddy. Very original. My friend placed him. Then a couple weeks later, that didn’t work out either. He went back to my friend. She decided to keep him. She named him “Q” after the character in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

A couple months after that, she posted an ad on Facebook to place him again. He was too big for her apartment, too. I had met him. I knew his energy level. I have a big house outside of town. I wouldn’t be able to let him run, because I’m too close to the bush. We have bears, wolves and porcupines here. I would have to keep him tied up and walk him. No, it wouldn’t do at all. Not this dog…

I told her I would take him. He was just too darn cute. And being re-homed as many times as he had was working on his nerves. He needed to settle down.

So now I have a Bullschitz – a more dignified spelling. And a very social dog. And he makes me get outside twice a day. And I named him Rocket, after that character in “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

And everybody knows Rocket.