The Dalmatian is 10!

But wasn't it just yesterday that he picked me after firmly stating  I wanted a girl?  At 3 weeks old, he left a pile of warm puppies, stuffed penguin in his mouth, toddled over to me, took him forever,  laid his tiny head on my foot, gave me the penguin and sighed mightily. He picked me.

Of course I kept it!!

 I am remembering some of his antics as a youngster. Kinda like the time he jumped into a plate of spaghetti that someone was holding while standing up. He then slid off the plate, bounced on the wall, scared himself, and proceeded to strew noodles and sauce throughout the entirety of the house.  Normal.

Or the time I turned around to set the water dish beside him and he had disappeared in a blink, then I heard rustling, looked up and there he was on top of the fridge.  Normal at 9 weeks old.

Or both times he gave me a black eye, oh and Johnny Depp too. Nothing new to a Whippet owner.

Or his love of Halloween trick or treaters. Love as in ; Let's rip off everyone's masks!!

Or the way he liked to jump over the back of a sofa landing next to a cup of tea to get the best spot for watching a movie. Wait, that was last week.

Or how he attached his entire 4 month self, like that Alien creature, to the face of a bucking Great Dane and would not let go. No seriously, he would not let go.  Awesome obedience class that was.

Or the way he always took the 3 jumps at once during class, no matter how far apart the trainer would put them.

Or the time he rode the backs of two Golden Retrievers like skis. They never spoke to us again. Some people, sigh.

Or the time we were at my sister's and a hush of silence came over us because we, still to this day, have not figured out how he came to be sitting on the PC monitor.  Our best guess is he swan dived from the kitchen counter into the living room through the staircase spindles....

Our Humphrey is 10.

He is a lovely gentleman who has polite manners and is the mascot for our dog association.  The boy wonder, who can still matrix himself up a tree to rip the tail off a squirrel, is the dog our members want their dog to be like.  When did that happen?

Stoic, happy, fast, soft hearted, willing to please, fierce and always my bestest mate.

You see, when the egg cracked, he imprinted on me. I've been trying to live up to that ever since.

Happy Day to our Humphrey.