six factoids, five names, and a tail that will bruise your shins

friday was something special…

…budnik’s third dad-a-versary! (or dude-a-versary, depending on how you see it)

since both my pups are “rescues” (copper a true one, budnik a semi-one ’cause the previous puppy parent had no clue how to take care of him properly) i have no ideas what their birthdays are, so instead i celebrate their “dad-a-versary”, i.e. the day they came into my little world.

and friday was budnik’s – but since copper has had more than her share of sixers (and i didn’t have enough to do a “friday fiver” and then a “sunday sixer”) i decided to put it off till today, so without further ado:

the evolution of a name, part i – i actually got him ’cause the owner, who i had called off craigslist, called me back after sitting through the story about how he looked just like lucky, who had passed less than two weeks prior. see the similarity?

“wagging” means “happy”, right? – if you spend any time with him you’ll end up with hurt shins ’cause his fucking tail HURTS. i always thought people cut pitbull’s tails ’cause of the look or the fighting issue…now i think it might be to prevent personal injury.

the biggest house cat EVER – while it’s kind of insulting to call a dog a cat, as dogs are wonderful loyal companions and cats are a tool of the devil, you know that thing cats do where they lean into your legs and rub the length of themselves against you? yeah, he does that – which at seventy-five pounds of solid muscle if you’re not expecting it…

the evolution of a name, part ii – as he looked so much like lucky, who was nicknamed “lucky dude” his first name was “dude junior”, which was shortened to “d.j.” but i kept calling him inside by saying, “c’mon, lil’ dude” so it then became “lil’ dude”, which i unceremoniously changed to “dude” when he crossed the fifty pound mark and ceased being “lil'” (he was seven pounds when he got here)but then at some point the generic “bud” became “budnik” (maybe i was watching a special about russian space explorations and drinking heavily? not out of the realm of possibility) and stuck, in part because calling him “dude” made people think i named him after the main character in “the big lebowski”, which while being an excellent movie is not good enough to spawn a dog name in my world.

(it could be noted my first ever snake, a sickly boa who died thirty days after purchase, which they told me most likely would happen, was named “clarence” after a somewhat obscure beastie boys lyric, but snake names i’m not as fussy about…)

squeeze it if you mean it – i’ve never had a dog who was such a strong chewer as to destroy, in mere seconds, ninety percent of the chew toys on the market. i think copper had that power for a number of years, but as she wasn’t partial to toys (more like furniture, which was a problem) i never discovered that. with budnik? i give toys the “squeeze test” – if i squeeze and there’s ANY give in them i don’t by them, ’cause it’s money wasted. this fact has led me to reverse one original theory…

he ain’t calum – my beloved boy, who died in my arms in 2008, i thought for a moment had been reincarnated, partially ’cause he kept finding calum’s toys in the backyard that i hadn’t seen in AGES. digging them up, cleaning them off, and toting them back in the house. but he kept destroying them and calum NEVER destroyed a toy even though he certainly had the jaw capacity to do so…so i guess despite some of the personality similarities, slobber similarities, and attached to dad similarities, he’s his own boy. and i couldn’t be happier about that.