"Bozley, You Are My Little Gentlemen..."

"...I'll take you to foggy London town 'cause you are my little gentleman..."

Okay, that song is really about Baxter from Anchorman, but it applies here.

In case you haven't heard, Carolyn and I became "parents" on February 3rd. We adopted a 15 pound, "three year old" Beagle (Chihuahua) Mix that we named "Bozley" (he's like Madonna or Cher, he only needs one name). After about a month, I think I'm ready to share some pictures and some thoughts on our little gentleman.

I think of Bozley like a superhero... Origins unknown. All we know is he was originally picked up in New Mexico... that's it. The shelter thinks he is three years old (with his birthday being 1/24/2009), but I think he's younger than that. He's still very active, like's to chew on things (luckily, mostly his stuff), and kinda puppy like, hence, I think he's younger. Regardless, our little gentleman is not potty trained (as we learned that the hard way), but he LOVES people and is pretty good at the "sit" command... this makes me think he belonged to someone but was an outdoor dog. He seems to like everything we feed him and he does not like other dogs, making me think he might have been on his own for while before being picked up by the dog catcher. Other than those thoughts, it's a mystery, like Wolverine...

We've had Bozley less than a month, but I can tell you that I love him and I'm pretty sure he loves us. He's so funny sometimes. He sleeps in our room in his bed (not allowed on ours), and as soon as one of our alarms go off, he's up ("snooze" is a foreign term to him apparently). But then he gets up and goes lie on the couch (he LOVES the couch) while we get ready, getting up every once and again to see what the deal is. Right now, we are leaving him in the crate while we're gone, though I think he's getting better all the time about "holding it in" until we get outside (In fact, I think when we're not home, he just sleeps, the rest the time, WATCH OUT! ;).

I like to think our boy is pretty smart. He's pretty good on walks, and we're teaching him some tricks... He's gotten better since this video...



We're working on "watch me", "high five", and "shake" right now... wish us luck (he's already making progress)... What other tricks should we teach our little man in the future?

Our only complaint about our "Winkleboz" is how well he does - or does not - get along with other dogs. Actually, we don't know that. What we do know is Bozley goes nuts when other dogs are around. We'll be working on that as much as possible of course. Luckily, we'll have some help. With our weekly training at Petsmart, our walks around our neighborhood, and with Seren, we're hoping to see improvement sooner rather than later. Any suggestions on socializing are welcomed.

Now that I got the complaint out of the way, I can talk more about why I love "my special little guy." First of all, he's adorable. In case you haven't noticed, he's cute just sitting there. Then seeing him follow you where ever you go and know he wants to make you happy, well, that's the icing on the cake. If our little boy shows you his stomach, you can try to resist it, but I do not think you'll succeed. As you can imagine, Care and I were both leery on getting a dog, but when we made the more spontaneous action and got Bozley, well, there hasn't been a moment of regret. And while I'm writing this, Boz is curled up next to me after making his nest of some blanks on HIS couch... I wasn't kidding when I said cute.

So Care and I are proud to be parents. Of course, we'll raise Bozley with what we've seen and loved with our previous and family dogs, Hambone, Psycho, King, Chowder, Doc, and Seren. We're excited to pass on those experiences/thoughts with Bozley, and even more excited to share our baby with the world. And if your not yet convinced on how cute and awesome Bozley is, and why it's so great to have a pup, I invite you to watch the video below...