It's My Birthday And I'll Bark If I Want To!

Hello. Some of you know me as Clancy, and today I'm four years old. Only yesterday, one day ago, if you were to have asked me my age, I would have had to say three, but today, I would say four, which is a year, not a day, older. Weird, but that is the world of humans we live in.

Anyway, now I'm the same age as Dad. I know this because just last week Mom said he was acting like a four year-old.

He told me a while back that I was born November 16th 2012 on a farm about 60 kilometers from Ottawa, where we now live. My birth mother was a border collie and my father a chocolate Lab--which accounts for my spectacular auburn highlights! He lived on a neighboring farm, and smelled my mother across a wide field of cow patties. It was love at first bite.

There were eleven of us pups in the litter. I don't remember much about the farm, but I do recall that we lived in an open-sided hay barn for the first half of a Canadian winter, which is probably why I love the snow and the outdoors so much.

I also recall asking my mother how it came to be we were living there. She bit the saddle horse and then said that every mother wishes her children to be raised in a stable environment. Haha, haha.

Some time in the middle of January 2013 the humans who I would soon know as Mom and Dad showed up on the farm. We pups fell all over the place trying to be first to play with them. I guess I won, for to my surprise I was bundled up in a blanket and whisked away in a car free of charge--is it any wonder I felt consternation knowing that my life was worth nothing to these people?

So my new life began. At first it was confusing. For instance, they named me Clancy after the Irish folk group The Clancy Brothers that Dad has been listening to since he was a kid. But he listens to those old vinyl albums so often that at first when he called me I didn't know whether to go to him or jump up on the record player. It had me turning in circles. To make matters worse, Dad would say yes, I was named after the Clancy Brothers, but which one?

I adjusted. I've learned all kinds of things: To only play-bite when wrestling for toys with Dad; not to jump up on people when greeting them, for example. Also, I've learned many words and phrases, such as: down; stay; out; do your job (I have a job mat that I must stay on so I don't get underfoot when preparations are underway for going out); go to your bed; get your ball; and, what the hell is that in your mouth?

Now I'm four, and I have to say, things are going quite well. But best of all, after the walk, after the play, after the dinner, when I can climb up on the couch between Mom and Dad and get a good head scratching, then I think, life is really for the dogs, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

 

(Clancy's November 16th birthday portrait was taken yesterday (Nov 15) in low light late afternoon conditions.)

 

Mer Bleue, Ottawa, Ontario

 

249. Clancy, 4yrs old!

 

Clancy's YEARBOOK 5: www.flickr.com/photos/130722340@N04/albums/72157675110790161

EXPLORE Clancy: www.flickr.com/photos/130722340@N04/albums/72157656171825332

Done