Our amazing dog had his 8th birthday yesterday. If you haven’t met our dog, you are missing out. He is hilarious. He smells like corn chips, has no hair, loves to snuggle, and is the third member of our family.

He had a pretty low-key birthday, mostly sleeping the day away while I worked from home and Alli did tons of laundry.

Happy Birthday, Dreyfuss.

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Lucky Dog
by Mark Barrowcliffe
RATING: 7 out of 10 

I finally finished a book.

It’s been a long time since I finished a fun book. I’ve been reading a lot of church books lately and needed a break. Lucky Dog by Mark Barrowcliffe is a book I’ve had on my shelf for several months and one I’ve been looking forward to reading.

The book focuses on a British real estate agent named Dave Barker who happens upon a dog that starts to talk to him. At first glance, a talking dog seems like a bizarre way of telling a story. To be honest, there were times where the plot certainly unravelled a bit, but the one thing that was always right was Reg the Dog.

Reg provides great nuggets of wisdom throughout the book with an intelligent and witty, albeit decidedly dog-like countenance. Consider his stance on neckties:

“Every time you put it on you end up going somewhere you don’t want to. That’s what I call a leash.”

Lucky Dog suffers at the hands of its main character, unfortunately, who makes one bad decision after another. It is those bad decisions that ultimately put the book in a bad place for me - a place where Reg the Dog was absent for large stretches of the book.

Still, Lucky Dog is intriguing to someone like me because Barker fills his off-hours by playing poker. When the dog enters his life, he suddenly has a leg up on the competition, an animal instinct (if you will) for his opponents weaknesses, confidences, and nervous tics. Reg the Dog gives Dave access to almost subconscious tells he can sniff out.

Along the way, Dave manages to get himself involved in a variety of quandaries, from shady business dealings and fraud to girlfriend troubles and problems with some mobsters.

Barrowcliffe’s characters aren’t terribly interesting, save Reg the Dog, who made me wonder just what my own dog might say to me if he could talk. It’s sometimes fun to imagine. But the humans (or the ‘hellooos’ as Reg calls them) are just kind of droll.

Still, the story is fun. Despite having a talking dog as the main character, it’s a very grown-up story about figuring out what kind of person you want to be.

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Appetizer
Name something you would categorize as weird.

My dog. More funny than anything, but he can be very weird. He ate a couch once and has color dilutional alopecia. He’s still way awesomer than your dog.

Soup
What color was the last piece of food you ate?

Red - A red LifeSaver. Is that food?

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy being alone?

4. I enjoy my alone time, but I thrive around people, particularly my wife.

Main Course
Fill in the blank: I will _________ vote for ___________ in _______.

Never…Hillary Clinton…this or any other life time.

Dessert
Describe your sleeping habits.

I can’t sleep on my stomach…maybe it’s too big or whatever…I just can’t do it. We share our bed with a 90-lb. mutt who likes to stretch out, so sometimes sleeping means contorting your body around something that smells like corn chips.

See also: Logtar

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Today, I’m thankful for my dog, Dreyfuss.

Dreyfuss is our almost-5-year-old mutt. He’s a mix of labrador (or dane…we’re not sure) and Husky (we think). His mom was a stray and there’s a strong possibility that she “got around” while she was in heat because the puppies in that litter did not look very similar.

SIDENOTE: Did you know that a momma dog can have multiple fathers for her puppies in the same litter? I didn’t know that until we got Dreyfuss.

We spoil this dog like a child, except we probably wouldn’t continue to let a child sleep in our bed every night at 5 years old. But he smells just like a dog should smell…like corn chips.

When we first got him, he had problems, and a lot of them. First, they thought he had mange. Not so much. They tested him for every type of mange possible and they couldn’t figure out why he was losing his hair. We even took him to a doggie dermatologist. Turns out, all he had was color dilution alopecia, something that we could do absolutely NOTHING about. That would have been nice to know before the hundreds of dollars in veterinary tests…

The Journal of Veterinary Science defines Color Dilution Alopecia as:

a relatively uncommon hereditary skin disease seen in “Blue” and other color-diluted dogs. This syndrome is associated with a color-dilution gene. The initial clinical signs are the gradual onset of a dry, dull and poor hair coat quality. Hair shafts and hair regrowth are poor, and follicular papules may develop and progress to frank comedones. Hair loss and comedo formation are usually most severe on the trunk, especially color-diluted area on the skin. Six cases of color-dilution alopecia are reported in 3 months to 10 years old dogs. The breeds of dogs are blue Doberman Pinscher, Miniature Pinscher, Dachshund, and Schnauzer. Grossly, extensive partial hair loss was seen on the skin. Histopathologically, the epidermis is relatively normal but may be hyperplastic. Hair follicles are characterized by atrophy and distortion. Heavily clumped melanin is present in the epidermis, dermis and hair follicles.

Dreyfuss also has allergies, which make this skin condition all the more uncomfortable for him. However, he never really complains and we treat him by giving him a rawhide bone EVERY NIGHT. Thank goodness we found that Sam’s carries them in big bags for pretty cheap because our dog eats one per night. You might find that excessive, but you have to understand. This dog can be extremely destructive if he wants to be. Keeping him in rawhide makes sure that our things stay nice (there’s a side story there about Dreyfuss and how he ate my digital camera, but that’s for another time).

Anyway, he’s a really funny dog. Any time that Alli and I are discussing something in a serious tone, he gets all worried and tries to stand between us. He’s pretty smart, even if he eats his own poop.

Dreyfuss, even though you aren’t reading my blog, I say this:

Good dog, buddy. Good. Dog.

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This is my dog Dreyfuss. I know I know. Cutest dog ever. He’s a complete mutt…mom was part-Husky, dad was…well…we don’t know for sure. Vet said maybe a lab or Great Dane. He’s gray, but really doesn’t have much hair because he has color dilutional alopecia.

I’m going to post pictures when there are pictures to post.

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