Hi, pet buddies! Bailey Sunkel is the kind of pup who makes everybody – humans and pooches – feel happy just being with her. In fact, before she found her Forever Family, she was a Hospice dog, which is a very important job that not just any pooch is cut out for. She’s loving, snuggly, smart (and she has a great smile.)
Bailey lives in a two-house family compound, with lots of space to run and play. Her human dad, Phil, opened the gate, and she bounced right over. After wag-and-sniffs, Bailey said, in a really happy voice, “Oh, Bonzo, we’re so excited you’re here! I never did an interview before but Dad says it’s just lots of yapping! Cool! C’mon, we’ll sit here in the shade by the pool!”
“Great place you’ve got!” I said.
“Thanks! It’s perfect for our multi-generational family (Dad taught me that word). It means we all live together in one big, happy bunch! It’s me and my Dad, my human grandpeeps Phillip and Suzie, great-grandma Alice and my little pooch sister Shelby.”
“So, how did you get here?”
“Well, my Dad was looking for just the right dog buddy he could take to college. A few other pooches tried out but it just didn’t work. He was visiting the Humane Society shelter one day and spotted me. All the other pooches were in kennels but I was just hanging out with a bunch of the volunteer ladies. They all liked me ‘cuz I’m so easy-peasy and I really dig humans. Me and Dad hit it off right away and I was sure hoping he’d want me. He did!
“My name, for some reason, was Blackberry, which me and Dad agreed just didn’t fit. We both liked Bailey, so, now I’m Bailey. My puppy memories are a little foggy but I remember my other owner going away and never coming back. I think he went to Heaven. I did have really good manners though, but I think he was kinda strict, because I’d cower a lot when my forever Dad first got me.”
“I don’t want to pry,” I said, “but I notice you have a really interesting coat, and lots of white hair around your mouth.” Her short coat was black. The hair down her back was sleek and shiny but on the sides it had some brownish and reddish tinges and was much softer. I thought she looked a lot like a Labrador, but slimmer. And she had a beautiful, long, feathery tail, NOT like a Lab at all. “If I may ask your age?”
“Oh, I KNOW, the white makes me look older. I’m actually only 5 but Dad thinks I had a lot of stress and anxiety from being left, and that turned my hair white.
“Me and Dad did lots of traveling before we got here. We stayed in our New York apartment for a coupla months. I was so well-trained by my other owner NOT to potty on the sidewalk that I just couldn’t do it, even in Manhattan where all the pooches do. So Dad had to walk me, like, 10 blocks over to Central Park. Then we went to Virginia for some mountain rock climbing. I took to that right away. I’d get way high up, then sit on the edge and just enjoy the view. And, one time in Virginia, we heard this thunder-y noise and I took off like a flash. Well, it was a herd of horses and I ran right at them. Dad was, like, ‘BAILEY!!’ But my instincts just kicked in, I guess, and I herded them all into a bunch.”
“Wow!”
“I didn’t even know I had it in me. Now, I herd my great-grandma’s Malteses. (Don’t tell her, but sometimes, they drive me totally dog biscuits.) Anyway, we spent some time at Flagler College in St. Augustine, then we came here. Pretty soon after that, Dad got me a pooch pal, that’s Shelby, from H.A.L.O. She’s a Blackmouth cur, the perfect little sis, and she can run fast as me!”
“Do you guys get out much?” I asked.
“Yep, leash walks. And leash running on Jungle Trail. There’s always tons of dogs there! And every Sunday we play with our dog buddies at our secret beach. Here at home, our favorite thing is an old, chewed-up rope. If Shelby has it, I really want it. And if she sees me with it, she tries to grab it. Grandma says when we’re zooming around the house we sound like a couple of 5-year-old boys. I also love to randomly jump over stuff. I just get the urge sometimes.”
“I hear ya,” I nodded.
“My Life Goal is to terrorize squirrels! I chase ‘em up trees! It’s a matter of pride. I think they’ve got me figured out, though, ‘cuz they zip up the trees just beyond my reach. But I keep ‘em on their teeny little toes.
“I know I seem like a Tomboy, and I am an Alpha Dog” she continued, “but I’m a real lady, too. A Southern Belle. I daintily cross my paws when I sit in the back seat and go for rides. Grandpa says it’s like ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ And my humans think I’m the best-smelling dog EVER. Plus,” she lowered her voice, “I have two boyfriends in Virginia, Dixie and Blue, both Labs. They’re really hunks!”
I nodded. She had this faraway look in her brown eyes for a moment.
“It’s been a real pleasure, Miss Bailey,” I said. It had, too. She was quite a girl.
‘till Next Time.