An energetic 7-pound marshmallow: that’s Basil Rose Stinglen, this week’s hilarious, adorable innerview-ee. Basil’s a pure-bred Maltese, only 10 months old, an I had The Best Time hangin’ out with her an her Mom an Dad, Katie an Thomas.
From the minute the door opened, Basil bounced, twirled, leaped, zoomed, an wagged. “Oh, goody! You’re HERE! Hi! Come IN! I’m Basil Rose Stinglen. We’re gonna sit on the back porch! Come ON!”
She bounced, twirled an zoomed her way back. We followed. This was gonna be FUN!
Basil’s Mom, Dad, me an my assistant sat. Basil friffled my notebook, then poked her nose into my assistant’s satchel. She never ackshully sat down. She had bright black eyes, a button nose, short white curls, wavy ears, anna fluffy tail curled over her caboose.
All during the innerview, Basil took liddle breaks in her story to play ball with her Dad; chase her tail so fast she looked like a twirling white blur; an nose-bump my assistant (who didn’t help matters by laughing, friffling Basil’s ears, an dooting her nose).
“So, Miss Basil, tell me how you found your Forever Famly.”
“OK. So, my Nana an Papa Stinglen have a Maltese, Kimmie, an Mom an Dad babysit him a lot. Mom said ‘I wanna Maltese, too!’ cuz we’re so adorable AN we don’t make humans sneeze an stuff. (Mom has aller-gees.) Anyway, Dad figured out this Secret Plan. He’d get a Maltese for Mom as a Christmas suh-PRIZE.”
“Pawsome!”
“I KNOW. Right? Anyway, he found a breeder online and saw a pick-shur of ME. My name was Snowflake then, cuzza bein’ all-white. I was 8 weeks old an weighed only 3 pounds. Of course, Dad couldn’t resist my adorable-ness, so he put me on layaway.
“Then (this is my fav-rite part: The Sneaky Part) the Wednesday before Christmas, Dad drove way far down to Punta Gorda to get me. At first sniff, I knew in my puppy heart that he was my Forever Dad.
“He texted Mom at work that they were gonna babysit Kimmie that night. Then we drove over to Kimmie’s house and got Kimmie’s carrier so Mom’d think it WAS Kimmie, an put ME in it instead. Then we drove here.”
“Smooth!” I commented.
“When Mom got home, Dad brought the carrier in. Mom said, ‘Hi, Kimmie!’ and looked inside. Well, I was WAY smaller than Kimmie. Mom said, ‘Wait! Whaat? YOU’RE not Kimmie! Oh, my GOSH!’ She was shocked. Then she picked me up an cuddled me. Me an Dad had pulled it off. It was the Best Day Ever!”
“Woof! That is the Crispiest Dog Biscuits tail ever, Miss Basil! What was it like with your new famly?”
“It took me a few minutes to check stuff out. I was still a flopsy puppy so I kept slippin’ an slidin’ on the tile. That very first night, Mom an Dad took me to the pet store and got me a whole buncha TOYS. My favrite’s my pink puppy stuffy. It’s a liddle soggy cuzza me chewin’ it. I LOVE chewin’. I don’t rip stuff up that much, though. Mom’s teachin’ me to cut back on the chewin’. But it’s just that everything’s So Intresting.”
She boinged over to my satchel and gave the strap a few liddle munches. Also my assistant’s sleeve. My assistant laughed an friffled Miss Basil’s ears. (See what I mean? NOT helpful.)
“I’m still learning the rools. Like where to Do My Duty. An where to Not. That took a while. Mom says it’s a PRO-cess. It was more fun learnin’ to SIT. Watch!”
Her Mom said “SIT!” Miss Basil bounced. An bounced. Then – SAT. “Didja see that? I SAT.”
Her Mom said “SIT!” again. Miss Basil SAT.
“See? I did it Again! I sat! I’m also good at LEAPIN’! Watch!”
She took a flyin’ leap off the deck, sailed up an out, an landed gracefully in the grass.
“Brava! Do you like swimmin’?”
“I’m a natch-rull. Back when I was liddler, WHEN I hadn’t ever swum yet, I already knew how to leap in the grass. We were onna fren’s dock by the river, so I leaped off. But there was no grass. I hit the water and sunk. Mom freaked an Dad jumped in to save me. But by the time he got to me, I had bobbed back to the top an was happily paddling to shore. I love playin’ in the sprinkler. Mom an Dad got me a kiddie pool but I don’t go IN it. It looks more like a great big water bowl. So I just drink out of it.”
“You’re one athletic pooch! Any favorite foostuffs?”
“I prefer human food, specially chiggen. but I don’t get it much.”
“How ’bout pals?”
“For sure. Me an Kimmie are BFFs. An Cooper, he’s a Labradoodle, he lives in San Diego. Me an him talk a lot on Zoom. Mima an PaPa McCabe are my other favorite grand-humans. ’Specially Mima. She puppysits me a lot an we have the BEST time. I enjoy borrowing PaPa’s glasses and playin’ (carefully) with ’em. Ackshully, I’m a Mamma’s Grrrl. I get to go shopping and to pooch-frenly REST-runts cuz I’m Very Well-Buh-haved. I just always wanna be INVOLVED, you know, where the action is.
“Oooo, an Guess What! It’s the coolest thing EVER! I’m gonna have a Bran New Sister real soon. Me an Mom an Dad fixed her nurse-ree all up. I love goin’ in there an playing with her toys. I’m learnin’ about sharin’. I’m gonna be the Best Big Sister EVER, Mr. Bonzo! I’ll teach her to fetch, an leap an dance and snuggle. I’m SO ex-CITED!”
I was smilin’ all the way home, thinkin’ about Miss Basil, the joyful, athletic liddle whirlwind who, I’m positive, is gonna be a totally terrific, protective, loving, loads-of-fun Big Sister.
To you Totally Crispy Dog Biscuits poocheroos: Hang in there, take care of your humans! You’re all Top Dogs!
Till next time,
The Bonz