This week’s innerviewee, Delphinium Kerkela, was SO fun; in-VIGGER-ratin’ ackshully. She goes by Delphi (DELL-fee).
Delphi’s a big, beautiful, 5-months-old Golden Doodle pupper, with zillions of curls, big brown eyes, Very Big Paws anna ex-ZOO-buh-rent doganality.
We met at Delphi’s Workplace (it’s called a JOO-luh-ree) where there’s lotsa dangly things humans wear on their necks and hands an ears, mostly outta metal, sparkly stones called JOO-ells, an sometimes shells, coins an other cool things.
Delphi was at the door, nose smushed against the glass, as me an my assistant approached. A nice lady opened the door, an Delphi gave some welcoming barks an rushed over for the Wag-an-Sniff. (More like a Bounce an Fluff, ackshully.)
“Miss Delphi, I pruh-zoom. It’s a great pleasure,” I said.
“YES! It’s ME, Delphi Kerkela!” she replied happily, while trying but not quite suc-seeding to Not Jump Up, which was perfectly OK with my assistant, who was rootin’ around in The Satchel for Treats.
The nice lady said to ask Delphi to Sit buh-FOR accepting the treat. My assistant complied, Delphi sat, munched the treat, then said, “Welcome to our shop, which is also headquarters for my Fan Club. Lotsa our clients bring their pooches. THIS is my Mommy, Victoria. Daddy’s around here somewhere. He’s Corey!”
We all trooped into a Cool Kibbles liddle room with chairs anna desk. I opened my notebook, an Delphi climbed into her Mommy’s lap, pretty much ob-scuring her Mommy entirely, ’cept for her face.
“So, Miss Delphi, tell me how you found your Furever Famly.”
“OK, so, buh-fore me, Mommy An Daddy had an AIR-dale, Nigella. When Nigella hadda Cross the Rainbow Bridge, they were SO sad they didn’t think they’d EVER wanna go thru that again.”
I nodded. “That’s Super Hard, fur sure.”
“But,” Delphi continued, “after a while, Mommy and Daddy thought maybe it was time to obtain another pooch. Mommy said it HADDA be a dog who Didn’t SHED. Miss Kristen, who works here, said she knew a breeder who had fresh-from-the-oven Golden Doodle puppers.
“So, they went to see the lidder, which happened to be MY lidder. Fortunately, although all Mommy saw at first was a huge bundle of FUR, somehow I guess she forgot about that shedding thing, cuz, when she saw ME (all 5 pounds), that was that! An, guess what? Miss Kristen’s husbun got Miss Kristen MY BROTHER for a Valentine suh-prize! So we get to be together a LOT! An guess what ELSE!”
“What?”
“MY birthday’s Dec. 4, an Mommy’s is Dec. 5! It was MEANT to BE!”
“Totally, Miss Delphi! What was it like at first, with a bran new family?”
“It was PAWSOME. I’m a World Class Snuggler. One cannot HAVE too many snuggles, I say! I’m also (not to brag) smart, frenly, agreeable an chill. I get along with almost all fellow animals and hoomans.
“At first, since I was still teething, I did a lotta chewing, mostly my stuffy panda an chiggin an bunny. They survived, for the most part, an Mommy and Daddy’d find my baby teeth all over the place for a while.
“Mommy says pretty soon I hafta to get my First Haircut, an I’m a liddle nervous, Mr. Bonzo. When I get wet, I look much smaller an kinda goofy. I hope my haircut won’t be weird like that.”
“Don’t worry, Miss Delphi, it’ll be fine. An you’ll look just as Crispy Biscuits as you do right now.
So,” I changed the subject, “how’d you get that Cool Kibbles name?”
“I totally LOVE my name. I think it’s kinda magical. What happened was, just after I got adopted, Mommy was wakin’ up from a liddle NAP an for no apparent reason, a word came into her head: Larkspur. She thought, ‘What the fluff? Where did that even come from?”
“She didn’t know what it was, so she looked it up. It’s a FLOW-er! Did you know that, Mr. Bonzo?
I didn’t. Neither did Mommy, so she read more. Larkspur is the common name for Delphinium. An WAA-LAA! She realized Delphi was the name for ME. She also calls me Delphi Doodlebug sometimes. I think it’s a hooman thing.”
I laughed. “Woof! That’s a Grrreat Tail, Miss Delphi! I agree, it’s magical. I bet you have a lotta frens, right?”
“Oh, woof, yes! There’s my BFF Otis, an Oorang Airedale; Cooper, a Doodle; Felcia an Morticia, they’re Cane Corsos I think; Judd, a St. Bernard. An all of us live on the Same Street! We call it Dog Street. Cool Kibbles, right?”
“Totally!”
“Here in the shop,” she continued, “there’re my hooman pals Miss Kristen, Miss Gail an Miss Keiri. An my hooman famly: Gramma an Grampa; Olive Oil an Popeye; Tutu an Pop Pop; an my brother Brendon.”
“So, whadda you do here at work?”
“My Most Important job is helpin’ Mommy create beautiful JOO-luh-ree for hoomans. It’s called B-Spoke. I’m not sure why. Anyway, I am what’s called her MUSE. That means I pruh-vide ideas an in-spuh-RAY-shun. It’s a Very Important Job and not everybody can DO it. It’s sorta magical, I’m pretty sure. Like her discovering my NAME while napping.
“I’m also O-fish-ull Greeter, an Staff Therapy Dog, available for snuggles 24-7. An I’m learning to identify gemstones, sharpening my gemological skills. My favrite gemstone is Coral. It’s what’s called Rare an Protected, cuz it’s made of zillions of liddle animals in the O-shun, an their homes, called REEFS, are gettin’ smushed. It’s very sad.”
“Oh, Woof,” I replied. “That IS sad.” Then, “Do you have clothes?” I segued.
“No. Just JOO-luh-ree! Here, look!”
Delphi showed me some snappies of her lookin’ pawsome in all sorts of pretty, sparkly bangles and things.
“You look like a prince-ess!”
“I KNOW! Thank you, Mr. Bonzo! An guess what? Mommy’s makin’ me my own be-spoke gemstone collar! I’m SO excited.
“I still sleep in my comfy crate cuz I’m still a puppy, an I eat mostly regular ol’ kibbles; sometimes a teeny nibble of steak. I LOVE MULL-berries but I can only have one or 2, an they HAFF to be ripe. Mommy’s a Gard-ner, an I help. She lets me run through the Cosmos an Marigolds, but she monitors my MULL-berry intake very carefully.”
Headin’ home, I was thinkin’ about joyful, loving Delphi spreading smiles an Marigolds all over the place. I smiled to myself, knowing for sure she was gonna be a World Class Snuggler anna Loving Lap Dog for a long, long time.
Till next time,
Don’t Be Shy
We are always looking for pets with interesting stories. To set up an interview, email
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