Dog’s birthdays are lots of fun. You can make a huge fuss if you want to or you can skip it entirely. It’s all for you and it’s all up to you. Not that the dogs don’t love a party. They do. Especially the food part. And the toys but mostly the food.

I confess that many years ago I used to make fun of people who talked about things their dogs liked. Not typical dog things like riding in cars. Everyone can tell if a dog likes to ride in a car (and most do) but about other things. I really didn’t believe people could know that their dog liked being in dog shows or going certain places or even wearing clothes but dogs do have a lot of preferences and they are pretty good at making them known. With Panama there are levels of liking.

He would rather go anywhere I go than have to stay home without me so he was happy to be at Coastline Pet Supply (wonderful store) trying on sweaters for his birthday and seeing if he would fit into the various travel bags. He didn’t not like it because he was doing it with me but when we got to the aisle with the bulk treats (in bins, not wrapped) he moved up to the next level of liking.  He licked his chops in that “this is what I’m talking about” way that said he could hardly contain himself and didn’t know what treat to pick.

In the end we really made it a pretty low key birthday. Although I had bought party hats and streamers and treats and a couple of new toys I blew off making the (healthy) cake.  A lot of what I wanted to do was for the sake of pictures. Panama was ecstatic to find that we had hot dogs for his birthday. (These are a very special treat that we get very rarely because we try for more healthy treats.) He wasn’t real happy that he had to wear a birthday hat to get the treat. I put the hat on him a couple of times and then his big brown eyes caught my heart.  I decided that from that point on we’d celebrate for him, not for me and I didn’t make him wear the hat. He got hot dog bits for doing nothing more than sitting. (You all HAVE to sit to get your treats) He, and the rest of the paque, had a good time and there were no pictures until this one I got of him later.  This is my beloved friend at 11 years old. Happy Birthday Panama Red!!