Luna: Happy Birthday to ME!!!

My Very Busy First Birthday

by Luna Brooks-Russell

So I'm lying on the couch (my favorite place) minding my own business and all of a sudden my mom gets home from "Party City" and announces ...

... it's my BIRTHDAY! Now I'm not exactly sure what a birthday IS but since it seems to involve extra treats and lots of attention, I figure: How bad can it be?

(I'm going to learn to stop asking questions like that pretty soon!) First they drag out the camera -- everything around here seems to be a "photo-op" ... and this is the official Birthday Portrait. (Not bad if I do say so myself!) But then ...

... they decide to have me wear the birthday star.

If you're not used to dog-body language here's a clue ...

Perky ears in the Birthday Portrait = I'm feeling good about myself.

Flat ears in this one = where's a hole I can crawl in?

But wait -- there's more. As if the birthday star isn't bad enough, they bring out ...

"THE HAT."

They don't actually think I'm going to WEAR that thing, do they? I'm thinking to myself but ...

... evidently they do. And as much as I try to cooperate with the mommies when they're in one of these "none of this makes any sense to a dog" phases I'm really only willing to put up with so much humiliation so ...

... once they got their stupid picture, off it came. (I mean really, a dog has to have some standards!)

I think they're trying to make it up to me a little because now I'm back up on the couch and no one is fussing at me to get down. We're waiting for the USC/Notre Dame game to start and pretty soon there will be turkey leftovers for people dinner and I think we're getting the left-over left-overs tonight. All in all it has been a very good first birthday (except for the hat part) so ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!