NiceCity

My Famous Pooch — #BlarneyOBudrick

This weekend I’m going to have to come to terms with the fact that the time has officially arrived to close my windows for the season. Living in a home built in the 1903 certainly has it’s charms but the original windows and their ability to keep warmth in and cold out is not one of them. So, the name of the game around this time of year is weatherproofing plastic and all other forms of energy (and warmth) saving tips. This of course does not make my famous pooch (Budrick) or his fans happy at all.

Putting up that plastic over our windows is bit of work and frustration and nothing short of a comedy sketch with tape troubles, being utterly tangled up in crinkly plastic and repositioning it 18 times before its ready for the hairdryer to tighten it up. It’s also a sad time for my usually happy dog where he begins to realize the windows are closed for good and he knows he’s trapped for the next 5 months or so. Budrick will lay on the floor and sadly watch as we cover his only access to the outside world — of course he’s being dramatic as he does go to the park two to three times everyday, sometimes more and he get countless smaller trips outside. The point is we know he’s super sad about this whole thing and we feel bad for him.

Budrick is my 8 year old golden retriever and about 7 years ago he discovered the open front window is a great place. He spends countless hours with his face in the window looking out at the world going by. We live on one of the busiest streets in Toronto with streetcars, cars and all hustle and bustle of downtown and Budrick loves it. He watches out that window from morning until bedtime with breaks in between only for park trips and pee breaks. He will even have his naps in that window.

The best part of Budrick’s favourite pastime is just how much joy he brings to people. We hear people talking to him, stopping to point him out to their kids and many have snapped a picture. Our dog has become famous and before I knew it whenever I took him out for a pee on our front lawn someone would say “hey is that the dog in the window?” And they would proceed to pet him and get him all excited. He officially had fans!!

This past summer we decided to embrace his fame and give his fans a place where they could see and share pics of the “dog in the window” and we created a sign with a hashtag. More selfishly we thought it would be fun to see the shots people were taking. Over the years we had tried many search terms to find them but had little success. I did manage to find a few but we were sure there had to be so many more. The sign reads ‘Tag your photos! My name is #BlarneyOBudrick’. It worked! People began tagging their photos and now you can find them on Instagram and by googling his hashtag. Be sure to check it out :)

People in our community are happy to know his name, they greet him when we’re outside and we’ve even heard people calling to him to get him to come to the window in the rare moments when he wasn’t there and respond with a “There he is! Hi Buddy!” when he pops his head out. Budrick makes people happy by just being there overlooking the street and he deserves a NiceCity bracelet — perhaps I should have collars made for all the animals who are making people happy by just being who they are.

In the spring we will take the plastic off and open the window and Budrick will jump happily up on “his” couch and greet the world by sticking his face out the window. He will smile down at passers by and they will greet him with smiles in return and maybe they will share their photos again.

In the meantime, happy winter everyone!