By: Derick Zhang

Before we had Teddy me, my sis and my dad were all begging my mom to get a dog, she didn’t budge. So, my dad simply broke the rules and found a litter of dogs that would be good for our family. There were only 2 dogs left and one was already reserved for someone else, so as you would expect we took the last one. His original name was Wayne, like Wayne Rooney or for the younger ones Bruce Wayne. I thought his name was fine, but then my dad suggested the name “Teddy” since he looked just like a teddy bear, we took a vote and decided that Teddy was the best name for him. We adopted Teddy, potty trained him, spoiled him, and so on and so forth.

Teddy is almost 2 years old in human years. He is a cavapoo, a cross between a Poodle and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Cavapoos vary in color, but our cavapoo is a teddy bear brown with a tiny bit of white chest hair. One of the good things about cavapoos is that they don’t shed. They have hair, not fur and hair rarely sheds. Another thing, they’re all insanely cute. I know a lot of breeds are cute, but for me hands down, cavapoos were the cutest things to hit planet earth. They’re small, easy to take care of and yet when it’s play time, they’re absolute psychopaths. Which is what I love about them because they’re not just some boring dog that sleeps all day (sometimes), they encourage you to play with them. In my dog’s case, he’s a people dog. If he doesn’t have people, he just sits on a couch overlooking a window, patiently waiting for us to come back. When we do come back, all hell breaks loose. This dog can jump, usually on four legs he’s only around a foot tall. But when he jumps, he suddenly becomes 4 foot 6. Overall, he’s a people cavapoo that likes both lazing around and obliterating chew toys.

We’ve always had good times with Teddy. For Dad, he’s a bench warmer. For Mom, he’s a sleeping buddy. For my sis, he’s a toy and for me, he’s my mate. We have a sliding glass door to our balcony and a net to stop bugs from flying inside while we’re enjoying a nice dinner on the balcony. Sometimes we let the glass sliding door open but keep the bug trap closed. The bug trap is hard to see at night and so I can remember twice that Teddy would hit his face on the bug trap and be utterly confused. Another time is when I grab a toy and let Teddy walk over me and try to get the toy. Most of the time, we do this at least once a week when I have free time and have nothing to do. To this day, I still have no idea what the purpose of this action is because I surely don’t want to feel the pain and the slobber of a 10-pound dog all over my face and yet I do it anyways. But I know for a fact that I would only let my little big brother do it without him getting elbowed. Because he is quite possibly my best family member. (Don’t tell my mom and Dad, it wouldn’t be pretty if you did.)