By: Avery Duan

I still remember the time when I got my dog, Felix. My Dad was holding him in his arms. He was small, red, scared, and curious. My sister and I took turns petting him and picking him up. We let him explore a little bit before he started sniffing our furniture. After a while, he got tired so we took him to his pen which was a small area with a bed, toys, food, and water.

Now, Felix is 3 years old. He has grown a lot since he was a puppy. His fur color also changed from a dark red-brown color to a lighter version. Felix is still very energetic and playful. He likes playing tug-of-war, fetch, chewing his bone toys, and playing with his stuffed animals. Felix especially loves squeaky toys and hard toys.

Some foods that Felix likes are, treats, meat, and peanut butter. Felix gets treats when we train him and he does something right. We also use treats to lure him to go somewhere like the basement or up the stairs. Sometimes, we give him some meat that we don’t eat like small chunks of cow liver or some pieces of a chicken leg bone. We give Felix peanut butter when we celebrate something like his birthday and let him eat it. We also use peanut butter to make him eat something like his tick and heartworm medicine that he doesn’t like.

Felix is also very smart. He taught himself many things. For example, he likes to jump up on the couch and take naps there because it is comfortable. He also taught himself to scratch the door or wait next to it to go outside onto our deck or go back inside. He also likes to sunbathe on the deck. Another thing Felix does is put his head on our leg when we are eating, and stares up at us to let us know he wants some of our food. Sometimes, he even licks our legs to remind us that he is still there.