For my family (who asks about him), and for myself, I’m doing a little profile of our dog, Newton.

English Name: Newton

Chinese Name: 牛顿 (Niúdùn)

Date of Birth: c. Dec. 25, 2007

Weight: Not sure… 10 pounds? But he’s not overweight.

Food: Purina Dog Chow (beef or lamb), and pretty much nothing else. He likes beer, but never gets it anymore, since the infamous “couch incident.”

Health: Good! Since breaking his leg and needing surgery on his hip joint, he’s had virtually no issues, aside from the occasional ear infection. No problems with fleas or other parasites.

Most Embarrassing Moment: When he got drunk on beer, and peed on the couch, including on John, who was sitting next to him on the couch. (That will not happen again!)

Barkiness: Very low. We’re really happy with how quiet he is. He barks occasionally if he hears noise in the hall outside our apartment, but he hardly ever barks for any other reason. He just whines when he needs to go out or when he thinks it’s time he was fed. Thankfully, he’s not at all a yappy dog, and gives our neighbors no cause to ever complain. His bark is also pretty deep for as small as he is.

Socialness: Very high. Newton loves pretty much everyone. He gets all excited, wagging his tail and being all friendly, anytime someone approaches (and often they don’t even notice him). He loves attention. He’s not too good with other dogs, though. When another dog is the same size or bigger than him, Newton usual goes all submissive. But for smaller dogs, he likes to bully them. He gets along OK with a few dogs, but with most dogs he strikes me as that “annoying kid,” a kind of social misfit in dog society.

Good Habits: Newton likes to jump up on the coach and join us (he’s very affectionate). If we don’t want him on the couch (or on the bed), he’s good about staying down. Sometimes he even goes and lies down in his cage (we think maybe that’s him sulking). He doesn’t seem to mind going in his cage, or even going for a bath.

Bad Habits: As Wilson put it, he’s “a walker.” When he poos, he always slowly walks forward in that crouching position. It’s really annoying, because I have to pick all that stuff up, and it’s always strewn out rather than being in a nice easy pile. He also licks us way too much. Just non-stop licking of our legs, or arms, or hands. Not sure why he does that. We discourage it most of the time, but let him do it occasionally.

Favorite People: His favorite person seems to be SS’s mom, who spoils him. She gives him as much attention as he wants, and takes him on the longest walks, letting him sniff everything to his heart’s content. She used to hold him all the time, too, and we asked her to stop, but he ate it up. His second favorite person is me, which kind of pisses off SS. I tell her she should take him out more and feed him more, instead of me, and maybe he would like her more. But then she says she doesn’t care.