Much like a proud parent of a newborn, pet owners have high opinions of how cute their pets are.
Our family dog, Chipper, was one of the cutest puppies I had ever seen when we adopted him from the Newberry County Animall Shelter in 2006.
A pound rescue, as best we can figure Chipper is part golden retriever, part yellow lab and part red bone hound.
He proved to be a precious puppy, learning to sit, lie down, play dead and roll over. As he neared the end of his puppy years, Chipper had revealed a hidden talent.
Chipper could sing.
We learned of this by accident one day when my Mom received a phone call and the ring tone caused Chipper to howl.
Later on a different caller rang in who used a different ring tone. Chipper’s tune changed to match the rhythm of the ring tone.
It was cute, so we rewarded him with a cookie.
It did not take him long to learn to paw at our pockets to get us to take our our phone and let him sing.
Those cookies were a great trade for Chipper.
He is not on YouTube, yet, though we have shared his video with friends and family.
We have tried CDs, guitar and other musical instruments but the two times he chimes in are when a phone rings (and he is in the mood to sing) or when my nephew, Thomas, plays with his elf koraoke microphone.
This cute dog trick has helped with journalism just this past week, in fact. I covered a story involving a young cancer patient and showing the child an iPhone video of Chipper singing helped to break the ice so we could conduct our interview.
He got a big smile from the six-year-old girl who then had to show me all about her cat, Gale.
Do you have a pet that is cute and worthy of recognition? Have you entered the pet in our Cutest Pets Contest? Voting begins Sept. 17, so if you have entered, please get your friends and family to vote in support of your pet being crowned the cutest.
Chipper is not eligible for the competition since I am an employee of the paper, but I am curious to see how well he could give the eventual winner a run for his or her money, in my eyes at least.
Please go to our website www.newberryobserver.com to cast votes for the cutest pet contest.
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