Princess Glitterpants tells me this is my special day. It’s all about ME!! I thought every day was about me, but evidently today really is. So far I have had bacon and a biscuit. Not those hard little cardboard ones, but a human biscuit, fluffy and buttery and delicious. I have been permitted to sleep in the Kingdom of Fluff and Squash this whole month!!! PGP snores, but that’s ok. I like being close to her. She says I get away with murder as it is, so she’s not sure how to top a regular day today. I take special offense to this mention of murder, ’cause I ain’t murdered nobody. And if I did, wouldn’t it be preferable that I got away with it? She’s very confusing sometimes. She says nobody would be brave enough to break in on us since I live here with all my scary teeth. I think this is amusing. She’s way meaner than me!!!
But back to my day. After breakfast, I got new toys. I got two new bones, a beaver, a cheeseburger in lieu of a birthday cake, and, best of all, a Sebastian 3.0. He’s an exact replica of the Sebastian that was my very first toy, ever. I don’t know how PGP got him, but I’m sure glad to see my old friend. This is me with my loot.

She also sang.
It was horrible, but don’t tell her that. I know it wasn’t meant as punishment.
Things sure have changed in a year. I don’t like to dwell in the past, us dogs are all about the here and now, but I want to tell you about my typical day a year plus one day ago. Then I’ll tell you about my one year ago today day.
I had just gotten a new bed. It was the only thing soft in my cell. And it was almost possible to be warm on it, since it wasn’t against the concrete. My world was gray, except for a few minutes a day where I was let out into the grassy enclosure alone to stretch my legs and do my business. I would never mess and tinkle in my cell, but sometimes I couldn’t wait to do the other and tried to keep it in the corner. Disgraceful, I know, and embarrassing to admit, but there wasn’t always enough staff to walk me when I needed to go out. So I did what I had to do when I had to do it.
I had food and water delivered to me twice a day, morning and night, and I tried my best not to make a mess. The digs weren’t bad, especially after being on the streets so long. It was a relief not to get shot at, or hollered at, or chased. I no longer had to dodge cars and people throwing stuff at me. I wasn’t out in the rain and cold. And mainly I was so thankful I didn’t have to root through waste and garbage to find something to eat. Or eat cat food that people left outside for the racoons or stray kitties. Everybody was so scared of me, so nobody left any doggie food out. They didn’t want a pit bull hanging around. Although obviously I’m just as much Labrador!
Staying in my cell 23 hours a day, with bright florescent lights on almost all the time, and a never ending cacophony of barking dogs, plus the train that rambled by regularly, it was like my ears couldn’t get a break. I like to bark, too, but not non-stop. So I thought that was it. The end of the road. I was vaguely aware of other dogs coming and going, but always heard I was “too big” “too energetic” “too strong” and “too scary”. Me?? Scary??? I think it’s my head. Even PGP says my head is blocky. And I do have a lot of teeth, like I mentioned before. I guess they thought I would steal their food. I don’t steal!! I have manners!! I take it-very gently, I might add- when it’s presented to me.
I can’t deny that I AM big, and I AM strong, and I AM energetic!!! I love to run and run and run. I get excited and I jump up on you. I call it vaulting, because I don’t stay long. I make a great kitchen dance partner, though. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
So every day was the same: constant noise, few humans to stroke my (too big) head, not much to do at all but lay there and wonder if this was really how it was gonna be forever. I did feel much better, but what good was that if I couldn’t go play with people?
After about four months of this same routine, one day the guy in charge came to my cell. He didn’t have food bowls. He greeted me warmly and scratched me behind my floppy ears after he got my leash and collar slipped on. He said there was somebody that wanted to meet me.
Meet ME???
THIS HAD NEVER HAPPENED.
And here’s a girl who smelled like bacon. I heard her say, “Oh, he’s not THAT big.” She had red hair and a worried expression as she watched me pull Kevin around on the asphalt. He made me stop and asked her if she wanted to walk me. It surprised me that she said yes, but she did, and we took off. I gave her a kiss first. I’m forward that way.
She let me take my time when I had to squat (I’m a terrible first date, but I had to GO). I tried to stick close to her but this was so out of the ordinary for me I couldn’t hardly contain myself. I was sniffing everything and kinda pulling her around. But a few times she gently jerked my leash and kissed at me and so I would trot over to her. I wanted to lick her face so bad. She asked me to sit and I dropped it like it was hot.
She awarded me with bacon from a plastic pouch.
I was in LOVE.
I would follow this Queen of Bacon anywhere.
We started back down to my building and I was so worried. I could feel my sadness growing with every step. But this is my fate. There were a whole bunch of workers outside watching our return. Didn’t they have dogs to walk? They should get busy.
“How’d it go?” The man in charge asked her.
She looked at me and shrugged. She was thinking I was too big, after all. I just knew it.
“I like him,” she said instead.
Kevin waited for the “but”.
She held his gaze and said nothing.
He turned to the girls. “Go get his cape and start his paperwork, this baby’s going home.”
And my redhead cried.
And I cried.
And I think everybody else was trying not to cry.
They put me in a rocket for a trial run down to the store to make sure I wouldn’t act like an idiot in the car. I was Very Good, even though it was only my third time in a rocket.
And we came back and I got buttoned into this ridiculous Superman cape and a harness because I would probably choke out from all the excitement in a regular collar. When the redhead saw me she smiled so big and I got in HER rocket, which turned out to be the fastest one of all. I managed to wiggle out of that dumb cape and spent the rest of the time looking out the windows and trying to act like I did this sort of thing all the time. After awhile I got sleepy (it was a LONG trip!!) And I put my (too big, blocky) head on her elbow. I heard her sniff. She started calling people and I heard how excited everybody was for us. It felt so good, evidently she’d been looking for me for a long time. I don’t know what took her so long, I’d been right there in that same spot for months. But we had each other now.
We finally quit going so fast and I sat up again and this time put my head on her shoulder. I refrained from licking her ear. It took a LOT.
We finally stopped and I got to see my new furever home for the first time. It was BEAUTIFUL. The best part was the enclosure. It was HUGE!!! It looked like I could run for DAYS!!! PGP walked me all around it a couple of times and then we went inside.
I WAS GOING TO LIVE HERE?!?!?EVERYTHING WAS SO SOFT AND IT SMELLED SO GOOD AND BEST OF ALL IT WAS JUST US!!! No other caterwauling dogs! No train! No florescent lights! There was my very own bed and all kinds of rooms to sniff and IS THAT A TOY FOR ME?!?!?!
OH
MY.
DOG.
I passed out at her feet. It was all too much.
And when I woke up, I was still here. And every day when I wake up, it’s all still here and I’m still here and it’s not a dream.
This is really happening.
I have food and water always. I have my own enormous yard and I can do whatever I want out there, except escape. I can chew sticks, dig holes, run, chase squirrels (but NOT the chickens…at least, not if PGP is home to see me), lay on the porch, wallow in the grass, bark at the neighbors, bark at the mailman, bark at the birds, and howl when the emergency vehicles go by. I have the dungeon, and it has cool concrete floors, and I don’t get in trouble if I’m down there for hours on end and I have to…you know. It’s ok. I like the dungeon, but don’t tell PGP. It’s where we play if it’s raining, so that’s a perk, too.
But my #1 favorite is upstairs with my redhead, laying wherever she is. I’m not allowed to Chesterplay on the couch or Kingdom of Fluff, doing so revokes my privileges, but I can lay there if I’m good and don’t act crazy. I get tidbits of whatever she’s eating. I forgot my ACTUAL favorite is when we go for Rocket rides to get fluffcups. We do this at least once a week, even though I get Chester hairs everywhere and drool on the windows. PGP is a bit of a neat freak. I have so many toys and I get more delivered to me once a month– MY name is on the box. If it rains while I’m outside, I am given the towel treatment upon entry. If she somehow senses it’s going to rain, I get to stay inside all toasty warm and dry. If she doesn’t know, usually I can get out of the rain somewhere. She never leaves me out if it’s cold. Or super duper hot. I’m heat intolerant, is what the guy told her, and she said she is, too. I was so scared of going up and down stairs when I came home (give me a break, I’d never seen them before!) But they don’t faze me now. I’m way quicker than PGP, even. I’m still not keen on being brushed, it tickles!!! The vacuum cleaner is a pest, but there’s no use barking at it like I used to. I just had to learn. PGP is amazed by what I already knew (sit, stay, lay down, shake) but she did teach me that cool spin move. We’ve still got work to do about getting in the bathtub, but you can’t have it all. I must retain a quirk or two.
I’m so glad this happened to me. It was definitely worth the wait at the holding place. There’s not even been any talk of Gypsies in some time. I know my redhead’s heart was totally shattered when I came here, but we’ve worked together and she says I’ve brought her so much joy. I know the Lightning Bug approves. He held on as long as he could but he knew she had love in her heart for another down-on-their-luck pibble.
I have met several of you this year, and I’m sorry if you weren’t one of the ones I warmed up to. My #1 priority is loving PGP, and with that love comes protection. I’m sure you meant no harm but I have to be on guard 100% of the time. And so I bark and act threatening. Like I said, PGP can hold her own but I’m s’post to scare you off first because she says ammo is really high and there’s no sense wastin’ it. Her aim is true, though, so it would only take one little bullet and you wouldn’t hurt for long, probably.
I hope you all have a fantastic and moderately spooky Halloween. We’re celebrating Howl-o-ween here, no spooks. PGP says she has plenty of ghosts and does not welcome more. And she doesn’t want to share her peanut m&m’s with the little goblins who might come knockin’.
Thank you for following my adventures these last 365 days. Thank you for the love and fun comments, all the sweet words you’ve expressed about me. October is both Adopt a Shelter Pet Month and Pit Bull Awareness Month, and it is my hope when you go looking for a companion you’ll check your local (and not so local) shelters first. Pit Bulls are the #1 dogs in shelters, and that means they’re the most bred dogs out there AND the ones being put to sleep more than any other breed. Some of us are a little aggressive, sure. You would be too if people taught you that’s what you had to be. But I promise we’re also among the most loyal, social, loving, and least shedding breeds out there. (I don’t count on that shedding bit, since I’m half Lab). We all just want somebody to love, and somebody to love us back. We were known as nanny dogs before those hateful men taught us to fight to death. Show us love and that’s what we’ll give back. Show us hate and eventually that’s what we’ll reflect.
So today is my birthday. PGP says it’s more of an anniversary, if we were to be technical about it, but it’s also like a Christian birthday, because I was born again into a new life. I’ve certainly lived different than I did before. I wish I could tell her how thankful I am, but I’m pretty sure she knows already. Happy Howl-o-ween from the redheads. Happy Gotcha Day to us.
Love, Chester Copperpot ❤️🐾
AKA Chess Pie, Chessmess, Chester Charles, Lord Chesterfield, Chesterpeake, Chesspiece, Chessie, The Comma, and GET DOWN!!!