Marvelous in my Monday: Barney’s 4-year rescue anniversary

Barney makes every day marvelous!

I can’t believe that I completely glossed over this detail on Thursday’s post about my 25th birthday. Barney is my (nearly) 7-year old long-hair miniature dachshund who my mom and I rescued four years ago on my birthday.

oh hai. 

I joke about how much of a jerk Barney is, but I really love the little dude.

It’s not his fault he doesn’t know how to socialize. I’ve tried. But, whatever happened to him in his first three years of life made him develop little doggy defense mechanisms that can’t be broken. For instance, my roommate’s friend is having him doggy-sit this week, and we tried to get the two dogs together to see if it would work. Both dogs are super neurotic, and it didn’t work. The other dog was a massive retired greyhound who was scared to death of Barney, who was ferociously chewing his ball and growling at him the whole time. Barney doesn’t know how to play. The other dog doesn’t like to play. He just kept sticking his head into our laps, afraid. It was super adorable, but kind of sad.

Anyway … Barney!

When I got Barney, I went through a lot of possible name ideas.

His original name was “Hoosier” which had to go. For one, he didn’t respond to it. And two, Hoosier is a horrible name for a dog. It doesn’t roll off the tongue very well. I made a list of names, and the top contenders were “Pickles” (the drummer, doodle-de-doo) and Walter (Payton). But, ultimately Barney won out because the dog responded to “Buddy” and it was pretty close. Plus, Barney has a little white tuft of fur that makes it look like he’s always “suited up”, so it is fitting that he’s named after Barney Stinson.

Happy  rescue-iversary, Barney! We love you, you little tongue-sticker-out-y furball.

Do you have a pet? If so, what’s your pet’s story?