For Spunky, it’s a good dog’s life

 His name was Spunky, and he was a 1-year-old, a puppy, a beagle like Charlie Brown’s dog Snoopy in the comic strip Peanuts, and he was the toast of ArtFest.

Everywhere the four of us went in Coeur d’Alene Park this past Saturday – Deborah, Spunky, his owner Sara and I – Spunky was a people magnet. “May I pet your dog?” “Doggie!” Babies in strollers, old men and young adults all smiled and wanted to pet him. It never stopped. If it wasn’t a stranger coming up to greet him, it was another dog. He was amazing; he was a celebrity; he was a rock star.

We wanted to see the brilliant photographs, paintings, weavings and other handicrafts by the talented group of artists. Spunky wanted to sniff the art, the grass, the trees, the air, the people. Extraordinarily polite and dignified at all times, he never barked, bayed, or whatever it is a beagle does when he feels like raising his voice.

I, too, fell under his spell and tried to do the paparazzi thing and take his picture. Which was difficult. Puppies, like children, are nature’s perpetual motion machines. “Say cheese” is not a phrase they teach in either obedience school or day care. The best shots happened after I pressed the shutter release.

After a morning of following his entourage, I had an idea. Perhaps at next year’s ArtFest I’ll put up a booth. I’ll borrow Spunky from our friend Sara and put up a sign, “Pet the doggie, only a dollar!” No one will care who I am, they’ll just want to run their hands through his luxurious brown and black fur and look at that wonderful face. And they’ll smile.

Maybe life as a dog isn’t so bad, after all.