In 2018, there were 89.7 million dogs in American households. A small fraction of these dogs are lucky enough to call Lick students their parents. And these Lick dogs have a lot to say. The Paper Tiger sat down with some of these dogs to talk about their lives.
Lili
Who are your people? Thomas Dean ’20 and Emma Dean ’21
What is your daily routine? “In the morning, I wake up and paw my human to take me out and feed me, then I promptly visit the grass. Then I sleep in the sun for a while until I get taken on walks, but since I’m getting old, I can’t walk as far anymore without getting tired. Then I sleep some more until my other humans get home from school, and then I get their socks, and carry them around like prizes. Then I sleep some more and am grumpy until my mom takes me to bed. Repeat.”
What’s your favorite thing to do? Least favorite? “My most favorite thing to do in the whole entire world is eat, and steal food from humans. My least favorite thing is grooming. Keep those nail clippers to yourself Cathy.”
Describe your ‘rebellious’ stage “When I was young, my humans left out a couple of hefty steaks on the counter while being occupied doing something else, and I was able to drag them off the counter. I didn’t really know what to do so I started licking them, but then my humans came in and got angry. I don’t get why they don’t share with me, because my dog food is bland compared to what they eat.”
What’s your favorite food? “My favorite food is carrots, without a second thought. I can always hear it when they take them out of the refrigerator and they are mine, I don’t know why they eat them.”
photo by Emma Dean
Mila
Who are your people? Marco Donohoe ’22, Rafi Donohoe ’19 and Viva Donohoe ’20
What are some of your pet peeves about your owners? “They always brush my teeth…argh!”
Why would you be on America’s Got Talent? “I can sing to the piano. And I’m a circus dog because I can perform agility jumps.”
What languages do you speak? I am bilingual; my people speak to me in both Spanish and English. I don’t just go bow-wow, I also go guau guau.
photo by Robin Donohoe
Juno
Who is your person? Nameer Hirshkind ’19
What’s your daily routine? “I sleep. Then I wake up and lie down with my eyes closed. When the humans eat what is rightfully mine, I stare deep into their souls until they return it to me. This also induces them to give me a free massage at any time. I go out once or twice every day, where I mostly smell plants. Other dogs are all very large and scary, so I roll over when they approach to be ready for their attacks. I then return to lying down. Or sleeping. Whichever.”
What’s your all time favorite thing to do? “Roll in a mud puddle.”
What’s your least favorite thing to do? “Get a haircut (I don’t know why they torture me like this. The other dogs say they don’t have to get it. The humans call me hypoallergenic…).”
What is one of your favorite memories? “Once, the people took me in the car for a really long time. I think it may have been a couple of fluffy units of time. When I got out, I began to sink into the ground. Everything was fluffy, like me, but white. It was like the ground was a white, fluffy puppy. I tried to run but kept sinking. It was deeply confusing, but once I forgot what I was thinking about, I enjoyed it thoroughly, I think.”
What tricks can you do? “I don’t know… I just sort of follow the treat with my face. Sometimes they don’t give it to me and that’s annoying. When I was very young they tried to take me to a place with lots of puppies and lead my face all over the place. The other puppies were walking around and lying down and sitting. I think they may have been recovering from severe injuries. I wanted to meet them but the people wouldn’t let me.
photo by Nameer Hirshkind
Gracie
Who is your person? Rudy Lee ’21
When did you first meet your owner? “I first found my human in their grandparents’ driveway. I had been abandoned without any collar or chip. My human brought me to be spayed, but I was already pregnant, and had 5 adorable puppers. My human and I raised them and gave them away.”
What’s your favorite thing to do? Least favorite? “I love treats and walks, but hate when my human cooks and doesn’t give me all of his food. I remember when I was washed when I was first found. It was very nice.”
What do you get annoyed with your owner for? “I dislike when my human doesn’t give me treats. I also dislike when my human isn’t home and can cuddle with them when they sleep.”
What pet peeves does your owner have about you? “My human doesn’t like when I stare into their eyes begging without mercy for any remaining leftovers.”
photo by Rudy Lee
Larry (short for Hilarious)
Who is your person? Juliana Lamm-Perez ’21
Your favorite thing to do? Least favorite? “I love cuddling. I also like going to the dog park, but I don’t like other dogs – one sniff is usually enough for me. I love when my humans give me their food, although I throw it up afterwards.”
What’s your favorite food? “Any meat but also broccoli – my middle name is Broccoli because I love it so much!”
What makes you special? “I’m a Jack Russell terrier mix, and I’m a rescue. My family thinks I came from an abusive home, but I’m ok now.”
Describe your ideal friend? “Someone who takes me on lots of walks and let’s me sniff around endlessly! I like exploring more than exercise.”
photo by Juliana Lamm-Perez
Nemo
Who’s your person? Tamisha Williams
What’s your daily routine like? “Starting around 4:30am I like to stretch and prepare to wake my human up before her alarm goes off at 5:15am. A few licks to her nostril do the trick. I then eat breakfast, get taken on a walk around my neighborhood, so I can patrol for moles and rodents, and then come home and take a nap. While my human is out doing who knows what all day, I scan the neighborhood from my windows, bark at dogs off leash, and rest my eyes while listening to relaxing music on YouTube.”
What is your favorite memory? “Every time my owner comes back from being away from me a new favorite memory is created. She steps out the door to take the trash out and comes back, new favorite memory. She comes back from being gone for hours, new favorite memory. I jump and twirl and jump and get out of breath. Fun times.”
Where’s your favorite place in the world? “Undercovers. My human gave me this crate to lay in with a blanket of my own. But the covers on her bed are much nicer, smoother, warmer, and just better all around. So I ignore the bed she gave me and create my own space under her covers.”
What’s your favorite food? “The amazing things my human burries in white plastic bags. I’ve found these yummy greasy potato stick things and chicken. She gets upset because other materials get scattered on the floor during my retrieval process, but that’s her fault for burying the yummy things in those stupid plastic bags. I’m part schnauzer, I’m gonna hunt, dig and find them. Duhhh!”
Why would you be on America’s Got Talent? “I can match the sound of sirens pretty accurately. I’m just doing my job to alert the other dogs in the neighborhood of the fire alarm and fire engine sirens. Patrol and protect. That’s my motto.”
photo by Tamisha Williams
Tucker and Zeus
Who’s your person? Lucy Barnum ’20
What’s your daily routine? “We like to get up exactly at 6:00 am — we howl until someone lets us out of our pens. Then we enjoy a breakfast of cottage cheese, hamburger meat and Blue Moon kibbel. Yum! We like to go on long walks during the day and sniff around the neighborhood. The gutters are our favorite — we like to run through the water just to make mom mad. When we aren’t on walks, we usually mope in the kitchen or chase each other in the living room. After dinner, we play catch in the hallway. We like to use mini tennis balls — just our size! Then we cuddle in mom’s bed while she reads on her Kindle. We wish she’d let us sleep there, but at around 10:30 she makes us go back to our pens. We howl for a bit before bed, but eventually we fall asleep.”
What’s your pet-peeve? “Cars! Whenever a car comes by, we bark at it to scare it away. The only problem is we’re pretty small, so sometimes they can’t hear us. But most of them drive away eventually. Our humans usually get mad at us when we lunge at cars, so they recently bought us these thick harnesses to tug us away from the cars. We hate the harnesses. How else are we supposed to protect our streets?”
Describe your ‘rebellious’ stage: “Actually, we’re still in our rebellious stage. We came to our home pretty recently, so our new humans let us get away with a lot. Like the couch for example: we technically aren’t allowed to sit on the furniture, but sometimes we like to climb on when mom isn’t looking. We’re also major adventurers, and like to climb trees and hunt deer in our backyard. This kind of scares our humans, but we think it’s super fun!”
photo by Alex Barnum
Violet
Who’s your owner? Molly French
What’s your daily routine like? “We get up at 5:30 and Mom feeds me right away. Then I climb under the covers on her bed and wait for her to get dressed so she can take me out for my morning pee/pooh. We live with Aunt Martha, Uncle Anthony and Cousin Katy so I hang out with who ever is home until Mom gets home from work. I greet Mom at the top of the stairs from the garage when she gets home and she feeds me dinner. Then we go on a good walk in the Presidio. The rest of the day I follow Mom around the house hoping she will drop some food for me. We snuggle while she reads or watches TV. On the weekends we go for hikes which I love.”
What tricks do you know? “Mom and I used to compete in agility so I learned to do jumps, weave through poles and ride the teeter totter. I also know how to spin in place and weave a figure eight through Mom’s legs on command. I know how to sit, stay and lay down on command too.”
What’s your favorite food? “TANGERINES!!!”
What are pet peeves you have about your mom? What are some pet peeves she has with you?: “It bugs me that she won’t let me chew my bones on her bed. It also really bugs me when she insists on giving me a bath. Mom gets mad when I search for snacks in the gutter on our walks. She also hates it when I bark in the house like crazy every time the doorbell rings. Doesn’t she know I am in charge of security??”
What languages do you speak at home? “I started to ignore Mom when she used the word ‘come’ so she trained me to recall using the words ‘Viens ici’ which means ‘come here’ in French.”
Describe your ideal friend? “My ideal human friend would be Mom if she were home 24/7. As long as we are side by side, life is good!”
photo by Eleanor Sananman
