Buba's birthday

It's Buba's birthday today; she's two years old. Buba is my neighbour's dog, a rather unusual English Setter cross. When she first came as a tiny puppy, she really did look exactly like an English Setter. I had an Irish Setter when I was a teenager, and looked after my dancing teacher's English Setter for a brief time, so it was easy to recognise that Buba had the shape and markings of a setter. Her father was of unknown breed, though, and as she grew to adulthood she developed a different body and face shape from a setter; she reminded me a lot of the drawings of Timmy, the dog in Enid Blyton's Famous Five books that I read as a child in the 1960s.

At first it was quite amusing to see this terrier-type head and thick wavy coat on a setter's body. People often stop me in the park and comment on what a cute and unusual looking dog she is. Small children say she's like a "peluche" (a fluffy toy) and want to hug her. Because of her markings, some ask if she's part Dalmatian. We've often wondered what kind of dog the father was, and it was only recently that I encountered a rather likely candidate when I met a man with a "pastor catalán" (Catalunyan Shepherd dog, a breed from the Barcelona region of Spain.) It had the same body shape and coat texture as Buba, but without the setter markings.

So today our girl is two years old. I can hardly believe that I've been walking this dog twice a day for almost two years now. Her owner, my neighbour Matilde, calls me Buba's "segunda mami" and is extremely thankful for my help in exercising this largish dog. (Her other dog is a chihuahua-pekinese cross.) But I'm thankful too, because walking with Buba every day has given me the exercise that I was no longer getting since my arthritis pain prevented me from doing sports and dance on a regular basis. So Buba has been a "godsend" in many ways. I've had all the fun of walking a dog, without the responsibility of having to find dog sitters when I travel, and I'm getting regular exercise to keep my joints and muscles moving over the winter months.

Feliz cumpleaños,  Buba. Te quiero.