Sunday’s paper had a story about Clark County folks with a Feb. 29 birthday. But humans can’t have all the fun.
Since today is leap day and littermates Zephyr and Hugo are celebrating their first leap day birthday, we wanted to give the goldendoodles their 15 minutes of fame, too.
Born Feb. 29, 2012, they have a chronological age of 4 and a leap-year age of 1. In dog years, they are 28, but in leap day dog years, they are 7. Got it?
(It’s OK, we’re still double-checking the math, too.)
• Nickname: Zeph Squeedo the Pood
• Person’s name: Kristin Crabtree
• Hometown: Camas
• Learn more about certified pet therapy at https://www.facebook.com/ColumbiaRiverPetPartners.org/?fref=ts
To celebrate his leap day birthday, Zephyr likely will scarf down a dog boutique cookie with “happy birthday” written on it. Some birthdays, he has to share his cookie with his doggy housemates. But today is his first leap day birthday, so he’ll likely get his own cookie, said his person, Kristin Crabtree.
A dog biscuit will be doled out to the other dogs in Crabtree’s household: Piper, a male double doodle (labradoodle-goldendoodle mix), and Keiser, a schnauzer that’s a retired diabetic alert dog.
Zephyr and Crabtree’s favorite walk is the Lacamas Lake Trail at Round Lake, but they’re also fond of hiking Silver Star Trail.
They plan to celebrate Zephyr’s birthday early by undergoing an evaluation to become a certified pet therapy dog and handler with Columbia River Pet Partners in Clark County. Crabtree said she is looking forward to volunteering at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, the public library, hospice care and more.
“Zephyr is doing well in public. He loves people and he loves other animals too,” Crabtree said.
Littermates Zephyr and Hugo have been together to play several times.
“They seemed to recognize each other,” Crabtree said. “I found out later that it is called kin recognition and they indeed knew each other.”
• Nicknames: Hugi, Huges
• Person’s name: CJ Anderson
• Hometown: Battle Ground
Hugo Bjorn, who lives in Battle Ground, likely will celebrate his big day by slurping vanilla ice cream and playing with a new toy, said his person, CJ Anderson.
“The first couple of years, I got some doggy ice cream, but he likes vanilla just fine,” CJ said.
Last year, Anderson got married and the couple had a baby, “so it will be a much fuller family celebration,” Anderson said about Hugo’s birthday.
Hugo and Anderson like to walk at Battle Ground Village and play off leash at Brush Prairie Dog Park.
“Hugo is smart, energetic and playful,” Anderson said. “It’s great to be able to take him out in public and know he’ll respond well to people, especially young kids who invariably want to come pet him.”
He added, “Hugo is our only dog, although my wife is anxious to get another doodle. I told her when our son is potty trained, we can start looking. Potty train one at a time.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
