The Chibburin

Oscar was a white Pekingese that my ex gave to me as a birthday gift. I love puppies…but, eh…I wasn’t too thrilled that Mike chose a Pekingese. It was fitting though…growing up, Mike's family had Pekingese dogs, so he bought me the kind of dog HE liked. After a short time, Oscar grew on me and became part of the family.

The majority of the time, Oscar resided in the laundry room. He shed long, white hair everywhere. I never could trust him enough to leave him alone on the carpet and worst of all, he would get these sporadic breathing attacks followed by vomiting foamy drool which was much easier to clean off the linoleum in the laundry room than off the carpet. One morning, after unknowingly stepping in the slime, Mike nearly slipped and fell on his ass.

You could enter the laundry room directly from the living room and we kept Oscar in there behind a wooden baby gate, so that it would still feel like we had a dog, and not an abomination we kept locked away behind the laundry room door.

Oscar acquired many nicknames throughout his time with us. “Oscar De La Launderia” (Spanish for, “of the laundy room”) reminiscent of the boxer, Oscar De La Hoya. He was also fondly referred to as, “Mr. Fluffypants”, “The Mister”, “Mr. Oscarton”, and yet another Spanish version, “Os-car” (pronounced “Ohs-carr”. (Roll those r’s!)

In the winter months when we let Oscar out to do his thing....I’d glance out the window to see if he looked like he was finished. He was fine. Lookin’ around…smellin’ the air...white hair flowin’ in the breeze... pissin’ in the wind. But, as soon as I’d go out to bring him in, he’d start shivering. It was almost an act, because he wasn’t shivering until I opened the door to bring him in. I looked down at Oscar and said in a baby-talk voice…
“Oh, my baby’s shiverin'.”
“Are you shiverin’, boy?”

After I brought him in, I told Mike, still in baby-talk,
“He was shiverin’."
“He’s a shiverin’ dawg."
“Oh............he’s a chibburin dawg”.

And with this new nickname, Oscar evolved into a New Breed of Dog--The Chibburin.