Willie Wonka, a 2 ½ year old Chocolate Labrador, lives in Florence, Oregon. The city is a dog’s paradise with ocean beaches, dog park, hiking trails and an impromptu Halloween pup-parade.
“Once a week, Willie’s brother, Eli, joins us in a training with a few friends and their dogs,” said Maria. “One of their socializing exercises took place last Halloween. Florence handed out pumpkins and candy to 200 families lined up in vehicles. To entertain the long line, we dressed our dogs in lobster, bumble bee and octopus costumes and paraded them up and down the sidewalk. The children and parents enjoyed the furry parade. Everyone had smiles. It was a great experience for our
disguised dogs.”
Maria is an avid reader. Twenty years ago, we met at a book signing when she paw-chased my books, ‘Expect Miracles’ and ‘A Christmas Filled with Miracles’. We became instant friends. With her love of books, she named her puppy, Willie Wonka, after author Ronald Dahl’s character. She and her husband manufacture components for luxury automobiles and were recently featured on the international TV show, “Wheeler Dealers”. Their show was viewed worldwide by 200 million people! The response
keeps them busy, so they hired Willie Wonka as office staff.
“Willie’s favorite job is paper shredding, but he is not allowed to do it anymore,” said Maria. “We learned the hard way that he can’t discern what is and isn’t shred-able. Even though he can’t read, yet, he is smart and can count to three, and spells a few words such as W A L K.
He loves lunch breaks. Our staff laughs at his antics of zooming outside. Willie also has fun running up and down the ocean beaches. His favorite hike is on the wooded trails near our home. He finds the biggest stick, picks it up and then beats it on the ground in what we call ‘Battle Lab’. He also likes ‘booping’ us in the backsides with his toys. Because he can count, when we ask him to bring us three toys, he brings three in his mouth - at the same time! He also has fun doing
tricks and can turn on/off the lights and beep a child’s toy tractor horn. Like many dogs, his favorite TV shows are nature shows with other animals and then he falls asleep snoring after a hard day at the office.
He’s a giant loveable goof ball, even though he steals our socks and face masks out of the laundry basket and then zooms around the coffee table with them in his mouth. He knows he’s being naughty, and he keeps us laughing.”
