Hi! Hi! This is my blog! (*tail wagging furiously*)

Hello there! My name is Avon Barksdale, and I am a dog. Specifically, I am a mountain cur/hound mix-- Papa thinks I'm a plott hound, but I don't really know. People around here don't know about mountain curs or blackmouth curs, but we are THE BEST. We are hunting doggies! When I see something that looks like a non-doggy animal, I give a special growl and I bark and I tell Mama to shoot it, but Mama says no because we don't have guns and besides, I'm probably barking at balloons or posters. I was named after a man in a TV show called The Wire, and people really like it a lot and sometimes laugh when they hear my name. Mama and Papa said they named me Avon Barksdale because she is from Baltimore and I'm a dog so I bark. But I don't bark a lot. So I'm just Avon.

Mama suggested I start writing a blog (it rhymes with dog!) because we're MOVING and I am going to have ADVENTURES.

I live in a place called Harlem, in New York City. Harlem is very special. They say it's where the cool cats used to live, but I don't believe them, because I don't think cats are cool. But maybe the cool cats lived here a long time ago and then left, leaving Harlem to the nice people and the doggies. I came to Harlem because my mama and papa adopted me from a place called Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue. They rescue doggies from kill shelters in the south and bring them up north so they can be adopted by awesome people like my mama and papa. I was born in West Virginia (Papa says that makes me a mountaineer! I don't know what that means) and lived with my first papa until he died. Then I was in a shelter, then I was taken to a super awesome foster home (they had other brindle doggies! And something called a nephew! I liked him), then I went to Brooklyn. I had another foster family, then another, then one day my mama and papa came to pick me up and we became a family.

I like where I live. I like the park. It's called Morningside. Here's me sniffing some yellow flowers, right before I peed on them.

Mama takes me to the park every morning, even when the water falls from the sky and gets in my ears and I hate it, but she makes me. Sometimes we run into people and doggies we like. There's the nice man who walks the mean-looking gray dog (he and I just nod and walk on by), then there's Schatzie the Rottweiler (she's a silly puppy who likes to play too much at 6:30am), and Dharma the old bulldog who hates me, and Roscoe the husky who likes Mama more than he likes me but that's ok. Almost every day we run into a girl who waits for her bus to go to school, and she rubs my butt and tells me I'm cute. I like her a lot.

At night, Papa takes me out so I can pee and poop. Sometimes we walk by the vet's office. I like my vet, but I don't like the cats who live there. They're mean. Other times we walk by the park and we see people we know. I love seeing my friends on the street! Then Papa takes me home and makes me go into the bedroom with Mama so we can go to sleep. This is good because I like to sleep.

We live in a nice building with lots and lots of doggies, including my best friend, Jackie. She lives down the hall. She's 10. Her papa is my 3rd favorite human, after Mama and Papa. Our walker takes us out together three times a week, and Jackie doesn't let me stop and sniff too much, but that's ok because I stop and sniff with Mama. I stayed with Jackie a few weeks ago when Mama and Papa went away, and I had the BEST TIME. We played and chewed things, and I let Jackie sleep in my bed with me.

On some days, I see my friend Arnold. He works at the front desk. He gives me pastrami and I love it! Arnold likes me because I don't bite him. I would never bite him. He's my friend! I have to sit and be a good boy or I don't get my treat, but that's ok because Arnold is so nice.

On Mondays, I go to daycare. I go to a place called Doggedly Devoted. I always know it's Monday because Mama puts on my gray collar with all the tags and we walk down the street where the school is and we see the kids and I know I'm going to caaaaaamp! I love it, but I don't like it when Mama leaves. I want Mama to spend all day with me and my friends at daycare! Maybe one day she will. This is me at daycare with my buddies Riley and Myla. Don't I look ferocious??? You can see Nonnie in the corner. She's my BEST daycare buddy. She is red and tall and very pretty, and she and I like to chase each other all around the room until we get so tired.

Today I'm a little sad, though, because Mama told me we're moving to a place called North Carolina. At first I thought she said North CUR-alina, which would be so cool because it would full of curs like me, but Mama said no, but it's a nice place with lots of grass and streams and places to run around. And she promised she would find me a new daycare with more buddies. My papa is going to something called graduate school, where he will learn how to talk to people about money. That's what he told me. I don't know what that means. But as long as my mama and papa are there,  it will be ok.

I will try to write all about our last couple of months in New York and all the fun things we do and all my friends. But here's a picture of what I like to do best.