Spooky and Jack

Dear Jack and Spooky, 

 First of all – congratulations for being our Dogs of the month!  You are real cuties and we are in love. 

Can we ask you a few questions to get to know you better? 

 

 

Dear Jack and Spooky please tell us – does your names have any special meaning? What’s the inspo behind it? 

Yes! When Spooky came home, he looked very frightened during his trip and he also got sick. He was almost throwing up, so sis told our mom to stop the car. Without looking to the side, she opened the door very fast and slammed it into a wall! It was a very spooky trip and that’s how the name “Spooky” remained 😅

In Jack’s case, he used to be called “Pirate” in the house he was born. Because of his little brown stain in one of his eyes, he really looked like a pirate with an eye patch, so our family decided they wanted to called him Jack due to the character Jack Sparrow. Daddy says he only accepted the name because it also reminds him of the famous whiskey “Jack Daniels”.

 

When were you born? And where?

Spooky was born on September 27, in the house of our sis’ aunt, in Leiria. He is the son of two of her dogs. Jack was born on September 4, in Nazaré.

 

Can you tell us a bit how did you found your adopted family? How was it? 

We both have long stories of how we found our adopting family. 

When our sister was a kid, she had a big fear of dogs so our parents decided to give her a dog to grow with her, Mena. Because of her, sis stopped being afraid of dogs and started loving them, so much that she decided to study veterinary sciences in Lisbon. Sadly, in the second year of her degree, Mena died with 14 years old and our sis couldn’t say goodbye once she was in Lisbon. It was really hard because sis really loved her and she no longer knew what is was to live without a dog. At this exact time, Spooky and his siblings were born and sis completely fell in love with him. She saw him growing week by week and after almost two months of effort, she convinced our parents to bring him home!

Jack’s story is completely different! Some friends of our parents that live far away from us were coming to Nazaré, a city close to our home, to pick up a dog they had reserved. They invited our parents to go for a walk with them in Nazaré before picking up the dog and they ended up going with them to the house were Jack was born. When they got there, Jack was the last remaining puppy of his litter. He was so tinny and had such a sweet look on his eyes that they completely fell in love for him. They couldn’t leave him there alone! So, without much though, they decided to bring him and that’s how Jack ended up in our forever home!

 

 

What were your first thoughts when you noticed that your pawrents do not have paws and don’t have furry skin and a tail?

In the beginning it was really odd! They were very weird beings with no tail to wag when they were happy, who didn’t rub their backs on the floor to scratch them and that spoke for us with an awkward baby voice. But nowadays we really love them because, besides their differences, they give us all the cuddles in the world, they let us sleep in their warm beds and they treat us like the kings of the house! And who doesn’t love to feel like a king?

How was it when you both first met? How is the relationship between the two of you? 

When we met, I (Spooky) was already 3 years old and I was the baby of the house (besides our two feline siblings). So when Jack arrived, it was really hard for me to share everything with him, and he was also very energetic and annoying! It was a slow process but with time, I started playing with him, borrowing him my toys and my blankets and also petting him. Nowadays, we really love each other and I’m Jack’s idol! As normal siblings, we still have our little fights, specially when it comes to toys, but we have a lot of fun together and we share a lot of licks of love with each other!

 

Do you have a your favorite game to play with your human or with each other? 

Yes we do! We both love to catch some balls that our humans throw for us and play with our puller! Spooky also loves to play with squeaky toys but I (Jack) found them a little bit annoying. I prefer to play with chewing rope toys or other chewing toys that I can destroy! I need to admit that I’m a little destroyer 🙊

 

Can you tell us about your personality? how would you describe yourself?

 

 

We are very different from each other! 

Spooky is usually described as the brain of the house! He’s really intelligent and if he could, he would always be doing something! He loves to train sports, to learn new tricks and to spend his day outside, running, exploring, swimming and sniffing. He’s always so happy that his eyes overflow with joy and his big smile is contagious. He’s also a very loyal companion of our family and a cuddling boy!

Regarding Jack, our family usually says that he has the biggest soft heart they know! Yes, he’s big and yes, he’s a Pit Bull, but he’s the sweetest and the laziest boy. He loves to give licks of love to everyone, including to our feline siblings, and to spend his day sleeping in the couch, under his blankets or on a lap. But don’t let yourself be fooled by his sweet eyes! He’s always planning some mischief and on his energetic hours, get ready for the biggest zoomies!

 

Do you ever misbehave? If yes, what was the worst mess you both made? have you ever destroyed something? 

Our family says that we were both little trouble makers when we were kids, specially when our teeth were changing. It’s hard to list the amount of different objects we destroyed, since the feet of a wood table and a few chairs, furniture knobs, pillows, pyjamas, slippers, a feather duvet (ups, feathers everywhere) and all the tops of a pack of 6 water bottles (ups, also water everywhere). They also say that we are real diggers that love to give a new look to our garden. But tell us, don’t you agree that a garden looks much better with soil rather than grass? 

Besides all these messes, they say that the worst we did was some months ago when we decided to open the gate of our house, escape and do a big walk in the woods. They were really mad because they say that they were scared of loosing  us and also because they lost all their free lunch time searching for us. And they also complained a lot of our natural cow poop smell and forced us to take a big shower! Humans and their not so much fine nose… 🙄

 

Do you have a favourite place to go? 

Yes we do! We usually go with our sis to a hidden place near our home that has everything we love! It has little mountains and big dunes with a lot of small trees and smells to sniff and a huge beach where we can run freely and swim in the ocean. And the best part is that this place has the most beautiful sunsets we’ve ever seen! It’s definitely a place to create wonderful memories and a place we like to call “ours”!

 

What does a pawsome day for you consist of? 

For us a pawsome day is when our family spend the whole day with us! It always starts with lots of cuddles in our sis bed! We love to wake her up with lots of licks of love because she always laughs a lot! Then we wake up the rest of the family and they always play with us. After playing, sis prepare us our breakfast, the most important and delicious meal of the day and then we go for walk in the woods, followed by a big and long nap in the couch. After lunch, we can either take another nap or go out for a training session, both are pawsome plans. But what we really love to do in the afternoon is to go for a walk in our favourite place, run, play and watch the sunset with sis! Then we go back home and have an amazing and reinforced dinner. And of course, this pawsome day could only end with a movie night, where all our family is reunited in the living room and we can take a wonderful nap among them or in their laps!

 

 

What’s the thing you find most strange about humans ? And what’s the thing you like the most?

One thing they do that we’ve never been able to understand is why they sit on a porcelain seat that has a hole in the middle for pooping and why they use a wonderful piece of paper, which we could use to destroy, to wipe their buts! And in the end they even click on a magical button that flushes the poop and the paper away! What a waste!

The thing we really like about our humans is their food! They are wonderful in the kitchen and they are always cooking super tasty and smelly food. Our parents usually share with us a little piece under the table, but shhhh 🤫 You can’t tell this to our sis because if she discovers, she would never allow it!

 

 

Does your humans ever annoy you?

Oh yeah! Do you believe they force us to wait for an okay to eat? And that they also cover the amazing excavations we do in our garden? And worst! At Halloween and Christmas they force us to wear stupid accessories in our heads! It’s so annoying! 

 

How would you describe your pawrents?

Everyone in our family is very different!

Our daddy has the best shaved head to lick! He is also the coolest because he’s the one who gives us the secret food under the table and is the masseur on duty!

Mommy is our blanket snuggler! She’s always worried if we have cold and she’s Jack’s favourite lap, but she is also the one who puts order in the house and scolds us when we misbehave.

Sis is our dogstagram manager and the craziest! She’s the one who takes us to the most amazing places, the one who allows us to sleep in her bed and the one who gives us tons of cuddles!

Our brother is our private soccer! He loves to play football with us and to throw us balls, and he’s the one who lets us repeat the meal!

 

 

Do you like taking photos? we noticed that you both take pawesome pics… do you know that you are two fluffy and gorgeous models? 

Awnn, thank you so much! Our family usually says that we are both very photogenic and expressive, and that we’re both made to be in front of the camera! I (Spooky) really love to be photographed, specially because I know that in the end I’m gonna receive extra treats or my favourite ball!

(Jack) Speak by yourself! I’m so done with photo shoots! I hate to stop playing or exploring just to pose for a photo, is really boring. But I think sis already noticed by my sulky face, at least lately she has only been photographing me when I’m off guard.

 

 

Now… Talking about food. Tell us how does your usual diet consist of?

Nowadays we are mostly eating kibbles with some natural ingredients like eggs, veggies, fruit and chicken. Sometimes sis also gives us some Cooka’s Cookies humid food and some dehydrated treats, because we are crazy for it! Apparently, in the next few months we will start eating BARF, so this will be a big change for us, but we are sure we will enjoy it much more!

 

Do you have a favorite food/snack “guilty pleasure”?

We are both food lovers and not very picky when it comes to food! But there are some snacks that can’t be missing in our pantry! We really love Cooka’s Cookies “Beijinhos” and humid food, specially the ones with cow meat, dehydrated treats and chicken meat!

 

Is there any food or flavour that you really don’t like?

Spooky hates coffee and Jack hates acidic flavors. We can’t even smell them!

 

Are you both scared of anything? 

Yes, sadly we both have fears. Spooky hates fireworks and thunderstorms! He’s so scared when he ears it, that he goes into panic mode and starts shaking. Jack has a very strange fear. He’s scared of moving objects that he doens’t understand what they are, like plastic bags and turtles.

 

What are your dreams for the future?

We have 3 big dreams!

Of course we dream about a future where our family would always be around and where we could eat whatever we want, with no restrictions!

Secondly, one day we would love to travel around the world with our humans, to explore different places from the ones we already know and to have different experiences!

We also dream about a future where there’s no prejudice towards potentially dangerous dog breeds and where dogs like Jack could walk in the streets without being criticized or judged!

 

Please… tell us something nobody knows about you both… a secret.

A secret about Spooky is that he loves to receive massages on his paws. He could spend his whole day with his paws on our humans’ hands!

Is not a secret that Jack is always cold and he always sleeps with his blanket, but what nobody knows is that if during the night he gets uncovered and he can’t cover himself again, he cries until someone covers him!

 

If you both could be Presidents of the world what are the 3 things would you change?

If we were presidents of the world, we would demand that all humans should spend their whole day with their furry friends, giving them all the food they would ask for. We would also make the world more pet friendly so we could go everywhere with our family. And most importantly we would give all the dogs in the world a warm bed to sleep in and a caring family to love them.

 

 

You both are our September Dogs. Do you like this month? If yes, what’s your favourite thing about it? 

Yes we both love September! First, because it’s our barkday month, which means extra treats, extra cuddles and two pawties with birthday cakes! But also because it’s still a very sunny month, with beautiful sunsets, and with the arrival of the autumn, the leaves begin to fall and our walks become more enchanted!

 

And now mommy/daddy (questions):

 

Are Jack and Spooky your first fur babies?

No! They are, in fact, the last fur babies that joined our family. When I was a kid, I had two cats, Abel and Tião, and a dog called Mena. More recently, but before Spooky’s arrival, we adopted two black cats, Lua and Pachá, that you may have already seen in our profile. They are 8 and 6 years, respectively and they are the rulers of the house!

 

How many nick-names does Jack and Spooky have?

Uhhh, that’s a hard question! I would say around 6 nick-names each. For Spooky I use “Pupas”, “Pupinhas”, “Sapook”, “Pooky”, ” Poo” and “Pupoo”, and for Jack, “Jeje”, “Jecas”, “Je”, “Mini cão”, “Jequitas” and “Bebé”.

 

Are you planning on having more ‘fur kids’?

Not at the moment, because I’m finishing my degree and my future is still very uncertain, but also because I don’t know if I could handle 5 fur siblings at the same time. It’s already a feline and a canine double trouble, so one more would be really hard!

In a distant future, who knows 🙊

 

How did you come up with the idea of creating a insta account for Jack and spooky? 

I always loved photography and in 2019 I bought my first camera. After taking some pics, I decided to create their Instagram, but originally for Spooky and Lua, only to share some of the photos I was taking them. Because I was always really busy with college, I stopped posting, but after Jack arrival, I realized that Spooky and Jack looked really cute together and that they enjoyed to be behind the camera. With so many beautiful photos accumulating, I felt the need to reactivate the old account, in order to share Spooky and Jack’s cuteness with the rest of the world!

 

 

What’s the one thing that makes you laugh the most about them ? 

Regarding Jack is its expressiveness! His face and his eyes are so expressive that you can read all his thoughts! Believe me when I say he makes the funniest faces! He has also very funny and strange sleeping positions, the kind that don’t even look comfortable!

Spooky always makes me laugh when he turns his belly up! He’s always asking for belly rubs and looks at you with those puppy eyes you can’t resist it! It’s really funny and cute!

 

Does Jack or Spooky ever been naughty?

Oh yeah! I can tell you that they were both little evils when they were younger, specially with their teeth! They destroyed so many things that I can’t even list it, but fortunately, they stopped! Nowadays they still do some mischiefs from time to time, and the most funny thing is that they always act together! Usually Spooky is the head behind the plan and Jack is the one who puts it into practice, so none of them is a saint!

 

If you could give advise to a new pawrent, what would you tell them? 

I would tell them “First of all, don’t create a perfect image in your head of how you imagine your perfect dog in the future, because there aren’t perfect dogs. Every dog is different and every dog has is own personality. Some are fast learners while others learn slower, some are social dogs while others can be more reactive, and some are lap dogs while others prefer to have their own space. So understand your fur friend, his needs and his necessities, have patience and respect him. Stay there for him no matter what! Support him, help him growing, educate him and give him time and consistency! But most importantly, love him! They live so short that you will want to enjoy him the most you can and make his life count! Give him that extra cuddle he asks for, throw one more ball even when you’re tired and do a longer walk if he tells you he needs it! Create memories with him and give him the best life you can, and for sure you’ll have a loyal fur friend that loves you more than anything for the rest of his life 🤍”.

 

What do you consider the most challenging part about being a pawrent? And biggest reward ?

For me the most challenging part of having two fur friends is to know, learn and understand them and their needs. In my case, my boys are so so different from each other that sometimes is hard to consiliate the needs of each. Spooky is a really easy dog compared to Jack, so in the beggining it was really difficult to understand what I was doing wrong with Jack and why I wasn’t getting the same results that easily. I just needed to understand that they are completely different dogs, so the way and the time to get there was also different. They both are amazing in their own way and of course the biggest reward is to see them well and happy, and to feel that I have two loyal friends that love me more than anything and that are always here for me!

 

Can you share an amazing priceless moment spent with Jack and Spooky, something that you would never forget?

I have a priceless memory with both that I know I will never forget! In January I decided to do a 3 month internship in Peru, and the day before I left, I went to our favourite place with them to say goodbye. It was an unusually sunny winter day, so we decided to watch the sunset at the beach, and I can say that it was the most perfect sunset I’ve ever watched! Usually Jack doesn’t stop for a second when we are there, but in that day, both Spooky and Jack sat next to me, under my arms and watched the sunset with me. I was in tears with all the love I was feeling! They are for sure my best friends and I couldn’t be more grateful to have them in my life 🥹♥️

 

Thank you so much for your time. 

Warm woooooffies…