Separated at birth?

When we first got Alice, we very quickly realized with those big, gooey eyes and oversized ears, her resemblance to Falcor, the Luck Dragon from The NeverEnding Story, is uncanny.

If she had been male, we surely would have named her that. Now we just call her a Luck Dragon and talk to her in that low, slow drawl.

After we got her and would sit down to eat, she was timid and would sit on the floor like a good girl, waiting patiently to see if she could get a sample. As the weeks went on, she got more brave, and then started perching on the arm of the sofa, practically on my shoulder, staring at my plate like a gargoyle.

Then about a month or so ago, there was that big news report on the baby pygmy hippo that was born at a zoo in Australia. Some of the pictures looked so much like Alice, I began to wonder if she was a pygglo instead.

Then today we got her a red hoodie to replace her obviously past-season orange owl sweater. My first thought after seeing her in it was, "Look! She's Albert the Running Bear!"

And then it occurred to me, no, she's not a bear with that serious face. She's a Tenenbaum.

Buckley was a beagle, after all.

Although as I write this, Alice is sitting next to me on my red suitcase. In her hoodie, she's gone practically invisible.

And I remember, she does that with our bedspread, too. That skill may mean she's not really a puggle at all, but actually a really, really cute Predator.