Kate Crowe got her dog Sombou (whom she affectionately refers to as Boudle) in Albequerque, New Mexico about 7 1/2 year ago. "He had run away and he found my friends dog as a kind of parent and my friend said, 'I'm not allowed to have two dogs.' So, she was trying to find a place for him and she was about to take him to the pound and we couldn't find his parents. He was five weeks old."

Sombou is of a somewhat mixed breed heritage so it might have been hard to find his parents anyway.

"The vet guessed that he is a German Shepherd and Yellow Lab and that was when was tiny," Crowe said.

"He used to run away all the time when he was little. It was horrible. When you got home and right before you closed the door you'd take his leash off and it was bye bye. The longest he was gone for was 27 hours. But he came back, covered in ticks and exhausted. But that was in Santa Fe." Sombou has since reformed his escape tactics and now stays pretty close.

Crowe brought him with her when she came to Seattle in 2010, but that wasn't necessarily the best move for him. "He hates the rain," Crowe explained," It's really tough. He has raincoats but he's so hairy so he hates them. But today (it was sunny out) he was very happy. We just went for a super long walk. He's very mellow."

Sombou has been on prescription diet for some time in an attempt to help him lose weight. "The vet said he needed to lose fifteen pounds and he's already lost quite a bit. The food is called Royal Canin. It's calorie controlled."

He gets two walks a day that help keep him in shape too.

His treats are from the bins at Next To Nature in the WS Junction. "I used to buy his food there too, when he was getting high protein food which is apparently very high in calories. 46% of his calories were coming from fat and like a fat person on an American diet is 30% so he was on a super high fat diet. It was totally my fault. He gained a lot of weight so now he's losing it." He also gets marrow bones from QFC.

Sombou is pretty clever and actually made up his own trick. Crowe calls it "Spin Around" and it's sort of an alternative to rolling over, which he apparently doesn't like. He also shakes hands, does a reverse high five (no..not with his rear paws....Crowe turns around and Sombou responds to the extended hand), and sometimes a "High Ten."

His canine friends (whom Crowe calls 'his cousins' live near the Delridge neighborhood and he has managed to teach them his trick, "They all do Spin Around at the same time and that's really cute." He enjoys cats and will occasionally chase them but it's because, "He wants to get to know them," Crowe said, "but they don't like it."

Toys include "his giraffey toy, and he doesn't kill it which is good, and he has a lot of rope toys and bones. The vet said his teeth were so good," and wondered if they had been cleaned. Crowe said it was just the bones that did it.

He also has an outstanding sense memory. "I have a friend Heather that I went to graduate school with," explained Crowe," and we lived together so he had two mommies. She's now married and in Connecticut but she came to visit. When he saw her he went up to her normal like, 'Hi, how are you?' and then when he figured out who it was his tail started doing double time. He was so excited to see her, and he cuddled with her a lot."

Crowe is an artist and would appreciate it if you'd check out her site which is www.katecrowe.com. She's a research assistant in math education but she's also an artist she said.

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