In celebration of the year-end festive season, Dogster casts a canine-focussed eye back on the most notably lovable dogs that have helped light up 2013. Each day we’ll be profiling one honorable hound. We’re tagging it “the 12 Dogs of Christmas.” Read on for today’s deceptive prankster …
10. Charles the Monarch
There’s a lion on the loose!
So went the collective outcry of panic when a beast sporting a mane was spotted strutting around Norfolk, Virginia, back at the top of 2013. Calls were placed to the local police precinct, with frantic callers asking for someone to secure their safety from what appeared to be a real live wild cat stalking the streets. Turns out the lion was simply the regally-anointed Charles the Monarch, a Labradoodle who was sporting something of a freshly-plumed wild hair-do. Zing!
Charles’s owner, Natalie Painter, told the press that Charles was actually something of a local celebrity by virtue of his looks; at one point she equated a public appearance from the Monarch as akin to the Beatles taking a casual stroll around town. She even copped to coiffing his hair in a very lion-esque way.
Flush off his celebrity, Charles set up a Twitter account but it appears he disbanded it back in June — presumably cultivating all those luxurious waves takes up just too much of a dog’s valuable time.
Enjoy the rest of the 12 Dogs of Christmas here:
