Model Behavior

My dog, Marcel, had just been crowned the cover boy of my town’s monthly pet magazine for April 2014...and he went full-on diva.

Illustration by Elliot Kruszynski

This is an excerpt from an email I actually sent to a fellow adult:

We're pretty open to your ideas, but Marcel does tend to look great against “hunting lodge”-type colors and, not surprisingly, is a fan of bones and antlers. It might also be fun to do a Parisian cafe theme, given his name. And since he took the road trip across the U.S. when we moved here, Route 66 paraphernalia could make for fun, fitting props...

My dog, Marcel, had just been crowned the cover boy of my town’s monthly pet magazine for April 2014. Pawprints is a free coffee-shop fixture that primarily exists to catalogue Wilmington, North Carolina’s adoptable rescue pets. Whenever an issue drops, images of its featured dog or cat paper veterinarian waiting rooms and cafe tables all across this university town.

Each year, Pawprints holds a contest wherein readers can nominate their pet to become the face of the magazine. To enter Marcel, I had to submit an essay detailing why he was a “m…