Dogs of Twitter unite to celebrate Sugar’s 18th birthday

The Dogs of Twitter went all-out with Sugar’s 18th birthday.

The Dogs of Twitter love and support their pals whenever pawsible, because community and loyalty are huge themes. (Just ask Canadian Penny or Sir Winston Da Doodle.) So it’s no surprise that Sugar’s 18th birthday celebration drew a huge outpouring of support from her frens.

Sugar (whose handle is @Websparx) is a Rat Terrier who was born on July 31, 2002, in a Universal Kennel Club-registered litter, but was rejected by her breeder after it was learned that she was deaf from birth.

This hasn’t stopped her at all from finding her dad and having lots of amazing adventures with him across Nevada. “Dad say other than concerns about lack of ‘recall,’ I’s just a regular dog,” she explained in a recent post. “And that’s how he treats me, including talking to me almost CONSTANTLY!”

Her friend (and ours) PeytonReads really got the ball rolling on the celebrating, giving everyone a heads-up that resulted in over 30,000 interactions.

Sugar is about  104 in dog years, which is quite a long lifetime for anyone.

What was the world like in July 2002? Here’s some highlights:

• In sports, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics had wrapped up a few months earlier, Aniika Sorenstam was crushing everyone on the LPGA tour, the Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans, and tennis’ Pete Sampras retired after winning the US Open.
• Popular new songs on the radio included Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” and “Skater Boy,” Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” Brad Paisley’s “I’m Gonna Miss Her” and Kenny Chesney’s “The Good Stuff.”
• On TV, The Crocodile Hunter, George Lopez and Kim Possible made their debuts, while Joe replaced Steve on Blue’s Clues and Daria, Dharma and Greg and The X-Files all ended.
• Spider-Man, Minority Report, Lilo and Stitch and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones ruled at the box office, with dog movies playing at the theaters that summer including Scooby-Doo and Men in Black II.

Among the friends wishing Sugar’s 18th birthday would be a pleasant one were Bark-Andre Furry and Deke-Henri Furry, Penny Lane, Tucker Dude, Wilma the Snoopervisor, Casey Chasem, Violet the Newfy, many human frens and the cats Enzo and Johnny.

Among the celebrities of Dog Twitter who wished her a joyful day were WeRateDogs, and Gideon from I’ve Pet That Dog even made her a featured doggo.

Thanks to the magic of Photoshop, with a bunch of her closest pals she went on a virtual Twitter trip to Wales, where she stayed at a spa, learned how to surf, saw a bunch of interesting sites, took in a concert by the Twitter band TJ5, and then even got to visit with several pals who had gone OTRB over the past six months.

Sugar’s dad got a half day off of work on Friday so they spend more time together, which was exciting, and they even got to go for a car ride in the convertible, which is even more fun.

Overall, she had a great day, and we think that’s pretty pawesome.

Again, Sugar’s adventures can be followed at the Twitter handle @Websparx.