Christmas cards are a cherished annual custom for Percy, who is roofed in blond hair and has 33,000 Instagram followers.
He sends out dozens of them yearly — greater than 70 final Christmas, every with a personalised message.
However this yr, issues is perhaps just a little completely different.
With the Canada Post strike stretching into its second week, Percy’s dad isn’t certain when he’ll be capable to get all these playing cards within the mail, or whether or not they’ll attain their locations by Dec. 25.
Percy isn’t anxious, although. “Playing cards is perhaps delayed, however that’s okay!” he posted on-line lately.
“Everypawdy who desires a card will get a card. That’s the Percy PromiseTM!”
Percy is a nine-year-old golden doodle. Percy’s dad is Adam Barrett, a artistic content material lead at a advertising and marketing company in Halifax who moonlights as a stage mum or dad for his movie star pup.
Barrett launched Percy’s Instagram account the day he acquired him, when Percy was simply eight weeks outdated.
For years, he posted on his canine’s behalf each day, cultivating a faithful following with pictures and jokey, earnest captions written in Percy’s voice. Typically the posts characteristic his different canine and cat, Dolly and Herbie.
Adam Barrett of Halifax and his canine Percy are proven in a handout photograph.
Adam Barrett by way of The Canadian Press
However Percy, 85 kilos of blond curls sporting a bandana, is the star of the present.
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Currently, Barrett has been scaling again on social media, however the Christmas card custom, which started 4 years in the past, remains to be going sturdy.
Yearly round Halloween, Percy sends out an invite to his legions of followers. “Would you like a pawliday card from me and Dolly and Herbie this yr?” he posted earlier this month. “Let me know within the feedback under!”
Barrett despatched out 72 playing cards final yr to Percy’s followers (some human, some canine), and has plans for the same quantity this yr. Some go to people in Halifax, however others go to followers all around the world, in Germany and El Salvador and Australia.
“Typically once I sit again and take into consideration the concept I faux to be a canine on the web and I ship playing cards to individuals all around the world each vacation season, I simply sort of take a deep breath and assume that life has taken some unusual turns,” he mentioned in an interview.
This season’s card, designed by a good friend, is an homage to the vacation comedy Residence Alone, with Percy as a shaggier Macaulay Culkin. In years previous, the playing cards have paid tribute to different fashionable vacation motion pictures, A Nightmare Earlier than Christmas, Nationwide Lampoon’s Christmas Trip, and A Christmas Story.
Barrett mentioned he personalizes the messages as a lot as he can. He’ll placed on a Christmas film, sit down and bang them out over a few nights, and ship them out in early December.
This yr, although, Barrett doesn’t know when he’ll get the playing cards out the door. He helps the 55,000 Canada Publish staff who walked off the job on Nov. 15 — so does Percy — however he mentioned he could ship playing cards to native pals and followers in individual if the strike continues.
He may additionally ship out digital playing cards to individuals who need them, he mentioned, although he would relatively not. “I like getting mail and giving mail,” he mentioned. “I believe that’s kind of a misplaced artwork or misplaced pleasure.”
So this yr, Percy’s long-distance followers could not get their Christmas playing cards till someday after the vacations. However Barrett mentioned there is perhaps an upside to the additional wait, if it involves that.
“You realize what it’s like … in mid-February,” he mentioned. “And so it’s good to get these playing cards just a little later. It kind of provides you just a little enhance in the course of the winter.”
Barrett doesn’t make any cash off the Christmas playing cards, and the printing and postage aren’t low-cost. However he mentioned the custom makes him really feel linked to different individuals.
“I’m by no means going to be the prime minister of the nation. I’m by no means going to be the chief of an organization, or a president of one thing, or the CEO of something,” he mentioned.
“I’m only a small-time man on the East Coast of Canada. However I get to deliver just a little pleasure to individuals all around the world.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
