Tails of Broadway: Samantha Massell Cuddles Up with Bizet!

Pet's name: Bizet (pronounced beeZAY)

Origin of name: Ok buckle up, this is a long story. As a kid, I was obsessed with two things: dogs and Broadway. To be fair, not much has changed. I feel like not a ton of people know this, but I grew up in New York City and was a child actor. I made my Broadway debut at age 12 in Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme. Ok, exposition over. On the morning of final callbacks for La Boheme, I was in the park with my mom practicing my roller skating because, yes this is true, the final callback was at a roller skating rink. There were 15 kids cast in the show (two casts of 8 (one kid was double cast)) and four kids (two per cast) were going to spend a portion of the second act on roller skates. To determine which children were proficient enough to skate on Broadway (lol not me), Bernie Telsey threw all 15 of us and our parents a pizza party at a roller skating rink during which we all got to know each other and showed off our skills. None of us knew that all 15 of us were basically cast already. And I haven't been offered pizza at a final callback since, which is... disappointing. ANYWAY, I was heading upstairs from the park to get ready for this pizza party callback, when I saw a woman who had a pug on a leash and a very tiny, white, fluffy puppy in her arms. I asked to pet the puppy and hold the puppy, and the owner told us how she had gotten the puppy as a gift from her mother and how she really wanted another pug. I had been waging a (very unsuccessful) campaign for a dog for years, and, to this day, I have no clue what possessed my mother, but jokingly, she gave the woman our phone number and said "if you decide to give up the dog, give us a call." Needless to say, we went to the final callback, and came home to a message on our machine from this woman who thought that "Samantha would be a really great mom to this pup". We got him checked out by a vet, and by Monday, he was ours and I was officially offered La Boheme. Now would probably be a great time to formally thank Bernie, Tiffany, and Heidi for the best weekend of my life... and it all happened because I had to go to the park to practice my roller skating. So, in homage to Giacomo himself, we named him Puccini. Puccini passed away at the age of 14 when I was in Fiddler on the Roof. I was devastated, of course. He was the most docile, gentle, fluffy pup. I decided then that my next dog would also be named after an opera composer, as an homage to my beloved Puccini. And thus, Bizet (he wrote, among other things, Carmen)!

Breed: Aussiedoodle

How long have you owned: Just over a month! I brought her home on August 25th.

Favorite thing to do with your pet: I love when she's super snoozy and cuddly, of course. Lately, her favorite activity is tearing up a giant cardboard box in my living room. You can follow along on her instagram, @bizetdoodle. MAN, she loves this box. My neighbor also just got a puppy, so we've been having a ball on our playdates with Max and his pawrents and sister Ella. She really loves meeting new people and new dogs!

The naughtiest thing your pet has done: Nothing too crazy just yet, thank goodness! I've gotten frustrated if she goes on a tear (pun intended) trying to rip up potty pads, but luckily that phase stopped. She's always very excited to see her auntie Ellen Harvey and the other day, she poked a hole in Ellen's nice white tee. I owe you, Ellen.

What would your pet's catch-phrase be: Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi

Fun Facts: She has one eye that is half blue and she's BIG into giving kisses. Her paw pads are black and pink! I love her. I'm a lucky PAWrent.