The enduring mystery of Bogart, the dog Meghan Markle adopted eleven years ago this week
A tale of rescue, fame, brotherly love, and abandonment
“You told me to adopt this sweet pup yesterday,” Meghan Markle posted on her Instagram account on December 8, 2012. “You” in this case was talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who had connected the Suits actress to the Saving Spot animal shelter in Los Angeles. “I’m so happy I did,” Meghan added. “Thanks a million!” Meghan’s six-week-old puppy had recently been rescued with his brother from a kill shelter in inland California. She named her pup Bogart and turned him into a social media star. On one post after another, Meghan gushed with love for “my favorite fella,” “my main squeeze,” “my boy,” “my little man.”
Bogart’s brother was adopted that week as well, by my son David Branson Smith, a 28-year-old Hollywood screenwriter. David had arrived first at the shelter, so he got to choose. One puppy was yellow, and the other was black. The shelter staff described the black pup they called Bruno as a “wild card.” His brother, they said, was “sweet and quiet.” David naturally went for the “wild card” and named him Otto. He was drawn, he later said, by his soulful eyes and his spirit. Otto did not become a media star, but he had the good fortune to be adopted by a loving and devoted owner.
The two dogs were described as “Labrador mixes,” but a subsequent DNA test turned up Chow, Terrier, and Golden Retriever as the top breeds. Bogart and Otto couldn’t have looked more different. As David later described them, “Otto started to sprout whiskers and surprising flecks of gray hair. Bogart grew into the same body, but his face remained, well, normal.”
Two months later, the email below popped up in David’s inbox from someone he described to me as a “random actress.”
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