Bud Plischke got his dog Oliver, a Shih Tzu via his niece who brought the dog to he and his wife, Gloria one day when he was two years old. "He was living with a family that had three Shih Tzu's and they were living in an apartment and wanted to get rid of one so we wound up with Oliver," Plischke said. Oliver is now 13 years old.

Like all dogs, Oliver must go for a walk, and the walk of choice is usually along Beach Drive but Bud doesn't make that decision. That's purely up to Oliver. "He sniffs and doesn't miss a thing. It's the same stops, the same telephone pole," said Plischke but the route is different depending on Oliver's mood. "When it's time to go for a walk I get this one toy and I squeak it and we go. This morning we walked down to Constellation Park and this afternoon he wanted to go up to Jacobsen Road and back. Some days he takes a short cut. Wherever he wants to go, that's where I go."

Oliver does not bark which is not unusual for this breed. "When we first got him we thought he had been de-barked."

He ignores other dogs but loves people and the attention he gets though at his age his hearing is fading a bit, and he is blind in one eye.

They feed him a wet food with a bit of dry food mixed in. For treats he enjoys Pupperoni's and dried lamb.

One time the niece and nephew were taking care of Oliver while Bud and Gloria were gone and "all of a sudden he stopped and backed out of his collar and ran up the steps to this house. It happened to be somebody who knew him. So Bud's nephew went in asking the resident if they knew Oliver was in there and the woman says 'Oh Hi Oliver,' and he heard her say it so they were able to retrieve him. That's the only time he's broken loose like that."

Oliver goes in once a month for grooming at Muttley Crew Cuts in the Admiral District and gets a special cut.

Plischke summed Oliver up as, "Very quiet, very social, loves people and he sleeps a lot. He's my buddy."