Anybody Seen That Dog?

A while back, I asked you to send me your credit card stories for an article I’m doing. Scores of you responded – I got just what I needed. With luck, the result will appear in PARADE in a couple of months.

One last favor on this, though. About two weeks ago, I was lying in bed, the “Today Show” helping me to wake up – I could swear it was the “Today Show” – and out of the corner of my eye … on the news segment, not one of the interviews … I saw a story about a dog, whose name I believe was Nicklaus Arnold, who had two credit cards. One of them was a platinum card.

Naturally, I concentrated my sleepy mind on this story about this dog whose owners marveled that they hadn’t even included his date of birth or social security number in his application – and the dog got the credit cards.

Shots of the dog, some kind of dark-haired little terrier, and the tag line, if I got this right, quoted a spokesman from First Union Bank: “We have no problem with this as long as he pays his bills on time.”

I didn’t rush to my desk or to the phone or anything; I figured it would be easy to grab the details later, either through a friendly producer at the “Today Show” or else by calling First Union’s PR department.

Well, no one at the “Today Show” has any recollection of this story, and neither does anyone at First Union. Nor does a Lexis-Nexis search turn up any pooches with plastic, let alone platinum. But I swear I wasn’t dreaming. It could have been CNN, I suppose, or some other channel. And maybe it was First USA, not First Union. But ever since I bluffed my way through the essay exam in Philosophy 1 (“Is this examination real or a dream – how do you know?”), I have been keenly aware of the distinction between dreaming about dogs with credit cards and dogs who actually have them. And this dog had two.

So here’s the favor: Did any of you see this? I can’t imagine you’ll remember specifically where you saw it (it was July 9th or thereabouts) … and it may only have played in the New York area, if it was a segment on the local “Today Show” news (so I don’t expect a lot of you to have seen it) … but just knowing I am not losing my mind would be helpful.

Failing that, if your own dog has a credit card, please let me know.