What everyone expects when visiting the house of someone with a dog is that, when ringing the doorbell, the dog acts as a defender of its territory and emits a few, even four, barks.
However, when knocking on the Pujades Senan’s door, only Anna’s energetic voice can be heard on the other side: “I’m coming!” The actor Octavi Pujades and his partner, the actress and photographer Anna Senan, welcome me to his recently renovated apartment in Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, ??the house where he has lived since he can remember.
It is, although it may not seem like it after the renovation, the same house that we met years ago through Octavi’s Instagram, when he introduced us to his father and shared the patriarch’s daily life, as he called him, until his death just ago. two years. The actor, known for his performances in series such as ‘Al leaving class’, ‘Lalola’, ‘El authentic Rodrigo Leal’ ‘Acacias 38’, is today an influencer, with more than 300 thousand loyal followers and participatory on his Instagram. There he shows his life in a very natural way, from events he attends with Anna to visits to his aunt Amparo, his collection of monsters and the typical worries of a father of two teenagers. And, of course, there is a space on this social network reserved for Spezi.
At the entrance to the dining room, next to the kitchenette, a stroller stands out. As a baby? No, it’s for dogs. Inside, a small Maltese who was resting suddenly turns around as I pass by her. “He doesn’t see because he has cataracts; he doesn’t hear either. He’s already 16 years old, but he still has a good sense of smell, especially if there is food nearby, and if it’s turkey sausage, I won’t even tell you,” the couple tells me. No wonder she hasn’t barked when she knocked on the door: according to the latest research, which rejects the rule of seven human years for every one dog year, Spezi would be an octogenarian dog.
In addition to these side effects of age, Spezi has osteoarthritis, various allergies (especially to the skin), chronic conjunctivitis and even dementia, according to what the veterinarian informed them, “which is why he gets disoriented easily.” She had a rough night tonight, with diarrhea, according to Anna, who details the daily care that the dog requires.
Spezi needs to be combed and made sure she doesn’t scratch too much due to allergies. It is also necessary to carefully clean his eyes. “With caution, especially to prevent her from giving me a bite,” her human mother explains. Three years ago her womb had to be removed due to an infection, and in the last year, she has suffered two strokes, the last one a few days before this interview was published, fortunately without leaving any consequences.
This Maltese came into Anna’s life when she was a child; They grew up together. “The dog’s name is Spezi Senan Pujades, because Anna today is like her mother and I have become her adoptive father,” says Octavi. A father who “gives her every whim, while I’m the one who takes away her blemishes, so imagine who her favorite is; she feels devotion to him,” says Senan, laughing.
Within those whims, Octavi is in charge of the games. The dog goes to look for him to play with her, provoke her and chase her, “and that way we can spend half an hour, three quarters, even an hour.” The rest of the day is spent mainly sleeping. For this reason, little Spezi has, in addition to her stroller, one, two and even three dog beds distributed throughout the dining room, in case she suddenly feels tired and wants to take a nap.
Octavi says that in recent years, since Spezi is old, Anna has developed that ability that mothers have to listen to any slight movement of their children, “and look, before I was a deep sleeper,” she remembers. For some time now, “we put his stroller next to the bed, co-sleeping and we all slept better. When he slept in his bed, on the floor, he woke up all the time, started walking aimlessly, got lost and “I was peeing outside the soaker.” Octavi continues: “Now, from the stroller, she warns when she wants to relieve herself and Anna immediately hears her. And if one day she doesn’t hear her, Spezi shouts: ‘I’m doing it to myself!’ (laughs)”.
Every day, Spezi wakes up mid-morning. Then, Anna and Octavi take her down for a walk. When she began to have difficulty walking, they tried carrying her hanging on the chest or back, but they found the best solution in the stroller: “many people are surprised that we walk Spezi in a baby stroller, they think it’s a puppy.” and as they approach we tell them: ‘she’s an old lady’. She wouldn’t get very far walking alone, she takes four steps and she’s already tired, plus she can’t see,” says Anna.
During filming or theater tour times, the couple says that they leave her with her grandmother, that is, Anna’s mother. “There have also been seasons in which we have taken her with us, like when we were living in Madrid. In the end, she weighs very little, about 3-4 kilos; it is easy to transport and she is very relaxed on the train,” he says. Bid.
“Can you touch her or not?” I ask, to which they respond in unison that she has always been very territorial and that now, with blindness and deafness, she has more bad temper. “In fact, she keeps all her teeth and sometimes makes them noticeable. If you invade her space, she warns you, she snores at you and then marks you,” explains Octavi smiling. The actor remembers that at the beginning of dating Anna, eight years ago, Spezi would start barking with jealousy every time he saw them kiss. “I had never had a dog, but I was delighted to adopt what was my partner’s ‘daughter’. It was a matter of winning her over with turkey sausage” (more laughter).
Although he can now only eat natural dog food and little else, Spezi has always been a big eater. A few years ago, Anna says that the prank was notable: “I was at home with some friends eating a pizza. We left the pizza on the table for a moment, it was medium but it was huge, XXL size. When we returned to the dining room, there was no trace of the food. I couldn’t believe that such a small dog had gobbled down such a quantity of pizza, but when I looked at her mouth, I discovered that it was all covered in tomato and four cheeses, the shameless thing” (laughs).
During the time we have been talking, Octavi and I on the sofa and Anna in a chair near Spezi’s stroller, the dog has indeed been sleeping. Only at the end of the interview, when I suggest taking some photos, does Spezi activate. It is also not surprising that the “girl of the house” is encouraged: Octavi and Anna do not stop eating her, literally, with kisses (see the photos of the moment).
Afterwards, they leave her on the ground and immediately, Spezi, walks clumsily to where Octavi is, who gets down on his knees and begins to prod her with gentle pinches on her legs and back. “Time to play!” says the actor, who is about to begin rehearsals for a play in Madrid, at the same time that he participates in “El joc de la veritat” in Catalonia, where Anna also acts. “I’m looking forward to another very interesting and very different project for television, but I can’t say more for now.”
“Spezi brings me a lot of joy. But having a dog is not just about feeding it: you have to pay attention to it and pamper it because with age, it will need you more and more,” he explains. “Dogs must be taken care of, not only when they are young and give you gratifying moments, but when they are older and become more demanding. Dogs must never be left aside; they have a lot to offer us. They have been our companions. life and they deserve all the love until the end,” he concludes.
