Mark Wahlberg Celebrates Dog Champ's 4th Birthday With Adorable Instagram Photo
See the Pomeranian's festive birthday ensemble in the sweet new Instagram snap.
Champ Wahlberg is four!
Dog dad Mark Wahlberg marked the birthday milestone for his beloved pup on Tuesday, Jan. 24, sharing an adorable photo of the precious pet all dressed up in his birthday gear.
In the Instagram post shared by the Uncharted actor, the fluffy brown and white Pomeranian was seen posing for a photo while wearing a bib reading "Birthday Boy" and a sparkly blue birthday hat with the number "4" imprinted on it. The pooch also appeared to be perched on a blanket with his name embroidered on it.
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"??????," Wahlberg, 51, captioned his post, prompting tons of his followers to wish Champ a happy birthday in the comments.
"Cuteness overload!" one fan commented on the pic, while someone else called him a "Stud"—just like his famous dad.
Champ—who also has his own Instagram account—became part of the Wahlberg family in 2019, when the Ted star tried to surprise his wife and kids with a new furry friend, though the plan didn't go as smoothly as he'd hoped.
As he explained during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2020, Wahlberg told his children that someone "very important" was coming to dinner, which led his family to believe he was talking about then-couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
"Meanwhile, I'm in a meeting with my wife," he recalled. "She barges into the meeting and goes, 'I need to talk to you right now.'"
"Why are Kim Kardashian and Kanye West coming here at dinner time?" he remembered his wife, Rhea Durham, asking.
"So I'm like, 'It's not them. I got a dog.' And then she got upset because I didn't include her in the selecting of the dog," he continued, adding that things even got worse when he revealed that the dog was a pomeranian.
"I hate those little furry dogs," she reportedly said. But it was all water under the bridge after the pup actually arrived and immediately captured everyone's heart.
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"Oh my God! It's the most beautiful dog I've ever seen!" said Durham, according to Wahlberg. "She starts choking the dog, won't let the kids see the dog or hold the dog."
To make it all worth it, Wahlberg—who shares four kids with Durham—recalled the smiles on their faces, which he described as "absolutely precious."