My name is Phil Basher, and I am in love with life!  What’s not to love?  I have two adopted sisters, one canine, one feline, and two humans who shower me with cuddles and hugs…if you can hug a 130-pound giant puppy?!  Well, 130 pounds and growing.

I was born in March of 2017 in northwest New Jersey and was destined to find a home with my big sister, Molly, who you can read more about on the Friends and Siblings page.  As you can see, I started small, but I grew fast!

Mom and Dad were looking to adopt someone big enough to play with a pitbull and mellow enough to stay calm.  That’s me!  Molly is the best big sister any pup could ask for.

When I’m not lounging on the sofa or sleeping in the snow, I want to be on the road seeing what the world has to offer.  Molly and I make fantastic navigators.

I am an outdoorsy dog who prefers digging a hole or chasing my tail to sitting behind a keyboard, so my blog is always a work in progress, but that is the essence of what I am all about.  I’m perfect…imperfect.  Aren’t we all?

Speaking of imperfection, let me tell you about my mom. Actually, I will let her tell you about herself!

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our ImperfectPhil project. I am Sue Steinhardt, a twenty-six-year veteran English teacher from New Jersey. I am a passionate advocate for unheard voices and believe that education is the most powerful tool I can help someone acquire. I sit on the Board of Trustees for the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Crisis Center in the county where I live. I value the life-long relationships teachers form with their students and recognize how we influence one another. PLEASE READ ON!

The idea of ImperfectPhil started shortly after we adopted Phil.

From the start, Phil had his own personality. He grew faster than any living thing we had ever seen, and for some reason, he attracted a crowd everywhere we took him. Within eight months, Phil was bigger than our ninety-pound Pitbull, Molly, yet he remained as gentle as could be.

We enrolled Phil in Therapy Dog Training School and could not wait to get him into the classroom full-time to share his love. Unfortunately, or as this story turns out, fortunately, we discovered that Phil has an obstinate side. As a result, he was unsuccessful in his bid to be a Therapy Dog Training School Graduate.

When his Therapy Dog Training School teacher exclaimed, “he is perfect just the way he is,” it all clicked. Phil is perfect. In his own words, I’m Perfect… imperfect… Imperfectphil! 

A star was born.

I started blogging from Phil’s point of view by narrating his adventures and using his antics to teach universal human lessons. Who has not chased a squirrel up the wrong tree??? Eaten something they knew they shouldn’t? Walked around all day with something stuck to their tail?!

Shortly after our blog was up and running, I met Jess, an amazingly talented artist in my English IV Honors class. I approached her one day toward the end of the school year and asked if she would be interested in illustrating my stories if I took the leap and tried to publish a book. She said yes! Shortly thereafter, we were the feature story on our school’s television station, and now we have published four books in the ImperfectPhil series!

ImperfectPhil. Just. Like. You.

The ImperfectPhil books build self-confidence and encourage acceptance. Phil’s mantra, that I’m Perfect and Imperfect are the same, makes him stand out, and his philosophy speaks to children, teens, and adults alike. In Phil, we see ourselves, our insecurities, our desires, our successes, our mishaps, and we learn to own them.

In book one, Phil learns about failure and that by staying true, he can be himself and be happy. Book one came out at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and all of our marketing events had to be canceled. However, through hard work, we sold over one thousand copies… and we are not done yet. In addition, we could donate one dollar from every book we sold to a local animal rescue.

It took a little while, but with the funds we earned from book one, we finally published our second book in 2021. We continued using social media to spread our name and signed up for as many vendor events as possible. In this story, Phil reflects on the fact that everyone he meets asks “what is he?“. He goes online to research his breeds and realizes he cannot let the internet define him. He has to define himself.

After our best friends adopted an at-risk dog named Dixie, we were inspired to write book three as a reminder to readers to open their hearts to the new kid whenever they can.

In 2023, we had a new publisher, BC Books, and together we introduced book four: Imperfectphil is Happy. This story reassures readers that stress and anxiety are okay emotions to feel. Phil reminds everyone how important it is to let someone know if they are feeling down.

The more we get out and about with Phil and his books, the more opportunities we find:

• We employ a local woman-owned business, CACO Creations, to produce all of our ImperfectPhil logo gear. 
• We have been able to attend fundraising events to help raise money for terminally ill kids in our community. 
• We have supported drives to pay for surgeries for injured stray dogs. 
• We have developed complete sets of social-emotional learning lesson plans (ImperfectPhil in the Classroom) to accompany each book.
• We have gone into classrooms and attended camps to talk with young people about the themes that are most relevant to their lives.

Thank you for reading to the end! But wait, don’t sign off yet…

Phil and I were featured in a news segment on WCAX from upstate New York, which you can view here.
We were also lucky enough to be featured as Person of the Week in our home county! Check us out here.

If you want to contact Phil directly, use his email:  imperfectphil@gmail.com or come out and see him at a show!