25 Days of Christmas Ornaments, day 8

Yesterday was about my human baby, today is all about my fur babies – present and past.

I was married about seven months when my husband came home and said he thought we should get a dog.

I agreed, so we searched the local papers and found a dog owner whose female black lab had recently given birth to twelve pups. She had one left – the runt of the litter – and she came home with us that day.

Ella may have been the last pup born but she was by no stretch of the imagination a “runt.” At one point she topped the scales at 120 pounds. This may have been my fault because once I was pregnant, she and I had MacDonald’s three times a week. I got a big mac and fries, she got a hamburger happy meal.

This ornament is from 1988, her very first Christmas with us. She lived until 12 years of age and I miss her still every day.

At one point when my daughter was six she decided she wanted a cat, so we brought a little stray from the Humane Society home with us and named her Felina Catina after a cat-character in a children’s book I wrote. My daughter made this of Felina’s first Christmas as part of our family.

During Covid, Hubster and I decided – like about a billion other people – to adopt a new dog into our family. Let me tell you from experience that it’s very different having a puppy when you are in your 20s than when you are in your 60s. 12 pound Maple came to us three days shy of her 8 week birthday and we fell in love immediately. I mean, look at that face! 18 months old now she is still highly loved – but tipping the scales at close to 100 pounds, anxious and with a severe case of FOMO which dictates she be with us EVERY WAKING SECOND ( hahaha), this dog is no easy little pup any longer.

But we still love her to the moon and back!

Preserve the images of your fur babies on ornaments, kids. You’ll keep them with you forever.

~ peg