Dear Santa,

I want a real live puppy and that barbie dog walking thing. You can surprise me with the rest.

Gloria Drewery



This was her letter to Santa. She is bound and determined to get a puppy. She told me this week that she wants a puppy that she can sleep with, that will play with her and a puppy that will wait for her to come home from school.

During Fall Break last week, the girls were playing outside. I was painting Emily's room, sort of in my own little world. After a long period of peace and quiet, the front door swung open and Gloria yelled in her 'outdoor voice', 'Mom, we found a puppy and it's lost. Can we keep it?' I climbed down off the ladder afraid of what I might see. Gloria was holding a cute little gray Schnauzer, no collar or tags. In my preoccupation with painting, I told the girls that I was sure he belonged to someone, so they needed to go back outside and see if they can find his owner. A few minutes later, they were back inside with the dog. Emily decided they needed to make a flyer to hang in the neighborhood. Emily took a picture of the dog, uploaded it on to the computer, and made flyers. I'm amazed at how quickly she figured it out. She is my technical advisor for all electronics. While the flyers were being made, Gloria was getting to know the little guy quite well. She found a pink leash and collar from one of her stuffed animals and put it on him. She even had him in our bed! She made sure he was well fed and watered as well. He seemed to like the cat food she gave him! The girls went back out into the neighborhood and posted the flyers. As I continued painting, it dawned on me that our neighbor Kathleen had a Schnauzer that resembled the 'lost' puppy. Upon their return from hanging the flyers, I told the girls to run down and see if Mrs. Kathleen was home. A few minutes later, the girls came walking through the door. Gloria was sobbing, holding the empty pink collar and leash. 'Mom, I really wanted to keep him!'

Well, I'm not sure if we are quite ready for a puppy. We had to have our Ashley put down back in July of this year (the picture was taken in her last days). She was a beautiful greyhound that we rescued 12 1/2 years ago. She had been bred to race, but was too slow. She was going on 14 years and her quality of life had gone way down hill. Ashley was Lonnie's dog. She would lay on her mat all day long while I was home, but the second Lonnie would walk through the door after work, she was up to greet him. She was a sweet dog - you could tell Lonnie was her favorite. He's not quite ready to try and replace her. We'll see what happens!