My Christmas tree angel is a Lab

Christmas is such a special time of year. I love getting out the ornaments and reminiscing about their origin. My favorite is the angel at the top of my tree. The angel is a yellow Labrador who is dressed in an angel garment, with wings and a halo. She has graced our tree for 20 years or more.

The ornament was given to us to signify our Lab, Baby. She was a puppy when my son brought her home and hid her in his room. That lasted about 10 minutes before she started crying. Baby quickly worked her way into our hearts and home. She came in November and before we knew it Christmas was upon us. We decorated the tree as usual, but with a puppy we soon discovered that we had to put all the ornaments at least two feet up or they would become puppy toys.

Puppies are so curious, and we found out that wrapped gifts were also excellent puppy toys. Soon our Christmas tree had no ornaments lower than 2 feet and no presents under it. As Baby grew older, we were able to move some of the ornaments down; however, she always knew which gift was hers and if any of the gifts were edible. Many evenings I would hear her rummaging around the tree checking out the gifts and ornaments.

Baby lived to be an old girl. She was 16 ½ when she fell asleep and never woke up. Recently, Pope Francis suggested all animals go to heaven. I couldn’t agree with him more; in fact, I still have the angel on my tree to remind me of Baby.

Speaking of gifts under the tree, I happened to pick up a useful gift for Watson. It is a Pedi Paws pet nail trimmer. I figured it would be a good thing for keeping his nails trimmed. Boy, was I wrong! He was frightened of the noise and the gentle grinding terrified him. I even tried using it on my husband to show Watson how harmless it was. He would have nothing to do with it. So, now the Pedi Paws is my husband’s. It actually worked pretty slickly and he has perfect people paws.

I saw a couple of pet products that are neat. For dogs, I like the tie collars from The Dapper Dog Co. ($32. thedapperdogco.com). For cats, the Katris by Papercut Lab is a stylish cat climber/scratching board that’s sturdy and creative. ($49. per piece, Amazon.com).

In other news, congratulations to Linda Dessauer for winning the beautiful 20-gallon Colorado blue spruce in the CAPS raffle sponsored by Flower Tree Nursery. Thank you to all community members who bought tickets. All proceeds go directly to animal care.

CAPS News and Events:

CAPS has adorable puppies who are looking for the forever homes of their dreams. They are fluffy, cute and cuddly. Check our puppies out and consider taking one home for Christmas.

CAPS will be at Walmart tomorrow from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. We have the mistletoe all ready at the Kissin’ Booth. Ki, the all-time King of Pucker, will be there to make your holidays sweeter. Become part of Ki’s fan club. CAPS T-shirts, caps and other gifts will be available.

Thank you to everyone in the community who bought our 2014 Happy Endings calendar, which happily sold out this year. All the money goes directly to the care of our animals.

As Christmas approaches, instead of giving yet another tie or sweater to your loved ones, consider giving a donation to CAPS in their name. It truly is a gift that keeps on giving for life.

Also, please visit the CAPS website (www.capsnv.org) and Facebook page (Churchill Animal Protection Society). Be sure to “Like” CAPS on Facebook because we are really likable.

Do you have questions, comments or a great story? Please contact me at jkwmil@outlook.com.