Vacations and holidays

I only have a few more things to tell you about Beulie's babyhood. But I don't want to leave out some of the unusual and special times we had with her.

Families with pets have to make decisions about whether to include or exclude their animals when they travel and celebrate holidays. We've done a little of both. Last summer we cruised Alaska and left our dogs, including Beulie, with trusted CCI friends.

But whenever we can, we prefer to have our dogs with us. We discovered a pet-friendly cabin spittin' distance from Yosemite and brought "the baby" along with Brix as her sitter.



Another time we spent the day at the beach and introduced Beulie to the massiveness of the great Pacific Ocean. She and Brix romped a bit but frankly, she was more interested in playing with him -- and he with her -- than the water itself. So much for the reputation of retrievers as great water dogs.



Holidays are always more fun with dogs. Each Halloween we drive out to the same pumpkin patch and take photos of whichever dogs are available. That day there were three -- Parisse on the left, Beulie in Steve's arms (per usual), and Brix on the right. If you click on the photo you'll see Beulie's scrunched up face; this Halloween posing was simply not her best fun thing.



But my personal favorite is the annual picture taking with Santa routine. Spooky Parisse, the strange one, can barely be seen on the left, she was so spooked by the whole scene and hid behind the big guy. Brix had been there, done that, so many times he sat and posed like an old man. It was Beulie who stole the show.