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January 11: Tell Me a Story

501 words! lol

We (more likely just I) had some serious puppy fever over the last year or so. I’m not sure if it was because our Lucy Lou who was getting older and looking more & more gray every day, or just because English Bulldogs are the cutest puppies on earth! I had made the mistake of joining a Washington State English bulldog breeders group on Facebook. Of course cute puppies were posted ALL the time! Every time I showed a puppy picture to Jeremy, he said “cute but no!” We were just TOO busy. The kids both had sports- sometimes multiple sports overlapping. We had Noah here billeting with us for the Spokane Chief's season. We had tournaments & vacations planned. It just wasn’t a good time to get a puppy. Fast forward a month or so and BAM- Corona Virus Pandemic & quarantines happened. About a week into our local shutdowns, Jeremy said “does that breeder you found still have puppies?” That’s all it took. Of course the puppies I had seen previously were sold, but she did have a new litter and 2 left for sale. After communicating with the breeder, we decided to go for it & had picked out a little girl puppy who was 10 weeks old. the only problem now became how to get her. The breeder is in Washington, but about a 3 hour drive away. It was the beginning of the pandemic & we were a bit concerned to go “out & about!” Thankfully, the breeder needed to come to our local airport to pick up her mom who was flying back from Arizona. She agreed to meet us at the airport with our little girl- only 30 minutes away! Due to Declan’s asthma, we weren’t letting him go anywhere, so Hayden & I drove to the airport to meet our puppy. Of course we loved her. She was a bit scared & shy at first. She snuggled up on Hayden’s lap the whole way home. Once home, she was still pretty shy, until we let Lucy inside to meet her & she became a different puppy! You could tell that she had spent time with other dogs, because all of a sudden she became a bouncy, silly girl! She has LOVED Lucy since day one! Lucy on the other hand... She was gentle & nice to Nelly, but took a while to warm up to her. Now- almost a year later- they are thick as thieves. When coming up with a name for our new puppy- we let Declan chose. Hayden chose Lucy Lollipop’s name so it was his turn. He said he wanted to use a “N” name after Noah- our billet player that had to leave to go home to Canada and season was cut short due to the pandemic. We also decided to use a “C” name for her middle name due to the Corona virus/covid 19. He eventually settled on Nelly Cheezit- which has fit her cheezy personality perfectly!
 
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569 words - thanks for this challenge, it really helped me think about a happy and adventurous memory
 
Whew! 516 words. I actually thought it would be longer. Thanks for the fun challenge. We all have so many stories to tell this year, especially.

 
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590 Words:
All of our cats are rescue cats. This means we brought them home from a legitimate rescue agency. But Mozart, or Mo as we call him . . . was a direct rescue from a farm.

Late fall of 2019, we participated in a outdoor meal at a local farm. The event was fabulous, sitting at a long table in the middle of a field of sunflowers, enjoying a true harvest meal on the farm where the food was raised. As we were lingering around the wine table, someone exclaimed - a kitten. My husband looked at me and said “that’s all you.” We found this single, tiny, sick kitten who braved walking underfoot in this mass of people as if crying for help. Most of the attendees didn’t even want to touch him.

He was sick - his eyes were swollen and filled with mucus, he was smelly and oh so thin. Yet, he literally curled against me as I brought him to my chest. There was no way I could just put him down and walk away. So he came home with us .. to meet our other three cats.

I took him to the vet, who cautioned us to keep him from the other cats until we could treat his parasites and determine his health. Antibiotics took care of his respiratory infection. The vet said without treatment, he would have only lasted a few more days. Within a week, his personality began to bloom as his health improved. He completely won our hearts. He still wheezes and even snores. The vet suspects he had some lung damage.

Our alpha male seemed as smitten with him as we were. He would position himself as if guarding Mo. He seemed almost mesmerized by his playful antics. As Mo grew, Mario was his wrestling coach. Mia, our girl with social anxiety began to emerge to witness this tiny fluff of fur. He has helped her become more playful.

As covid locked us down less than six months after bringing Mo home, I was so very grateful to have him here, distracting me from the chaos of the world. He never strays far from me. Brad has spent time reading and learning cat behavior. Using this knowledge, he has built toys and towers for Mo.

Mo has not grown very big. The vet said it is because he was so sick as a baby. Now that he’s well over a year old, he looks like he’s only about six months old. But I like this petite size. There is absolutely no fear and the most innocent, curious nature about him. He wants to be in the middle of everything we do. I’ll admit that I don’t require the same manners as I have our others. He is allowed on the counter while I prepare food, but he knows to wait until food is offered. The only exception is greens. He can’t help himself and will take any opportunity to swipe a piece of lettuce.

By now, he understands our routines and even the sound of our cars. He runs to the door to greet my son when he comes home from work each day. I’ve taught him to catch treats in the air. He bats a ball back to me and is the best spider catcher I’ve known. This tiny, sad kitten has grown to be one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received. He makes me laugh daily. I think that I needed him as much as he needed me.
 
@bestcee I'm thinking of doing a hybrid page where the journaling is 12x8 and would fill the whole area (it's approx 800 words)...is that ok?
 
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