The Winner!

The winner of the Spearmints is TRES, who is a familiar contributor to my Comments section! Congratulations, Tres! This morning we awoke to our first snow of the season, so I put a red scarf on Paco (whose blog will be updated today) and took him out for a frightening, exhilarating romp in the wet fluffy white stuff! THEN I printed out all the comments and cut them into each person's section, put them in a cowboy hat and had my trusty assistant (read: husband) pick one. I didn't trust myself to pull a comment out of the hat, since I knew who'd left long messages, and whose were short and sweet. This way everyone had a fair shake. It was fun, and I have a couple of weeks before I hit my 500th post! That may also inspire some celebration, what do you think?

Below is a portrait of Bubba, my sister's dog. It's a Christmas present for my brother-in-law, who loves this dog - well, let's be honest - as much as he loves his wife and children! I have to finish the collar, but otherwise he's ready to go. His story? On Petfinder, my sister was looking for a puppy because she'd lost her beautiful dog and was grieving. Bubba was in Texas (she's in MA) and 5 or 6 weeks old, scheduled for euthanasia, and my BIL jumped on a plane and flew to Texas to bring him to his Forever home. He was only as big as a minute, and I think he knew he was 'saved' by Greg. He is a tremendously loyal dog, and is very treasured in their household. I hope the painting earns a place of honor at the Fire Station Greg works at! Very glare-y, I'm noticing now! Apologies.