Christmas card

If I had sent a generic Christmas card out this year, it probably would have said this:

Shadow, Gillian's hamster died this past fall. She was two years old, and our hamstertologist suspects she died from hamsteritis.

Gillian is in the 3rd grade. Art and Science are her favorite subjects. She started horseback riding in the summer, and now she has horseitis. The girl is horse crazy and hopes to get her own horse someday. She plans to study horseology, to become a horseologist when she grows up. She hopes to marry Mr. Horsenheffer someday, and live in Horsetopia.

Shannon has signed up for Medical Transcription classes. Her books have been collecting dust for about 6 months now. She isn't particulary looking forward to working again, but she has no choice. She BETTER be working by this time next year. It's really hard for her to get started studying though. She's a little afraid she won't get through it, not because it's too hard, but because she doesn't want to. And like with almost everything else, she's got procrastinatoritis.

Shannon spends lots of time volunteering at Gillian's school. She also takes the dogs to the park everyday.

Gus the dog and Mike, Willy, Sara, and Molly the cats, are all happy and well. In May, Shannon went to the Humane Society to sign up Gillian for a summer camp there. Shannon thought as long as she was there, she might as well have a little peek at the dogs. She couldn't resist that cute scruffy dog who reminded her so much of the dog she had when she was Gillian's age. We named her Trudy. We do not know anything about her background, but the vet says she is probably around 10 years old. Sadly, she was very hand shy when she first joined us, indicating she was previously abused. Now she is a very happy girl, always wagging her tail and smiling.

Gillian found a tiny treefrog on the playground at school. Shannon would not have normally allowed her to keep it, but, it happened to be Gillian's birthday that day. Okay, the frog was darn cute too. She was so little that she could have fit on a dime. Now, only 6 months later, she'd spill off the sides of a 50 cent piece. She's fun to watch, and she's very pretty.

Coco is our new bunny. We got her because Shannon really wants to take an animal to the Children's Hospital. She was originally going to take Gus, and although he'd behave well enough, it would stressful for him. Trudy would be excellent and would love it, except she barks when she's excited. None of the cats would like doing it. That's when Shannon had the goofy idea to get a rabbit. Turns out, the rabbit is far too skittish. Shannon has now given up on the idea of taking one of HER pets to the hospital, and is thinking about borrowing someone else's dog.

Coco makes for a good pet though. She's so soft and quiet. She doesn't nudge anyone with her cold wet nose when she wants attention. She doesn't throw up. She doesn't pee all over the house... The cats have no interest in her, but Gus is obsessed. We're sure he would love to sink his teeth into her.

Happy Holidays from Shannon, Gillian, Trudy, Willy, Molly, Sara, Mike, Coco, Frog, and Gus!