Happy Birthday to My Puppy . . .

Today is Zoe’s 4th birthday.  We don’t know much about the first four months of her life – just the note tacked to the cage at the pound that said her name was originally “Daffodil” (seriously?) and that she “plays too rough with older smaller dogs” (no kidding – cats, too).  But since then, her life has been well-documented . . .

 

The first picture we took of her – a few minutes after we got home from the pound.  And one on the front porch a few days later.

She grew fast – the left picture was a couple of days after we got her.  The right shot was a few months later.  She loved lying on Ryan in the early days, but she eventually outgrew it.

But she never outgrew her attachment to Ryan.  This was the day his wisdom teeth were pulled.  Zoe laid on that mat for eight hours playing nursemaid – never moved except to lick his fingers and put him back to sleep when he stirred.

We learned early on that Zoe loves snow, chasing her ball in the backyard . . .

. . . and our family traditions.

She loves lying in the warm sunlight through the front door in the winter . . .

. . . lying on the driveway while I’m working outside in the summer . . .

. . . posing for pictures in the yard . . .

. . . and going to work with me on Fridays when I’m in town.

 

But more than anything else, Zoe loves people – especially little kids.  We have eight little kids on our block (four families), and one grandchild who visits his grandparents often.  Last summer, Zoe would sit in our front yard and wait for them to come and play with her.  Then two of the families got puppies for Christmas – and now I understand canine jealousy.

And I discovered something while pulling pictures for this post – I don’t think I have a single picture of Zoe and me together, since I take all of them (it’s much the same with Ryan).  I suspect that many of you can relate . . .

Happy Birthday, Zoe!