St Pat's Day And The Party Animals

Happy St Patrick's Day!  Joining Amy at Love Made My Home for one last Five-On-Friday before she signs off as host and turns the blog party over to the new hosts, Tricky and Carly of the FAST Blog. I hope you'll hop over to Amy's blog and join in the party with your own five. 

1. Back in 2010, our grandson Ben (born feb 17) was just one month old when his mom took this picture of him and his crazy hair on St Pat's Day:

Ben, 1 month, St Pat's Day 2010

Thankfully, Ben is 7 now and his hair has tamed down, and he no longer looks like a troll doll!

2. That same day, St Pat's Day 2010, my youngest sister Tori died unexpectedly. She may not look it, but I think (mentally) she was Irish through and through. She was always the life of the party. I like to think she would see the irony of losing her on St Patrick's Day.

3. Another party animal...Sweet Dee...gone at only 9 years of age. Middle Daughter's family lost her last July 17th. 

Dee and I spent a lot of time together when I visited her family. Together we waited patiently in 2010, and again 2013, for two grand babies to be born. 

Dee loved those babies with all her heart when they arrived! She could hardly bare to be two inches away from them as you can see in the picture below. I could not hold "her" babies without her direct supervision as you can see!  

Her loss hit me hard this year and like her mom, dad and siblings, I still miss her more than I can say. 

Dee Comforting A Sick Ben. 

Every Dog Needs Her Own Little Boy!

4.  Dee's nemesis was her "cousin" Bailey, another party animal. Both alpha females, Dee and Bailey could not even stand to be in the same room together. They were the sweetest dogs separately, but they seemed to hate each other fiercely. Luckily, they lived in different states.

Bailey And Her New "Mom" Soon After Her Adoption

Youngest Daughter said good-bye to her 16-year-old Bailey just a few months after Dee died. 

Bailey was also known as The B-Girl and Boots among other nicknames. Not sure why her mom ever started calling her Boots, but might have to do with the time, years ago, she backed her butt up over her mom's old boyfriend's shoes and dumped a "present" in his shoes. She certainly outlasted that boyfriend!

When Easter comes this year, we'll be missing Bailey as the Easter Bunny...

5. My last party animal today is Einstein. Oldest Daughter and family lost Einstein on Christmas Eve this past year. If you're counting, that was three dogs lost in the extended family in just 5 months!

Just one look at him and you know why he was named Einstein, right? 

 Einstein was a mama's boy. Einstein only had party eyes for his mother and followed her wherever she went.

When Oldest Daughter went on a vacation one time, she left Einstein with his vet's office in their Pet's Boarding section. Einstein would have none of it! He whined, cried, and made such a general nuisance of himself that he got kicked out after just one day. 

The house-setter had to go pick Einstein up and take him home where he moped around until his mom and family returned from their vacation. Then he smiled his sweet little smile and acted as if nothing had happened.

So Happy St Patrick's Day to you today. I hope your life is filled with party animals of your own. 

We're learning when you lose one of them, you think you will never find another. But, sometimes when you least expect it, another party animal will come along and fill a little piece of that big hole in your heart.

Lucy, Adopted This Year 

That's what happened to Bailey's mom! Bailey's old vet told her about a 5-year-old dachshund whose family had asked that the vet put her to sleep when told she needed an operation. 

The wonderful vet asked them to sign her over to him, and then he covered all the expenses of the surgery and recovery...and the vet knew just the family who needed her as much as she needed them.

Thanks for dropping by!