Dear Santa,
I have been a very good dog this year and have learned lots of stuff. Β Although I’m 15 months old already, I’m still a very enthusiastic little puppy and occasionally it’s hard for me to control myself around my buddies. Β But I try REALLY hard.
I love my family, and I know that one of those people rules is that I can’t put my mouth on people. I have found a solution. When my Mum is doing Puppy Yoga with me, I put my own paw into my mouth so I won’t be tempted to hold Mum’s hand in my teeth. Β Then I can melt in Mum’s arms and enjoy her loving touch.
I blew it today. I have never ever in my whole life stolen any food from my people – even the time last New Years Eve when Mum and Dad fell asleep and left the cheese plate on a low table. Β I was only 4 months old at the time, but my Mum had told me the cheese was hers so I respected that and didn’t touch it! Β Mum was so proud of me. Β But the problem today was that Mum has been doing a lot of baking lately and had hidden some sealed containers of cookies on the floor behind the drapes and behind a big cream can where she hoped that Dad wouldn’t find them and eat them all. Mum told me that these cookies were for our puppy raiser Christmas party/class tomorrow, so I thought it would be okay if I sampled them. I ate two or four cookies before Dad caught me, then he ate all the rest of the cookies. Β Mum was really vexed, but she has forgiven me already as we had a big cuddle this evening, and she told me that it was her mistake because she thought the cookies were safely sealed up and didn’t think to tell me LEAVE IT.
So Santa, I hope you will listen to Mum when she says what a good boy I am. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you that I am putting my own head into the bracing harness that we are practicing with and we have had it for less than a week!
What I would really like for Christmas is enough funding for me to go into advanced training so I can fulfil my destiny and help to enrich my special person’s life. Β The other things I would like to have are some more of those dried chicken hearts and sheep lungs, or maybe a good supply of the peanut butter and cheese hearts. Β I overheard Mum saying that Santa might bring me a teradactyl TUFFY toy. That will go well with my dragon who is also a TUFFY toy that has served me well but is getting kind of tattered.
Santa, I will make sure that Mum leaves you a piece of wiener or cheese as a special treat for you, and some carrot peels for your reindeer.
Love,
Zumba
Submitted by our awesome PADS puppy-in-training, Zumba, and his fantastic PADS Volunteer Puppy Raiser, Nola Chanroux.