And not a flag in sight. Santa is a non-denominational international interspecies character. Actually there are accounts of the original Saint Nicolos being extremely kind to animals but I think I ranted enough about all that. Let’s just enjoy the sheer cuteness for a moment.

Aren’t they cuties? We had a great Santa this time who was fascinated with the hedgehog of course but also wasn’t too pushy with getting Winter closer to him - which absolutely will not happen when they try to pull her closer. Nuh uh not a stranger with a ridgeback. She won’t bite or growl or anything, just shut all systems down, dig her paws in and stay rigid until she doesn’t feel spooked anymore. But this time we had a very nice easy-going Santa, Cody was there to help, and I had lots of treats in my coat pocket so we got a really nice doggy smile out of her this year.

You can see the others in the photo journal.

Now, see the neat harness winter is wearing? That’s called a sporn. It’s supposed to be a “no pull” training halter but we found it’s one of the few halters that she’s comfortable in but can’t slip out of easily. I’ve talked about it on the site before.

It’s made by a great pet product company which I like a lot anyway. But I was just reading about how they’ve offered reward money for information about one of their employees’ brothers who’s been missing since November 11th. You may have heard about this - he’s the head programmer for the bookcrossing book exchange website and is a very nice guy from all accounts. No one knows where he is and this isn’t the kind of guy who would just ‘take off’. So please go read up on this situation and see if you can help.