The story of puppy

Some of you may be wondering about the header photo on the blog... Puppy is ever present in Livies life, and, therefore, ours. Puppy came to live with us in May of 2004, about 6 weeks before Livie's first birthday. He was sort of a no special reason for this present, present from her grandpa. We had met up in Pittsburgh, for a long weekend and some CUBS games, and he brought puppy to Livie there.
By Thanksgiving we had noticed a small hole in one of the paws. So, being the wise first time parents that we are, we went right out to the closest Hallmark store to find a replacement. Fortunately, we found them right away, and got two. Soon after we took the advice of my brother and his wife to get back ups if available in the event of future issues and the possibility of not being able to find one when desperate for a replacement. So, we got two more.
If we were thinking even more at that point we would have made sure all of the replacements were used fequently to distribute the love, ( & wear and tear)but we did not think this far ahead.
Therefore you can really tell the difference in the puppies. In fact they all have different names.
In order of appearance across the top: Scratchy, Softy, Holey (the Original) Mel and Puppy.
Mel just recently joined the family via ebay. Olivia thinks HE found HER as puppy is his cousin, and he came here to join his best cousin and live with him. Its amazing what a 5 year old will believe! For those of you doing the math, yes that means there is one missing, somewhere, somehow we did lose one. We have no idea when or where, and this is precisely why we had gotten the extra's. Now that we have discovered the infinate numbers of Puppy available on Ebay, who knows how many will join Livie and her family! In fact there is already one waiting in the wings (or my closet) for Christmas, or maybe a Neighbor to throw in her Halloween bag.....