Christmas was always all about Kylie! From mid fall when we would plan out what photo to use on her christmas card, which sometimes meant going on location for a photo shoot,  to her photos with santa, to parties to presents, and shopping, she loved it all!

And she was a very good girl! The presents would accumulate under the tree for weeks and she would leave them alone, even when home alone, even when they had yummy aromatic treats inside. Then on christmas eve we would sit down around the tree and start handing her gifts and she would go to town!

She would even act interested in the collars and clothes momentarily before moving on to tear into the toys and treats! Then on christmas morning, she would dive head first into her stocking and not come out until she was sure it was empty!

And just like everything else, our enjoyment came from watching Kylie experience and enthusiastically enjoy it all! Thank you for that, Kylie. We love you, we miss you, we wish you a merry christmas.

Kylie was always thankful for Thanksgiving..

she got her own personal Thanksgiving dinner including turkey and dressing and potatoes and all the fixins!

Of course Kylie always wore a costume on Halloween. She wasn’t really happy about it but she was usually willing to humor us or at least tolerate for at least a few pictures or sometimes for part of a party with minimal bribery.

The worst ever for Kylie.. the lobster. Have you ever seen a dog looking really pi$&ed off?!

..she was not amused.

The best ever, for everyone.. The Queen of Cool!

She left this get-up on for two parties without protest, it was weird. We decided that she must have decided this what what she was always meant to wear.. after all, she really is The Queen of Cool!

And don’t worry, Kylie may have thought we were playing tricks on her, but there were always treats too!

In Colorado our first  few inches of snow of the season usually comes around Halloween or shortly thereafter. It’s a day we always looked forward to, especially for Kylie.. Kylie loved the snow! The first snow usually looked something like this:

This year apparently the mild, rainy summer we had is going to lead into a long snowy winter because we’re already enduring our first significant snow storm today. (by significant we mean at least a foot of snow)

The season’s first snow was actually last week. Without Kylie it was the saddest snow ever..  🙁

The first fall we after we moved to the mainland was a colorful experience for all of us, and that October was the first time Kylie carved a pumpkin!

We took her to a nice farmer’s market in the garden state and we got some big pumpkins for carving and let Kylie pick out a little one for herself.  Then we gave it to her to do whatever she wanted. She would push it around, gnaw on the stem,  then bite it! She would spend a few minutes or a few hours over a few days or weeks chewing chunks out of the pumpkin and spitting them out. It made a big mess but it was fun for her, and she never ate it so obviously she was carving it!

So from the age of two she got her own little pumpkin to carve every year about this time.

It was a very important part of Halloween until just a few years ago when she apparently just outgrew the whole thing and showed no interest in her pumpkin. You know how teenagers are! But we kind of missed having her make a big orange mess all over the house.. now we really miss it.

One of our favorite Fall photos.

What a pretty girl.

Dear Kylie,

I can’t believe it’s been eight months since I’ve seen your pretty face, with your big, beautiful, bulgy eyes that glaze over when we would share a popcicle, and your big wet nose, and oh those ears. I miss you soooo much. I miss you intensely, overwhelmingly, I miss you every day. I miss you in the morning when I would hear your paws thundering down the hall and then you would pounce on me to demand breakfast. I miss you every night, when I would scoop you off the couch and carry you to bed. I miss you all day, when I drive around running errands and wish you were barking your head off in your booster seat at people in the other cars, making them laugh. You always made people laugh. I miss you in the evening when you would drive me crazy going outside and back in, and out and in, in and out, until you got a cookie or until I went out in the backyard with you to chase our shadows on the back fence. I miss your smile, your sense of humor, your attitude, your presence, even your stinky feet.

Kylie you were the best thing in our lives, you still are. You were my kid, my friend, my everything, and I don’t understand why the stupid sun still comes up everyday. I shouldn’t complain I suppose, because you love the sun. You love snow too, it was like somebody had given you a new toy everytime you went outside and found the ground covered. I loved playing in the snow with you. I don’t know what I’ll do when it snows without you.

I’m sorry that sometimes I was a mean mom who scolded you, or grounded you from your window seat, or took away your allowance when you disobeyed. But I always knew, even more so now, that you were such a good girl. Thank you for being so good.

Thank you for being so crazy! You made our lives exciting! We loved seeing the world through your eyes, you kept us young.

I know I didn’t often tell you how awesome you are – your aunt was always telling you, and as your mom I had to becareful you didn’t become too much of a show off! But I hope you know that I think you are the most awesome dog/person/soul/creature/everything on the planet and I adore you!

I hope you always knew how much you were loved and still are, and I hope you never really wanted for anything. We couldn’t afford to give you everything we wish we could have, but lets face it you got pretty spoiled! And yes, of course you deserved it. I know you wanted to go more places, and I wish there had been more time, more opportunities, though it never would have been enough.

People tell us that we will be with you again and I hope so much that they are right. There is nothing in the world that we want more. By the way, if you know something about that and could let us know, we would really appreciate it!

People also tell us that you wouldn’t want us to be sad all the time. We know that’s true but we also know you wouldn’t want us to do fun stuff without you, so really we don’t do the things anymore that you most liked to do. And whatever we do, we always think of you and in that way you are always still with us and always will be.

I hope you understand why Isabella lives here now. I know you wouldn’t want her here, but she really needed someone to take care of her, and I really needed someone to take care of. And you should know that she never messes with your stuff, and I think she’s taking good care of your backyard, trying to keep those cats and evil squirrels out. I know you know that I could never replace you and would never try, the house was just too lonely without you.

Kylie, I’m sorry we had to let you go, we never wanted to, ever. We always just wanted what was best for you. That’s why we tried so hard and sometimes made you do things you didn’t enjoy, like go swimming or have accupuncture. I hope you know that it was only because we loved you so much and wanted you to stay healthy and strong. So we would have done anything, if there was anything that anybody could do, but there was just no time, there was no choice. We couldn’t let you suffer just to keep you with us.

Please know, my beautiful, wonderful girl, that being your mom was the happiest part of my life and the greatest thing I’ve ever done. I will always love you, and I will always miss you.

Forever,
your mom

So the thing with Kylie wearing clothes.. we’re really not those people for whom pets are accessories, for dressing up and parading around. Besides, when Kylie was just a pup designer doggie duds were unheard of, unlike now.

But for Kylie’s second christmas photo we bought her a Santa suit – her first christmas she was a Tropical Raindog (it was hawaii.. get it?).

It was a really high quality Santa suit, thick red plush with fuzzy white collar and a broad black belt. She looked quite jolly wearing it! And apparently it made her jolly because when we would take it off she would pick it up, drag it to the middle of the floor and roll around on it until you would put it back on her. She wore a Santa suit for six months! And it was hawaii.. it was hot!

So we started buying her toddler tees and tank tops because like I said, dog clothes were hard to come by, especially in hawaii. She really liked it wearing clothes – we liked it too, we just thought it was weird!

Then when we moved to the mainland and she got her first exposure to canine couture she built up quite the wardrobe.

Funny thing was, after living there for awhile, like a “real dog” chasing squirrels, seeing other dogs out and about, it’s like she realized that she was in fact a dog and dogs did not wear clothes. So she began the occasional protest when we would put cute stuff on her. You could get her to cooperate while you dressed her, but then she would just stand perfectly still.

When she wanted to play in the snow, she was much more tolerant – it was like she understood that it would keep her warm for awhile.

In fact, she liked the snow so much, she would even put up with this…

It was worth it for her.. Kylie loved the snow! And of course we loved putting her in cute stuff, and she looked so adorable in them, so we continued to buy her the latest fashions.

Kylie did like the compliments and attention she got when she was all dressed up, so she was willing to compromise. She was mature like that!

One day back in hawaii one girl had made a very delicious, very chocolate cheesecake. And another girl had a big slice complete with oreo cookie crust, on a plate on the coffee table and went back to the kitchen for a fork.

She came back into the room to see Kylie, front paws on the coffee table, with the entire piece of cheesecake in her mouth!!

She made a break for it.. the girl shouted, “STOP!” And she did, but she held on to the cheesecake and just froze in her tracks… Then with a second shout and an order to “Drop It,” she did.

She dropped the cheesecake, though she did get a good taste – then she dropped and pretended to be really sorry when the stern, mommy finger pointed at her.

Problem was, it was hard to scold her because we were laughing!

Can’t blame a girl for trying!

We learned what we were dealing with very early on in our relationship with Kylie. She had come to live with us in September and at the time, one of the girls was working on art installations at a club in waikiki along with a very cute boy named Gary. So we two girls were constantly going on and on in front of Kylie about Gary this and Gary that, and basically swooning as girls will do in their 20’s.. Gary, Gary, Gary.

One evening that October, we were taking dinner to a couple coworkers at the club including the cute boy, Gary.  Kylie was with us because even though she had only been living with us for a matter of weeks she had already become our constant little sidekick – besides she needed more driving lessons! We got out of the car and the guys walked out to meet us and as soon as Gary came out and we said “Hi Gary,” Kylie took off running toward Gary. Up to this point, we had observed that Kylie was a little scared or intimidated around men, especially tall men and Gary was over 6 feet tall; but she ran straight up to him dropped on the ground and rolled over on her back wagging her tail.

Naturally Gary bent down and rubbed her belly and told her how cute and sweet she was. While he was doing that Kylie, and we are not making this up, looked over at us with an unmistakable expression on her little face.. “Ha ha! The cute boy likes me and is petting me – not you!” Our jaws dropped and we looked at each other like what have we gotten ourselves into!? After their little interlude Kylie was just so pleased with herself, and we were aware for the first time of how in-tune she was with us. And we were aware of what a piece of work she was!