Thanks to Bee and her chocolate cake loving, New Jersey housewives club, my blog yesterday cruised to an all-time record of ten comments – wow, talk about the cat’s meow.

But, this blog is about the cat’s big brother [actually, big sister, but who is arguing when you are trying to please the Empress Bee of the High Seas ].

The Meezer’s were correct when they identified the doggie-poo in the picture as an American Eskimo. She is, in fact, a pure-bred, UKC registered American Eskimo. Her full name is Aurora Sparkles in the New Moon.

Now, Aurora has a distinct problem – she loves costumes!!! Every year for Halloween, she dresses up – last year, she was a dragon.  Albeit a very happy dragon.  She wore the costume for something like three days before she would let us take it off.  One would think she would have overheated, but NO.

Anyway, the means by which we came into the possession of this princess is a good story. For almost fifteen years, we had a dog by the name of Dirty Dingus McGee – you can guess why I branded that little pup with such a name.

Anyway, Dingus had to be put down in 1994. She was suffering seizures that were likely caused by a brain tumor that was untreatable, so we were finally forced to make the decision to put her down. A very sad event for the family.

Fast forward four years. In the intervening time, our other two animals, the cats Ziggy (aka Flamin’ Ignoramus) and Patches also passed away. We had all three of them cremated and their ashes are mixed together in an urn, spending life eternal together.

After Ziggy and Patches passed away, the house felt empty, so I decided that we needed a new pet. One night, on a whim, I took the family to the local pet store and, many dollars later, we had a new puppy. Ms. MTSFP (aka, our daughter) immediately tagged el doggo with the name Aurora.

We brought her home and went to register her with the UKC – she came with her ancestry all nicely packaged showing that her lineage contained many champions. I had to explain to the little one (the daughter, not the dog) that one could not simply register a dog with the UKC with such a simple name – you know how all the dogs in those shows from the Westchester Kennel Club have pompous names like Lord Higher and Mightier than Thou.

Anyway, it came very easy to me – Aurora, when out in the new moon at night, sparkled. Hence, Aurora Sparkles in the New Moon.

BTW, did I mention cake, housewives of New Jersey, cats, cruising, my big brother (I have three older brothers, two of whom are physically bigger than I am) and Empress Bee Empress Bee?

Love to all

Jon