Christmas Girl

I just love this shot of our Mollie girl on Christmas, 2011. She very patiently put up with the snazzy necklace and endured a holiday party involving lots of people, other dogs, and... the highlight of her evening... an unsuspecting cat (who may now be permanently emotionally scarred by the barking). Mollie is our Pomegranate Principessa, now 14 or so. We don't know exactly, because she was a dear little rescue dog when we got her at approximately one year old. And she's been our wonderful girl and perfect shop dog all this time.

The first day she came to the shop, we showed her the curb and waved our hands around and said "no street, no street," (would César would approve of our techniques?) and she seemed to understand that she could chase the occasional truck-with-dog-in-back along the lawn, and make a skidding dead stop at the curb, never going into the street. Yeah, that first day in the car with her: I had just taken her to the vet for a checkup (she was skinny, starving, and totally aggravated by flea bites), and she sat next to me, put her paw on my shoulder, and looked at me with those spaniel/border collie eyes, and I was a complete goner. Love at first sight? Of course!

She's entertained kids and husbands for years at Pomegranate (while moms and wives shopped) by catching pinecones in a gravity-defying twist. These days, she's mostly at home because it's getting more difficult for her to travel to the shop and get around in general, but we try to bring her on more quiet days. Maybe she'll make an appearance on New Year's eve day...