The Tripawd Times of Nova the Great Dane

Thanks, Opie, for giving Mom a kick in the butt to let me back on the computer to post some recent pictures!

Last Saturday Mom took me and Emmy to the Fenton Jinglefest for a visit with Santa. This was the same place that Mom took me last year, just 3 weeks after my amputation. A year ago, Mom took me there in a blizzard, with about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. I was just a new Tripawd, yet made it safely to Santa’s tent.  Santa was hosted by a local vet. For a small donation to Leader Dogs for the Blind, the vet employees (Santa’s Elves) would take pictures of pets with Santa, and let Mom take some with her camera too.  Last year Mom spent a alot of time there talking to people, telling them about my amputation and cancer.  I sure got a lot of attention!  So I was excited to go back this year.

See how excited I am in the car on the way there?

Mom said I looked especially beautiful this year.  That was nice of her to say, don’t you think?  I feel great!

Well this year when we got there it was much easier to get there from the car, since there was no snow on the ground yet.  The only challenge this year was that now I am blind, and Mom is more cautious about taking me out in public because she doesn’t want me to get freaked out about unfamiliar surroundings.  She brought my sissy Emmy with us this time so that I would have a familiar dog with me.

When we approached the booth I could feel all the happiness in the air.  Several of Santa’s Elves recognized me from last year!  And they were sooooo happy to see me! My tail was going a million miles an hour. I was “feelin’ the love”, big time. You see, after meeting me last year, these people thought that they would probably never get to see me again. They thought that since cancer is so terrible, and it’s such a hard beast to fight, that I would probably be in Heaven by this Christmas! Awww geeze, can you believe these people, thinking negative like that? They were so excited and were bragging to other pawrents in line with their pooches that I was a miracle dog. Last year I was diagnosed with a deadly disease and here I am a year later, healthy and hoppy.  There were lots of high fives (or high fours from the dogs) all around.  I was lovin’ it.

Mom told them that I had been blinded by glaucoma, and they were even more amazed.  I guess I wasn’t “acting” blind.  I find my way around quite nicely with my turbo sniffer and seeing-eye tail.  Mom stuck close to me, and helped me find my way to Santa when it was our turn.

Mom says that Santa’s lap is big enough for anyone, but in this case she was WRONG!  I tried and tried to sit on Santa’s lap (Great Danes are lap dogs, you know), but I just couldn’t fit!  Everyone thought it was pretty hilarious since I was the only dog they had seen that day who was actually interested in Santa. He brings presents, you know, so it’s a really good idea to be nice to him.

I gave Santa my list (new giant-sized stuffies, “Texas Toothpicks”, bully sticks, pigs ears, beef trachea, dried, smoked pig snouts, Christmas dinner leftovers, etc.) Santa ended up getting off his butt to snuggle up next to me so he could hear my list.

Now Emmy was a different story. She does not snuggle up to strange men the way I do. She was mad at Mom for making her come and did not want to smile in her picture.

If you remember last year around this time, Mom got my reindeer antlers out and we wrote some Tripawds Christmas carols.  Remember, “Nova the Tripawd Dane-deer?” I’ve been telling Mom we need to get out the camera and do some more dane-deer photos, and maybe even write some more Tripawds Christmas carols to spread the holiday cheer.  So I will get on her case about that this week.