Dog Scrapbook

How to remember your family and other animals

We were in the car. I was, at a guess, about 7 years old. Mum was driving (as per the norm) and my aunt was riding shotgun. I remember it SO clearly -- "Where are we going mum?" There was an air of excitement about the journey, even though I had no clue about the planned destination. I think it had been badged as a ‘surprise'.

"OK", said my mum. "What is it that you want more than anything in the whole world?"

I pondered this for a millisecond, my seven-year-old brain whirling with the knowledge that I had been banging on about one particular thing which I desperately wanted for months. I had sustained a relentless nagging which I seriously doubted would ever actually pay off. Could it really be that? Wow, I really had better parents than I had thought!

"Is it a . . . . . . hhhorse?" I ventured, tentatively.

"Ah. No." The reply, accompanied by a stifled snigger, spoke volumes. It had been too much to hope. Probably some crabby relative we're visiting or something equally boring.

"Try something a bit smaller."

Oh well, in for a penny . . . .."A . . . dog?" I offered.

"Bingo!"

Had my mother really just agreed to buy us a dog?! I leaned forward between the two front seats and screamed (this was the pre Clunk-Click-Every-Trip era) and planted huge kisses on both womens' cheeks.

And thus, Folly, the Terrier cross-breed entered our lives.

She was small & black, with a curious ginger beard and a white throat. She had only half a tail -- an unfortunate case of mistaken umbilical identity by her mother at birth we believe. She was a beauty, much loved, gentle and loving, and she was our constant companion for about 7 years until her sad demise in 1981. She gave us 7 delightful puppies (an unplanned pregnancy!) in around 1978, which crawled all over each other in the garden shed like little mice. My brother and I adored and named them all, and begged to keep one.

The pups were all black, with one exception which was a ‘nude' colour. He looked SO nude when he was born that we nick-named him ‘Kojak'. He was destined to be our favourite from the off. Parental common sense prevailed and we found good homes for them all.

In the intervening years, pets have played a huge part in my life. There was a Guinea Pig named Suki, a pair of gerbils which half creeped me out (Bubble & Squeak), and later a mongrel dog, lovely Sam, whom I inherited from a boyfriend. He simply like me better. Who wouldn't? Later came a hamster called Scratchy and a fierce (and also inherited) English Bull Terrier called Sweep (another case of love me, love my enormous killer white dog). All of the above sadly departed.

Latterly, as children arrived, pets made a resurgence. So much so that my life is now dominated by furry friends and I am a veritable Doctor Dolittle. We have, respectively :- a) Dandy & Rosie, our Border Terrier brother and sister (we went for one and came home with two -- don't judge me). b) Tarzan, the Siberian puss -- yes, I know it's a stupid name. c) Pancake (an even more stupid name), the vegetarian lizard -- in a bid to finally satisfy my eldest's unquenchable thirst for animals to ignore and for mummy to feed & tend.

We are critter-lovers, I cannot deny it. Almost outnumbered by four-legged family members. They bring a degree of joy and fun to our family life which is irreplaceable, along with a degree of chaos which I could well do without. They each merit, at the very least, a place in the family albums, and for some, a life story of their very own.If they share your lives, why not capture their part in your memories?

No childhood memory would surely be so sweet without an animal friend to have shared it.

 

About the Author

Helen Spencer, Founder of SaveEveryStep.com is a mother and step-mother and ex-corporate who gave it all up to launch a website to encourage others to capture their family memories whilst they still can.

Passionate about family nostalgia and the preservation of our memories for future generations, Helen decided to launch the website after the sudden death of her mother and her subsequent discovery that she was pregnant. She wanted to find a way to 'connect' her new child with his grandmother, so that she would be more than just a nameless face in a box of old photos.

SaveEveryStep enables family members (of both the human and furry variety) to capture the memories and events of all their lives in chronological order on a timeline, which can be enriched with photos and words, then shared online. The site is free to use and takes family nostalgia to a whole new level.

Your lifetime on a timeline....a virtual time capsule crammed full of precious memories to be opened at a later date when they are all but forgotten....

What's the best place to order a photo book?

I'm planning a photo book with a bunch of my dog's photos. In case you don't know what I mean, you digitally make the pages to look like real scrapbook pages, and the publisher prints it for you. I'm thinking about using Lulu, but do you have any other recommendations? Thanks!

It depends on where you live; your area. We can hardly guess that.

Crash Team Racing *Final Boss Race with 100%* *All endings and Naughty Dogs Scrapbook from 1994-1999

Tags: blog, design, dog scrapbook, dog scrapbook album, dog scrapbook layout, dog scrapbook pages, dog scrapbooking supplies, inspiration, photography, scrapbook

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 3:01 am and is filed under scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.