Mangy mutt

I think Lacey has a skin condition. Tim always thought

she itched a lot and the vet said that's common in puppies. "Cept now she is starting to look

sparse in a few areas. On her legs, around her eyes. And I SWEAR she has not gotten into any Melphalan or anything. My neighbors' dog had something like this

and they showed me the shampoo the vet gave them. Holy Moley, I read the bottle and they're bathing the dog in straight pesticides. Now me, I am one of "those" people. I have a problem with exposing my family to proven carcinogens and things that damage one's central nervous system.

Call me crazy but while everyone around here has lawn services that spread agent orange on their lawns several times a year, 'round our house, we're looking at more types of weed in our yard than was floating around Woodstock way back when. So now I am looking up natural remedies. I'm thinking of using a lice repelling shampoo with rosemary oil that I used on Olivia

when her school went on a 3 day class trip that sent half of them home with lice. That was seriously gross, let me tell ya!!! I'll have to get her to the vet and have a look-see(the dog not Liv) as soon as I

stop coughing my fool head off. (Off topic, I have bronchitis and possibly pneumonia now but it's the dog I'm worried about)Any of y'all have any tips about this skin stuff? Her skin actually looks beautiful and I don't see any scabby things or eruptions at all. Right now, Lacey is watching us decorate the Christmas tree(um, from the sofa I should add) and she is very confused as to why she will drag a branch 5 blocks on her walks and then doesn't get to bring it in the house and we get to bring in a whole dang tree!!! If anybody needs kindling for the fire, I've got a whole bunch of branches in the yard she's dragged home. So breaking out an old Christmas memory: today, I was reminded of going to Mass on Christmas Eve each year with a family we were quite close with for many years. Every year we would come home for lobster and pasta dinner and their son, who skipped church most of the time, would be sitting in front of the TV watching the Yule Log burn stoned out of his mind. Come to think of it, I recall the few times he came to church, he always giggled through the whole thing. Probably stoned then too, I'm just realizing now as I write this.

A few years back, he did some work for a divorcee that lived behind us. One day, Tim was working outside and smelled the distinct scent of reefer wafting over the fence. He ran into Richie weeks later and when he told Tim he was seeing a woman who lives behind us, Tim

said, "NOW I KNOW who was blowin' joints on the other side of the fence!" Wonder if Rich still watches the yule log at Christmas. I'll have to ask him.

Speaking of stoned, this is the final cut that made the holiday card. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the dog's white eyes. The red eye thingy wouldn't work. Now we are fielding questions about whether Tim was stoned because his eyes look just a tad loopy. Nope, but this was after Thanksgiving dinner and he sat next to my dad polishing off a large bottle of wine with him. He was feeling pretty loose. Tis the season and all that.