Hi All:

This Thanksgiving is the first totally without my two girls....sad. Saw this about memories and thought I would start a new thread. I remembered a funny one. One year I cooked Thanksgiving dinner, cut and chopped all the possible meat I could off the carcass and refrigerated it. I was too tired to throw it out so I just left it in the roasting pan with the top on and put it on the back porch until I could get to it.

Let the dogs out later that evening as usual....since it was cold I did not leave the inside door open like I do in warmer weather. I went to open the door for them to come in only to find Kelly with the carcass of a 22 pound bird in her mouth. We locked eyes for a few seconds. She gently and slowly put the carcass down on the floor and came in....surely they were disappointed I came out too quickly before they had a chance to demolish it. We just laughed, and makes me smile now thinking about it.

What Thanksgiving memories do you have?

Dihann

In 2006 we adopted Winston (he died in July when he was hit by a car) and shortly after we got him from the rescue group he developed a cough. I called the agency and was told he had kennel cough and it'd go away. Well, it didn't, and several days later I came home to find Winston on his dog bed holding his head up like he was sniffing the air, trying to breathe.

We took him to the vet that night and were told he had pneumonia on both lungs. They hydrated him with a bag of IV fluids, gave us prescription dog food (he had stopped eating the day before), high-calorie paste and antibiotics. On the way home we bought a few jars of baby food from Walmart and when we got him home we smeared the roof of his mouth with the baby food... this got his appetite going and he ate a full can of the prescription food. My wife stayed up with him all night, percussing his chest (lighting tapping it with her cupped hand) to help loosen the phlegm in his chest.

Several days later it was Thanksgiving and Winston was doing better but not to the point we wanted him left alone. My wife called her mother to ask if we could bring Winston with us and she told her no... my wife said "then we won't be there; I can't leave him alone yet. He's too sick." My mother-in-law agreed and we brought him to dinner.

I really miss that dog.

So sorry it was a bad memory....yes, we do miss our dogs, hope this one was better.

This is kind of a Christmas memory, but still a Thanksgiving memory too. We always take down the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving and start decorating the house (the wife does more than I do). One of the sweetest memories is when Reggie would chomp on the ends of the tree (we have a fake tree) as we put it together and we'd have to tell him "NO!". He'd stop but then would start chomping again. He never swallowed anything, he just liked to chomp on crunchy things, like ribbon and fake tree limbs.

I was thinking about my cat yesterday when I was cooking food to take to a family dinner. There were many years when it was just the two of us and he would always get lots of turkey treats and he would be keeping me company as I was cooking in the kitchen. He has been on my mind so much tonight. I miss him so much. On a happier note I remember at Halloween I would always tie a little scarf around his neck for a "costume" and he would give me this look like "really-we are doing this again?" But he did enjoy going to the door and seeing all the kids who came trick or treating-and the kids would all pet him.

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK, but I have a Christmas memory...

I used to wrap Daisy's little gifts up in bunny wrapping paper. I'd give them to her and 'help' her to unwrap them, then try to get her to show some interest in the actual gift... but she was always too obsessed with the paper itself. She would stick her nose up at the toy or treat and try her hardest to get to the paper in my hand. Sometimes she would snatch it out of my hand, and run away, trying to eat it. I would snatch it back off her and tell her, "No! You can't eat that, it's bad for you!" And instead wave the 'tasty' treat that I'd gotten her under her nose. Again, she would lift her nose up and try to get to the paper. When I threw the paper away, she would go to her bed and sulk. An hour or two later, I would catch her having a sneaky nibble at one of her treats, but when she saw me, she stopped -- it was like she was pretending to sulk again. Hahaha! I'm telling you - she certainly wasn't your average bunny. She was crazy, and so clever. I miss that little loon

Cheryl, that's so funny about Daisy only wanting the wrapping paper...Brutus did the exact same thing. He loved to rip up the wrapping paper (it was the only time he ever ripped up things, or was allowed to for that matter). It didn't matter what was in that paper, he wanted the paper...he would pick up the gift and shake it, often freeing the gift and send it flying across the room with the paper still in his mouth, but that was alright, he only wanted the paper anyhow!

He would sulk because we wouldn't let him open all the gifts, he would try to help us rip ours open....animals are so great!