So listen gang. I had a choice of two different significant dates to focus on in today's email: the 70th Anniversary of The Today Show OR National Dress Up Your Pet Day.  Of course, you know which one I went with ...

My family didn't have many pets when I was growing up. Here are the pets ranked in order of length of stay in our household:

• Blondie, the Golden Labrador puppy; she proved too much for me and my brother so we gave her to my uncle.
   
• A gerbil which was mostly my brother's responsibility.

• A parakeet. Well two parakeets. One Christmas Eve, my mother went down to Woolworth's (which used to sell pets) and purchased a blue parakeet for us. We named it Petey. Well, we came home from our traditional Christmas Eve including Midnight Mass at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Liberty, and Petey had kicked the bucket.  On the bird cage floor, legs sticking straight up. Much crying of children ensued, but my mother was more ticked off than sad.  I just knew she was going to return Petey to Woolworth's the day after Christmas and give the saleswoman a piece of her mind. In the meantime, storage of a dead parakeet would be an issue.  No problem!  Mom found a Baggie (remember those?), placed the bird in it, and then pinned to the clothes line right outside our kitchen window.  Petey was a pioneer in bird cryogenics and on December 26th, a somewhat shocked manager of the Pet Shop at Woolworth's was given said frozen carcass and let us pick out another. We brought home Petey II which we often called Petey the Strong.  I think that bird lived almost six years! 
   
• And finally Squeaky, a grey male Himalayan cat that didn't "meow" but instead made a squeaking noise. I think we had that crazy cat for almost 15 years!

Fast forward to 1991 when I became pet parent to an amazing male Bichon Frise puppy named Minyo. A few years later I would rescue a female Bichon Frise named Princess.  The two were quite a pair, with Minyo being full of energy and a big clown while Princess, having suffered some abuse in the past, was clingy and was always at my side.
 

Needless to say, Minyo was the subject of many Halloween costumes as well as reindeer antlers during the Christmas season. My favorite costume is the black and white polka dot clown hat and ruffled collar shown below.  He would literally stop foot traffic when we went for a walk . . . many passersby would take photos!
 

While I usually bought my dog costumes at the local Petco, Amazon now sells an AMAZING array of costumes for all types of pets.  Click the image below!
 

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