Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Family Unit Day

As a people prone to celebrations, the Gluten Free Girlfriend and I have carved out another day to celebrate from whence before there was none. Shaak Ti joined our family a year ago on this day, and given her bouncing around the doggie foster care system (people have so many misconceptions about deaf dogs), we weren't entirely sure when her birthday occurred. Since we weren't sure of the exact date of her birthday, we knew she'd be sad if we didn't somehow have a day of celebration for her. So we created "Family Unit Day", the day we got Shaak Ti and our family unit - yours truly, Gluten Free Girlfriend, Tito the Bad Dog, and Jedi Master Shaak Ti, became a happy family.

Family Unit Day started with an early trip to dog beach on Coronado so the dogs could scamper around, chase birds, and pee on anything and everything. Being that it was still 7:00am, there wasn't much activity on the beach save the lone lifeguard truck that made an appearance and caused us to have to sprint and grab Shaak Ti, and hold her until it left. She enjoys chasing cars/trucks and running in circles around them. Sadly this will probably shorten her life expectancy, but I've accepted this. After an hour of having the beach to ourselves for quiet people and doggie introspection time, we moseyed back home, breakfasted on kibble and eggs & toast respectively.

After breakfast we all had a nice, long family nap and then set about our errands. Our errands really only consisted of taking Gluten Free Girlfriends vehicle into the shop for a new set of tires, lunching, then going to PetSmart for some Family Unit Day presents. Shaak Ti got a new rope toy that's three feet long and essentially too big for her to chew on (she loves a challenge) and Tito got a tiny stuffed frog (he like to exert his dominion over smaller toys). The toys were presented upon our return to the house, and the critters happily flounced around with their new treasures.

OK so Family Unit Day wasn't much more than an excuse to skip work, go to the beach, have lunch out, run some errands, buy a new toy for the dogs, and play with the dogs, but heck, isn't that what life is all about? We're hoping a national public awareness campaign about Family Unit Day will start catching on, starting with the blog and then circling the globe. Though Canada does already have "Family Day" as a national holiday, hmmm..... Now, my next holiday to create will likely involve golf or In N Out burger, but either way will consist of not going to work and being a slacker.

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