Dog's Life

Pen Pals

By Rachel Mosteller

With the holidays here, making memories with your dog is a great tradition! Why not make a holiday card together and create a keepsake that will last well into the New Year?

Unsure where to start? Think about how you can make the card and include your buddy in all aspects of the process. Barney, a Yorkshire Terrier, and Bridget Livingston, of Santa Monica, California, work together on their annual holiday greetings. To pick the right place for their traditional holiday portrait, Livingston and Barney hit their favorite spots, including the park they frequently go to have their picture taken.

If you and your dog enjoy certain pastimes together, include them in the card. Anything from playing soccer to splashing in a lake makes for a great backdrop, and a terrific time making that keepsake! Do you celebrate more than one holiday, like Livingston and Barney do? Consider ways to incorporate both into the card, be it through your own holiday attire or the setting (such as a Christmas tree or menorah in the background). It could be a greeting card, a postcard, or even something you send via email.

As for Livingston and Barney, the thrill of spending time together and getting out of the house for the photo shoot is contagious between the two of them. “I think [his excitement] is based on my own,” she says. “If I say, ‘let’s go [take our photo],’ he gets all excited.” (After all, Livingston regularly takes Barney’s picture and they do their holiday portrait entirely on their own.)

Try not to worry about perfectionism in your card—let your personality together shine through as you both put your “stamp of approval” on your creation, and in this case, creating it is the fun part, from visiting a new or favorite spot to actually decorating it. This year, Barney and his pal are incorporating a bit of each of themselves in the actual cards—their marks. Livingston will sign the cards while Barney offers up his paw print.

“It takes five or six hours [to complete the card],” Livingston says of their creative collaboration. “But it is good, valuable time to have fun.”