Happy New Year, furfriends! Holidays are over and it’s back to working like a dog once again. Which isn’t bad if your job is to be chief taste tester, toy squeaker, and a general fun-loving blog dog like Humphrey. Farewell to yet another unusual year in 2021. We’re ready to roll into the new year. But first, here’s our behind the scenes 2021/2022 holiday catch up with Humphrey and Dalmatian DIY.
Christmas Celebrations
Christmas was another family fun day of ripping and snacking. We delivered treats to the neighbours in costume and Humphrey collected plenty of pats as Santa’s little helper. We shared a few holiday pictures of Humphrey on our social media and in our stories. The reindeer ears are still in one piece after all these years and our homemade Christmas dog bandanas are looking doggone dapper, too. We also had an extra special reason to celebrate this year. Humphrey had surgery to remove a growth from his cheek shortly before Christmas. The biopsy came back benign and that was the very best gift of all. Everything has healed well and he’s back to his normal cheeky self.
Farewell 2021
COVID Calm
It was a quiet year for our family, with little travel and few visitors. New Zealand’s closed borders keep overseas friends and family away, and COVID uncertainty and intermittent restrictions have kept a gloomy damper on local travel. Our plans for a family dog-friendly vacation were dashed by lockdown restrictions, but we did slide a few short road trips in during periods of freedom to travel. Our post on isolation and lockdown life with pets is still available for anyone who may find it useful for restrictions or for individual periods of isolation. Take care and be safe out there, furfriends.
Family Photos
A highlight of 2021 was finally getting our family photos taken. Yay! Emma Steiner Photography did a stellar job of making our motley crew look good. Except for Humphrey the pro poser, who was happy to ham it up for the camera, of course. Emma shared a family photo on her Instagram that also happens to be one of our favourites, as is the photo of Humphrey and I included in the 2021 collage below.
Party Animals
Even if we weren’t the social animals we might like to be, there’s no stopping us from celebrating life’s special milestones. Even if its just us having some extra fun at home. Oli’s rainbow birthday was commemorated with a special barbeque and reminiscing. Humphrey’s 7th birthday was another special cake, treat, and other fun.
New Year, New Look for Dalmatian DIY
Dalmatian DIY was in need of an update and refresh, but I hated the idea of Oli not being in our profile anymore. I decided to order a custom portrait that we could use for the blog with a matching individual portrait of Humphrey for his Instagram. This artwork was created by Ahmed from Portrait Fox Studio on Etsy to be Dalmatian DIY’s new profile picture. Ahmed was very responsive and I love the results, especially the cheeky expression on Humphrey. It captures his personality perfectly.
Gratitude and Thanks
Thank you to all of our readers and friends, near and far, for being a part of our blog dog world. Thanks for all the kindness and support you’ve shared with me and with Humphrey, and for keeping Oli and Tiger in your memories with us. We look forward to sharing our posts and our lives behind the scenes with you again this year. I hope that 2022 brings good things to you and to those you love. If cats could haunt the blog, Tiger would probably also want to remind you that this will be the Year of the Tiger. I hope it brings you a boost of extra courage and strength, which we could all probably use these crazy days. Happy New Year, everyone!
