So, I was organizing my file cabinet this weekend and stumbled upon this…
The vet calls ’em like he sees ’em…
What exactly is this, you might wonder? Well, it just so happens to be a pellet that was removed from Bella not too long after we got her. I remember finding a bump on her stomach and asking the vet about it – he examined it and thought it was a pellet from a BB gun. (If I could find the idiots that did that to my Bella before we adopted her, they’d be in for a world of hurt.)
So, when she went in for a dental, the vet took the pellet out too. He then gave me the pellet in a bag marked “Bella Pellet.” Apparently, I then filed it away in my file cabinet with other papers from the vet. Kind of an odd souvenir, don’t you think?
Now it’s your turn to make me feel better. Surely I’m not the only one who has kept weird things related to her pets. (On Facebook, a few brave commenters admitted to keeping puppy teeth and cat hair clippings.) What sort of keepsakes have you kept?
(I realize that I may be the only one who is so Type A that she filed a pellet into the appropriate manilla folder in her file cabinet. However, if that’s something you would do, we should probably hang out and discuss our favorite organization apps, filing methods, and list-making techniques at a mutually-acceptable watering hole.)
I kept the collar and tags of the dog we lost shortly after we got married. I kept them in a drawer for nearly five years and only decided to toss them after we sold the furniture they had been kept in.
I can totally relate – I have old tags too.
First of all, I will join you in your witch hunt for the jerk that shot Bella with a BB gun!! 😉
I was trying to think of anything I hung onto of Riley’s from when she was a puppy…I was actually beginning to think that I’m not *quite* as weird as I thought, but then I remembered that I’ve hung onto every single Therapy Dog tag and ID card that she’s gotten each year…so I have 4 expired tags and cards in a drawer. I have also hung onto pretty much every single receipt/invoice/itemized statement from the vet and the surgeon (umm, and post-op instructions). It’s a bit ridiculous! I also have the copies of her CGC evaluation (obviously, she passed) and her Therapy Dogs International evaluation paper (and the initial paperwork and dorky handler’s DVD they send you when you first pass the test).
Good Lord, I AM very strange!!! 😉
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Thanks – I like having company on my witch hunts. 🙂
I have all of my itemized receipts from the vet too – why can’t I get rid of anything? We can be strange together.
I bet I can win the weirdo award with whiskers.
My dog sheds whiskers all over the place, and when I find them I put them into a little plastic beaker that I got at an art exhibit in Barcelona (this makes me sound more bohemian than creepy, I hope).
My hope is to make a paintbrush with them that I can use to paint a portrait of him.
I absolutely LOVE that idea. A whisker paintbrush is so creative and meaningful. (And good call on the bohemian touches to the story… hehe)
Well, of course the puppy teeth! And all the rabies tags, and name tags. They are in one of my junk drawers and I am sure they will stay with me til I’m not around anymore or downsize to some really tiny housing in old age.
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I feel kind of cheated that I have no puppy teeth as I got the dogs as adults. I didn’t keep any of the 8 teeth Tavish had removed right after we got him, though – that would have just been a reminder of a giant vet bill! 😛
I have every dog’s tags. But I don’t think of that as weird.
I did save Honey’s baby tooth to show Mike and he promptly threw it out. Some people have no sentiment.
Bella’s pellet is just an unusual reminder how how lucky you both are to have found each other.
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I like thinking of the pellet that way. I also like that Bella Pellet is kind of catchy. 🙂
I just have a little stone box where I keep some of the hairs I collected from Tashi before she died. It’s nice to have some part of her still.
The pellet is a cool keepsake, and definitely something she’ll want to point out to her buddies as the years go by 🙂
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True, Bella likes reminding people she’s kind of badass. 😉
Not yet but I am sure my wife will at some point.
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OMD I’m with you about having a go at whoever did that to her. Sometimes I really long for vigilante justice. Forgive me for saying so.
But I do have one of Sampson’s baby teeth in a little baggie. Honestly with the puppies it’s very hard to find their teeth so one day we were tugging or something and I heard a little flink on the floor and looked down, low and behold there it was. I have every intention of scrapbooking it some day.
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Aw, Sampson teeth! 🙂
I’ve got every printout from the vet’s office for the past 30 years. Each dog has their own folder, and I can’t force myself to throw away the old folders of dogs in the past. There are any fallen teeth I’ve found in those folders. At the rental house, there are 2 dog graves–each surrounded by fencing (My oldest son chose to bury his foxhound out in the country at my parents because he was definitely a country dog living in the city.) We have the boxes of ashes from our last 2 dogs here in the desk’s bookcases. The boxes have Dannyboy & Sharkly’s collars and tags looped over the dog figurines on top of the boxes. I just can’t force myself to get rid of the past completely.
I can totally understand!
I have one of Silas’s puppy teeth, entirely by accident. He lost it in bed one night, and I tossed it over on the nightstand. At some point it fell in the drawer, where I still run across it from time to time.
We also have his first collar, and one or two of his first toys.
I used to be the kind of person who filed everything Just So. Somewhere along the way I got out of the habit, so things stack up for a while before I file them now.
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I can understand that – I used to be far more up to date on my filing too!
Gosh. I feel bad now that I never thought to keep Abby’s or Bailey’s puppy teeth. And I call myself a dog-mom?!
I have Abby’s old collar, it still has a bit of her hair on it. 🙁 It’s in a ziploc in the “dog drawer.” I think I still have all her old vet bills too (which were plentiful). And of course I have her and Bailey’s ashes in cedar boxes on my book shelf.
Please add my name to the witch hunt posse.
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Aw, sweet memories.
How do I add “witch hunt” onto everyone’s Google calendar? 😉
I have all Koly & Fe’s old tags – including the tags that say HOUSE instead of KOLCHAK, which were purchased almost 4 months before we even put our name on a breeder’s wait list.
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Now I’m picturing Koly walking with a cane handing out surly medical diagnoses to all he encounters.
I don’t think I have – but I don’t know if that’s because I always work on the idea that they will be around forever!
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Aw, totally understand that!
I feel like witch hunts, by definition, require at least a mob so count me in!
I also kept tags for my deceased dogs, though it eventually seemed a little weird. Oddly enough, I haven’t kept much of anything weird from the dogs. Removed spinal vertebra seemed a little TOO weird to ask for after Huffle’s surgery….
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I have a baby tooth from Rodrigo and Riley. I have Rodrigo and Sydney’s first collars and a rhinestone R and S that I was too afraid to put on their collars (puppies eat everything) so I just kept them.
Everything is in the kitchen. LOL Not sure why.
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