The Santa Claus Escapade

Last week, I heard that PetSmart was offering free photos of Santa with your pet and I thought, wow, I'll take Kona and won't that be cute to post a picture of her with Santa on my blog. And, I was feeling up to this little adventure as the Xanax seems to be working....

So we go to PetSmart and the place is packed and we stand in line for 45 minutes waiting for Santa --- ahead of us are 18 dogs and one possum.

Yes, a possum.  Which was actually a baby possum and hence very cute.

So we wait, and wait, and finally it's our turn.

Now Santa is sitting on what looks like a bench covered with decorative X-mas fabric, next to the bench is a Christmas tree -- and the bench is a bit high but I think Kona should be able to jump up and I pat the bench and tell her "hup up!" which is a phrase she knows when I want her to get in the car, etc.

Kona follows my directions and put her front paws on the bench and attempts to jump up on it but it's a bit high for her and in her attempt to get up --- her front paws get caught in the fabric and she pulls the whole shebang off the bench and slides in a heap with the fabric to the floor.

That's when I realize the bench is actually a table and the table top is a slippery formica.

Well, this is a bit embarrassing, but Santa comes to the rescue and after rearranging the fabric on the bench, Kona attempts to jump up again and this time I give her back legs a boost and even then she's having trouble, scrambling about on the slippery surface -- so Santa gives her a BIG boost and she's up! but she's sliding and slides right behind Santa Claus.

And she won't come out. Kona suddenly wants nothing to do with this whole situation. But we've gotten this far and waited this long so I coax her out and calm her down and put her in a "sit stay".

So there she sits, staring at me, looking for all intents and purposes like she's going to bolt at any second but she's following my command like a good girl and I'm holding my hand up like a cop, repeating "Stay! Stay!" and walking backward so the PetSmart employee can snap the photo.

The photo is taken and the employee shows me the picture on an I-pad and I look at it and Kona looks cute even though she is totally ignoring Santa and staring at me. The employee says "How's that?"

I reply "Looks OK" rather forgetting that "OK" is Kona's release word.

Kona (who is still in her 'sit stay' position) hears the magic word "OK" and she bolts off the bench like a banshee -- taking with her all the fabric off the bench and toppling over the Christmas tree!

Kona's bolting toward not me, but a treat bowl on a table which she proceeds to also knock over though fortunately I catch the bowl before it hits the ground and grab Kona's leash.

And after all of that -- after giving all my information to the employee who promises that they will e-mail the picture -- I never got an e-mail.

I called PetSmart twice.  And the last time, a very nice guy spent an awful long time looking on the computer but could not find it....

grrrrr

He'd said he'd call corporate. He also said he would talk to the employees who were there that day to see if they remembered us and so I told him all about the possum (we were two behind the possum) and the x-mas tree and the fabric etc. etc. and he said "that was helpful" and he's sure "someone will remember us" and maybe they can find the photo.

But nothing yet.......

Ho ho ho........