On October 5, my countdown began: 30 days until my 30th birthday. In honor of this, on each of the 30 days leading up to my birthday I will recount one memory from the past 30 years… either one that has helped define me, one that makes me laugh, one that makes me think, one that encourages me…  or maybe a little of everything. If possible, I will post a photo to go along with the memory.

It’s my 30/30/30 Project: 30 years. 30 memories. 30 days.

Here is my memory for Day #14:

I became a dog lover when I was 7 years old and two little puppies joined our family.

These dogs, who we named Cracker and Carmel, were littermates in a litter of puppies that were abandoned by their owners.  In June of 1988, we were at a graduation party for a one of my parents’ students and these little puppies literally walked into our lives. I remember playing in the pool at the party and and seeing little puppies sticking their noses under the fence.

They had come from down the street, where a dog had given birth to the litter about 8 weeks earlier. The owners just let these little puppies run around on a main road, and didn’t care what happened to them.

My sister and I begged my parents to let us take one home.  To our surprise, they told us to each pick one! (They had gotten “permission” from the owners, who just let us take them.)

They were my brothers and my best friends.  They lived long and happy lives, but sadly passed away in January 2001 and January 2002, respectively… Cracker was almost 13 and Carmel was almost 14 (they passed away one year apart from each other almost to the day). It was devastating to lose them.

I have so many happy memories of growing up with Cracker and Carmel. I love this photo of me and Audrey holding Cracker (me) and Carmel (Audrey) in our driveway, soon after we brought them home.