Buddy has had an up and down sort of Thanksgiving.

On one hand, he is glad to see my younger son and my older son with girlfriend. This offers increased belly rubs and longer, more interesting walks. He is also a huge fan of turkey.

Unfortunately he has had a closer than necessary run-in with a clipping razor, so he has a “shaver burn” on his belly and on his tail. When this happens, he licks and licks until he creates raw itchy patches. I fashioned a simultaneously pitiful and hysterical pair of doggy pants out of a pair of tights – which kept the licking down slightly, but not enough to resolve the problem, so we went to the vet yesterday.

He is now sporting a “cone of shame” and a bandaged tail.

We seem to be having an appendage injury kind of Thanksgiving this year. My older son burned his hand on a pan this morning, so both he and Buddy are sporting bandages.

Luckily, there is enough increased activity around here because of the Thanksgiving holiday that they seem to be taking it all in stride. We spent the evening last night around the piano, banging out boogie-woogie, drinking wine and singing classic rock songs rather loudly.

Buddy is like the rest of our family. We put aside the annoyances, the burned hand and the itchy-not-so-perfect parts of our lives to enjoy the food, the family, and the moment.

I hope you had a boogie-woogie cone-head Thanksgiving too!

Photo: L. Kreha