Holiday Check In

What a ride this was. Happy new year. Welcome little Duffy the Shitlord. Hope he stops giving bad chaos soon , and instead gives good chaos. I enjoyed the Godzilla cats in the Christmas village a lot more than I should have. I think it just makes me miss having a house panther. I should fix that this year.

Happy New Year, and Happy New Duffy Dog! Scottie dogs are a fave of mine (and were also a fave of my late Mom's, who never got to have one). I'd love to have one some day. But I'm not that particular - any good doggo that can fit into an apartment would do. And once I have a proper job and money again...

Happy New Year! And... Lay on, Duffy, and curs'd be he who first cries hold! enough!

Happy New Year and welcome Duffy!

Happy New Year, Kate & Duffy & all the rest of you!

I think some people find bff dogs from shelters, but I also believe that viral tweet about "pissfingers" to be often true. "pissfingers is 19 years old and can't live in a home with children, books or electricity. pissfingers is nervous around hair and needs 400 acres of land and an orchard of extinct fruits"

I can't help thinking that even Jesus himself might have been a little less laid back if he'd had children: "For goodness' sake Joseph Junior, you are *not* wearing that to synagogue!". Happy New Year to you and yours.

Having just said goodbye to our family boy right after Christmas, this felt so lovely to read. I definitely feel you on not wanting to replace your dog, but gosh once you fall for a breed it's so hard to say no to another one. I know we'll have another red setter someday.

Also the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972! We never saw seals and dolphins when I was a kid and now my kids get to see them regularly.

Thank you for sharing this puppy story especially - when our old dog Jackie passed away it left a hole in our lives but we couldn’t just replace him like he was a busted light bulb. It took time and there was heartache. May you and your family have a wonderful 2026 ❤️

From the "Why Use 'Appropriate Names'" Dept.: we named one of our Irish Setters "Luigi."

When I lost the cat that got me through a nervous breakdown, it took me the same amount of time to get a new cat as it took you to adopt Duffy after Agnes died, and I felt the same amount of guilt - for "replacing" her, or for just desperately needing a cat to love. But I do love the cat that came after her and I did and still do need her, and she isn't a replacement. I'll miss your Agnes comics but I think Duffy is lucky to be her successor and lucky that he will be so loved, and grow with your children. Happy new year to you all, and thank you for sharing your family's stories with us. All the best (and hopefully less chewing on electrical wires) from London (sadly no bald eagles, but many foxes and starlings).

The cord chewing drawing is a perfect depiction of a terrier puppy.

When I got on a breeder's list (Irish Setter) the same thing happened with them telling me some time out, and then oops!! A buyer dropped out you can get a puppy in a month actually! Haha. Really happy with the dog I got though.

MacDuff Comes Home was one of our favorites! My dad can still quote parts of it, despite the fact that it's been 30 years since had had to read it.

OMG! When I was a kid (elementary school), we had a Scottish Terrier named Duffy, after MacDuff, which is my mother's family name. Maybe you're right in that it's a common name for Scotties, but it still blew my mind when I read this post. We were shit dog owners, though; none of our dogs were ever well trained and, cute as he was, Duffy was an anxious mess, barking constantly, biting kids and neighbors. May your Duff be of the best stuff and bring your family years of joy!

As always, there's nothing I DON'T love about this post. I look forward to these emails with embarrassing levels of anticipatory energy. :-) Happy New Year!

We got a puppy, too! From a parking lot, not a breeder tho.

Awww what a cutie. McDuff is such a good Scottie name. My mom had a terrier named George once.

Yay puppy! Also, I feel the same way about ospreys as you do about bald eagles- they almost vanished from the Chesapeake, but now they're back and going strong.

HAPPY NEW YEAR DUFFY

Feeling the puppy shitlord thing here. We also lost a dog earlier this year and had a pup shaped hole in our hearts. I was in the middle of looking at shelter dog when, the week before U.S. Thanksgiving, my sister videoed me to show the puppies her bf's horde of dogs had. We immediately fell in love with the littlest one. They were only six weeks old though, so too soon to come home. We were so excited for our Bonnie. Just over the moon with how sweet she seemed. Then, the morning before we were to go get her, my sister messaged that she passed. Too small, not getting enough food with all the other pups. Maybe even something wrong because sister's bf is irresponsible and those dogs are definitely inbred... Who knows. But little Bonnie was gone. My sister quickly picked out the next frieny girl pup she could find from the lot, decided her name should be Sadie, and brought her to her house for us to pick up (we're a 2.5hr drive away). Now, Sadie is so sweet when she's not biting us or tussling with all our other pets... Or going to the bathroom where she's not supposed to, but there is still a bit of a whole in my chest for The Puppy that Wasn't. It's not that I don't adore Sadie, I do. But we didn't pick her, we didn't even name her (I know we could have come up with something else, but nothing better came to us). She just feels a little bit not mine, and it makes me sad. But, we have her whole sweet life ahead of us to sort it all out so I'm sure it will all be fine. She might not look like we expected, she might end up bigger than we hoped, but she's a member of our family and I am glad of that... Happy New Year, Kate.

Used to love the McDuff books. Good name choice.

“Name: Satan” definitely got a laugh from me this morning!

Happy new year and by the way look up belly bands for male dogs - they’re really helpful for house training!

Oh my god, I love when cats curl up in the Christmas Villiages

Happy New Year to Beaton clan! ("Bloavezh mat"?) I hope the new year treats you all well.

Happy New Year to you all, and Duffy!

Happy New Year to you all, including Duffy! Keep an eye on him outside if there are eagles about. 🙂

"Which wrapping paper is Santa using" I've asked that question before. We just moved into a protecting-no-one-from-finding-out-about-Santa time of life, and the question this year was, "Are the presents still from Santa?" They were.

My family's dog is named Dougal! So I can confirm it's a great name for a dog even if your young ones don't agree. Merry Christmas and best of luck with the new puppy!! What a cutie

AWWW welcome to the fam, Duffy!