When we got our free copies from the company, we found her photo on Sept. 11. Although I was happy she got in, I was also a little disappointed because if anyone should have their photo on that date, it’s Bernie bin Laden, Bringer of Pestilence, Scourge of Civilization, and, thanks to Seal Team 6, now the worst bin Laden in the world. His sister is far too sweet to be associated with that day. But we figured that we should count ourselves lucky to have our photo picked at all, so we were happy with what we got. 

Then yesterday, as Di was at work getting her 2015 desk calendar set up, someone asked her for the entry form page so they could send in their own dog's picture. She tore out the form to hand it to them, and got the shock of her life when she saw what was beneath it on the page for January 1, 2015. Nobody had told us about that, and it never occurred to us to look at any of the other pages after we found Linda’s photo.

So, as is typical for our little menace to society, Bernie bin Laden managed to sneak past both us and the Page-a-Day proofreaders who are supposed to make sure two dogs from the same house don’t get included in the same year. Never one to worry about trivialities like rules or fairness, our little blot on civilization now infests the first page of 2015 like a wily virus that blindsides you when you least expect it. Now tens of thousands of people will start the year off with a photo that, less than half a second after it was taken, resulted in blunt force impact trauma to my head, a set of claw marks that made my chest and stomach look like a game of tic-tac-toe, and a fortunately waterproof camera that had to be fished from the bottom of the pool once my vision cleared and my head stopped ringing. Leave it to BBL to get first prize for assault and battery. Happy new year!