Pepper - in China!

Pepper has really settled into our home since her retirement from Seeing Eye Guide Dog service. 

Pepper on the "princess and the pea" bed - her bed stacked atop Millie's and Molly's beds, and her favorite place to sleep.

 Pepper's usual sleeping position is flat on her back.

 I've never known a dog who liked to sleep on their back like Miss Pepper does!

She also likes to hop up in bed and cuddle a bit at night. (Black dogs are tough to photograph - my cheek is on the top of her head and she's tucked up against my shoulder. You can see her closed eye right next to the comforter and her red and green Christmas collar on her neck. )

Made in Japan black Labs are also hard to photograph.

My sister, Leslie, used to be a model horse collector. She gave me her collection years ago, but she kept some of the china dogs that she had also collected.

This old Lefton has been in her collection since she was in elementary school in the 1960s.

Leslie has housed it in a china cabinet for most of the time and on bookshelves at others. The piece shows some wear, but then, it is at least fifty years old. (I'm showing some wear, too, haha!)

When we were chosen as Pepper's retirement home, Leslie decided to gift me with her old boy since he was a black Lab, too. I was touched - I know how attached you can be to pieces from your collection, and when they are from your earliest days, it can be tough to say goodbye.

The Lefton black Lab is now with a few of my other dogs in my library and is a wonderful connection not only to Pepper but to my very generous sister as well.