There’s no glory in living a life of regret. That’s what I’ve been saying lately as life changes whirl about in my humble world.

Because we all choose to make risky choices, right? Even a calculated risk sometimes just doesn’t work out the way we had envisioned. Maybe even took us back a step or two. We knew all that going in. But people … what if it did work out?

What if?

Wasn’t it worth just taking the chance at it?

Because good sh*t happens to,you know.

And so at these roadblocks, we tighten our seatbelts to go rambling on to discover what happens on the Plan B path.

I find that it’s not the risks I’ve taken that I regret later. Instead it’s what I didn’t do. Whether it was out of fear of the unknown, being too settled in my comfort zone, or simply doing a crappy job of not planning ahead, in the end it’s the gray cloud of What If that comes to haunt me.

Oh sure, I could toss out a handful of for-instances. Stuff from missed deadlines to not snacking before going to the grocery. But that’s not what’s on my mind today.

I’m thinking about the 2013 Good Sh*t Jar.

With a rinsed out sauerkraut jar and some colorful scraps of paper, I recorded all the wonderful things that happened to our family during the year, no matter how minor the happy event.

We opened the jar on New Year’s Day 2014 to read the notes. Dozens of slips of paper were stuffed in the happy aura inside that jar. Not one negative thought to spoil the bunch. What a way to begin the year.

So today I admit a regret of omission. I didn’t start a 2014 Good Sh*t Jar.

Their debut album. The little guy in the back is the drummer.

Oh, I thought about it. Even started to gather up the goods to do it. But other more important stuff kept coming up and getting in the way.

And I have no memory of what any of that was now, this important stuff, which only adds to my feelings of regret.

While I wish we could be opening another repurposed sauerkraut jar this week, I’ll have to just accept this life lesson and start a 2015 Good Sh*t Jar before something else gets in the way.

But of course, thanks to the dog blog, not all of this year’s memories are lost to history. This past year we shared 94 stories with you. And good grief, the photos. So many photos.

Thanks for sharing our journey with us, y’all.

When I went to grab the links to some of my favorite stories of 2014, I came across some that I actually forgot about. And I wrote the things. Yet another betrayal of the middle-aged mind.

But hey, no matter. I’ve collected them here so we can all take a moment to look back at the year. So, my friends, grab a beverage of choice and settle down for a trip back in time. One filled with sloppy dog kisses and fur on your clothes.

Believe it or not, I can actually explain this.

Donna’s Favorite Stories of 2014

Frosty mug of the Jagermeister

[clicking the highlighted links will take you to the original story]

We begin the year at Sword House with a wintery challenge of snowy weather, the flu bug, and a busted water heater. I’m not the kind of girl to let that get me down and I handled it all with the usual grace.

After Euka shows us that she’s got the moves like Jager, we go indoors to talk about the wondrous things about working in a pet friendly office. Oh, just kidding, y’all. There’s another side to it, you know. And I’m just the chick to tell you about it.

We welcomed the Canine Companions for Independence Hero Litter into the world in March. Seven little yellow cotton balls, each one stinkin’ adorable. We knew one of these critters would be coming our way to raise, but didn’t know yet which it would be. In the meantime, we still needed to work with Euka before she returned to CCI for the Advanced Training program. In Silence is Yellow you’ll see how well this worked out, complete with a demo from Micron.

Mama Taya and the Hero Litter photo courtesy of Eukanuba

Introducing Holly of the Heros.  Prepare yourselves.

The month of April brings us squee-worthy moments with weekly photos of the wee little Hero Litter as they begin to move away from the milk bar to discover the world around them. The announcement of our puppy raising assignment of Miss Holly is bitttersweet as we also prepare for our good-bye to Euka with a James Lipton-esque interview. 

All these emotional goings-on are bumped up a notch just weeks later. Holly shows up here in Ohio and gets tagged with her first nickname.

And we find our work is done with Euka. We end our roller-coaster ride with the polar bear princess and send her off to Advanced Training with a warm hug and sense of pride. And the usual tears. That too.

As our Ohio spring came to an end and we began to enjoy the warmer days of June, we also launched the weekly Watch Holly Grow posts. Not much here on dog’s green earth that’s cuter than a lab puppy. But we remember with great adorable, comes great responsibility.

It’s like a catwalk. Except it’s, you know, a dog.

Right. That means heading off random bouts of puppy misbehavior.

In late summer, Micron uses his Pet Therapy skills to good use as I find myself skipping a groove. And Holly does her best to cheer me up with looking a little … muppety.

Micron returns again to the blog in September with showing us how he’s just one degree off the Normal scale.  Like we didn’t already know this.

My annual true-ish ghost story is shared in celebration of Halloween. Continuing in the spirit of the season, I’m mystified by the appearance of a devil on my back porch.

Before we can wave a good-bye to our midwestern autumn season, Micron channels Don Henley by giving you an earworm and Holly comes whisker close to fighting the Red Baron.

Click this to see an enlarged version. Micron’s face in the second photo is just perfect.

We offer up an early Christmas gift in December with Euka story after an unexpected reunion. The only follow up possible to this is, of course, is a photo of Holly wearing antlers.

We’re so glad to have you here as we finish this rather eventful year. Thanks for hanging with us. There’s more to come in 2015. Stick around awhile to see what these dogs come up with. And the cat, of course. Bodine, the benevolent ruler of Sword House, is surely planning something in that round head of his.

Happy New Year and sloppy dog kisses to y’all.

Categories: Bodine the Cat, Euka II, Holly, Jager Hund, Micron

Tags: Bodine, Euka II, Good Stuff Jar, Holly, Jager, Micron, Watch Holly Grow