I thought I’d been transported today inside the pages of one of my all time favorite picture books, HARRY THE DIRTY DOG by Gene Zion, when I picked up my nearly 10-month-old Holly from her adventures at Doggie Day Care.

Holly loves nothing more than romping the day away with doggie friends. When I dropped her off at ten o’clock in the morning at Kennelwood, she was a white dog with just a few light spots of apricot. But when I picked her up at four this afternoon, she was an apricot brown dog with just a few spots of white still peeking through.

This new brown dog barked like Holly. She tried to jump up and kiss me like Holly. And she even had on Holly’s new red and blue collar. So I took the mystery dog home, gave her a thorough scrubbing, and –voila–there was Holly!

According to Holly’s report card from Kennelwood, here’s some of the things she enjoyed doing today:

Explored, wagged and sniffed

Joined the bark festival

Took in some leisurely nap time

Inspected all the exciting toys

Chatted with my neighbors

Found a new best friend

Dreamt of you

Did some sunbathing

Dog gone it, did you have this much fun today? I hope so.