Our Secret Paws package has been sent... and without Eau de Viola smells!

Mom and dad had the best time gathering things for our Secret Paw special friends. A little bit here, a little bit there, a trip over there, a trio of things delivered here. We were very excited to fawn over the stash of things all carefully selected. All except Viola who kept trying to get mom to pay attention to the boxes. "You're going to need this one, mom!" she insisted. Mom waved her hand and said she had that covered.

"If you haven't figured out yet that mom doesn't listen sometimes, baby sister, you really ought to step it up and soon," Miss Newton said.

And then, after much ooo-ing and aww-ing and lots of crinkly tissue paper and a bit of tape later (and without ribbon or photos because we were, um, a bit obnoxious about helping!), our mom and dad took all the pretty packaged things to a shipping store who advertised they would handle the rest.

"And they took my suggestion and used my box, right? I picked it out special from all the other boxes and bags."

"No, they took the things in a bag. I don't think our special Secret Paw friends want your smells all over their Christmas box."

"But... but they said they needed a box and I found the best box ever! They have to use my box. I insist!"

* sigh * "She doesn't get it. Somebody explain it to her, please."

In the meantime, mom and dad realized they just might have wanted to supply their own box when standing at the counter at the crowded shipping store whose employees didn't quite understand how to box up all the crinkly tissue-wrapped things in a pretty way how mom wanted it to look.

And then, mom seemed to remember something about Viola mentioning a box. Dad is calling it a "learning experience." Our package has been sent. We're hoping our special friends don't mind the big box (a big box is a toy, right?) partially-filled with packing air pouches (those probably shouldn't be toys) and minus the "Eau de Viola" fragrance.

"Eau de what? Oh! Hey!"