Letters Michael Anderson Elizabeth Atkinson Carol Dragun Emily Dunn Rachel Geller-Kaplan Doris Haas Beth K. Hoffman The Kiefer family Laura Nalesnik Michelle R. St. James Joanne Smith Janice Snoke Kathleen A. Vickery Helen Watson-Felt Agnes Wiggin Excerpts Out with the gals Lights! The great outdoors Shopping It's showtime Spreading the spirit Going to town On the tree trail Return to the main feature Weekly Health | Science (Mon.) Food (Wed.) Calendar (Thu.) At Home (Thu.) Picture This (Fri.) Sunday Automotive Cape & Islands Focus Learning Magazine New England Real Estate Travel City Weekly South Weekly West Weekly North Weekly NorthWest Weekly NH Weekly Features Archives Book Reviews Columns Comics Crossword Horoscopes Death Notices Lottery Movie Reviews Music Reviews Obituaries Today's stories A-Z TV & Radio Weather Classifieds Autos Classifieds Help Wanted Real Estate Help Contact the Globe Send us feedback Alternative views Low-graphics version Acrobat version (.pdf) Search the Globe: Today Yesterday Search the Web Using Lycos:

Claws and paws My husband and I are in our 40s, married three years, no children. We do have a golden retriever named Sheba, and a cat named Muffin. At our age, we don't feel the need to lavish expensive gifts on each other. We do, however, make a donation to the Bay Path Humane Shelter, where we live in Hopkinton. Last year, my husband asked me what I'd like for my birthday, which falls on Dec. 23. I decided the best gift would be knowing that all the guests at the animal shelter would get a visit from Santa Claus that year. About a week before Xmas we stopped at the shelter to get a head count and proceeded to buy numerous toys and treats for the animals. On my birthday, we stopped at Bay Path to play Santa to all the wagging tails and outstretched paws. The "inmates" were so happy to have visitors bearing toys. It happened to be snowing that Dec. 23, so at dusk we piled into our truck with Sheba and went for a drive over the snowy roads to view the beautiful holiday lights and enjoy the feeling of being together enjoying the Christmas spirit. JANICE SNOKE Hopkington

	© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company	Extending our newspaper services to the web	Return to the home page of The Globe Online