Updated: 01/04/2009 10:01 AM KSTP.com | Print Story
By: Susanna Song

SONG: Orphan Annie spends Christmas by the fireplace

Susanna Song - Reporter READ ALL OF SUSANNA'S BLOGS EMAIL SUSANNA READ BIO

I'm not much of a dog-lover but I do love Annie.

In fact, when my sister kisses her little shitzu-terrier, Benji, I cringe.

Puppies are cute but big dogs scare me.  I can still vividly remember the dogs that used to make me run homes in tears.  When I was in elementary school, I remember getting off the bus, and if our neighbor's dog was around, he would run up to me, sniffing and licking me.  Oh how I hated it.  I'd bolt, screaming and flailing my arms.

Annie is subdued, maybe it's her personality or maybe it's because she has gone through surgery and intensive care to remove a bullet that went through her neck, abdomen and chest.  Cruel.  I look at her and can't imagine why someone would shoot her and leave her to die. 

I hung out with the 2 year old Golden Retriever on Christmas Eve.  Her foster mom, Dayle, let me come over.  I saw Annie's temporary bed.  It looked safe and warm.  Annie even had a stocking hanging over the fireplace.  I noticed it right away.  Whenever I visit anyone's home around Christmas, I always look for stockings.  My mom hand-knit all of our stockings and hung them over our fireplace in Chicago.  There were 5 of them, all individually sewn to fit our personalities.  Someone also bought Annie a Christmas present.  I kind of chuckled at first.  But isn't that the spirit of Christmas.  It's a time to give.  Jesus' birth is God's gift to us.

Here are some pictures, courtesy of Devon Thomas Treadwell, who snapped some shots of us getting to know each other.