January 2026

Happy new year!!

written by Yvonne Dagger

Happy New year from Barney & Picasso 2025

As I look back on 2025, I'm both happy and sad.

I'm happy and thrilled with many things that have happened in my life in 2025. I'm happy that Picasso was named Dan's Best Artist for 2025. I'm grateful to all who voted for him...your votes certainly counted! He won! Yippee!! Picasso is continuing to keep Dagger DogVinci's Legacy alive as he  paints gorgeous works of art. To add to Picasso's success, he painted at Canine Companion's 50th Anniversary Gala event in June with Brittany Bell and Heather O'Rourke from Eyewitness News 7 as Co-Master's of Ceremony's. What a great event that was!! Brittany and Heather were PAWsome!! In addition, Picasso's success carried on in 2025 as he painted at several other wonderful events too numerous to mention here. I'm so proud of this little guy!! Barney continues to be a loving, caring companion. He's been a supportive muse to Picasso as they enjoy working together in our home studio. They're inseparable. Watching them makes me very happy!

I'm also happy because I was able to write my third book. It's about welcoming Picasso and Barney into my life while letting Dagger go...to Heaven. It's a book about grief and dealing with the loss of a beloved pet. I think it's my best book yet! It was important for me to continue writing from real life with a little fun fiction added. Dagger will still be a part of the series. However, in a different way now...working from Heaven. My editor, Jaye Medalia and my illustrator, Penny Weber, are diligently working on my manuscript right now. I'm hopeful that by the summer of 2026 it will be released.

Happiness continued in November as we were able to listen to Tommy Sullivan sing at Canine Companion's Veterans Day Salute Independence event. What fun that was while honoring Veteran's from WWII to our current heroes! The funds raised are being used to provide Service dogs for wounded veterans. Now, how great is that!! Denis and I bided on a Beach Cruiser bike and won the bid. It's an aqua blue color bike with big wheels and a basket on the front handlebars. It's really cool!

There are so many other reasons that I'm happy about this year mostly because everyone in my family are physically well and feeling good. Being healthy and feeling well is paramount to me.  It's something money can't buy.

Ok, so now why am I sad? You may ask...

I'm sad to witness our great nation struggling right now. I'm sad for the legal immigrants scared to go to work for fear of being rounded up, torn from their families and sent to a foreign country or concentration camp. Some of them only know America as their home. I'm also sad for the people who are being forced to close their businesses because of the steep tariffs imposed on their products.  Many people are full of stress and anger. This, I believe, comes from the unknown and uncertainty in our lives and nation right now. So, what do I do about this? I pray a lot! Sometimes I have to take a break from tuning into the news and watch a happy movie. I also do "7 Little Words." (https://7littlewords.com/7lw) I love that. It takes my mind off off the things I can't control. 

As you all know, our motto has always been to create, educate and inspire.
​Inspiration comes from good people who try to make our world a better place to be. Mother Teresa once said that we can't do it all, but if we all do just one small thing with great kindness and love that will become enormous. "Mother Teresa's sayings emphasize love, service, small acts, and faith, highlighting that "It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving," "We cannot do great things. Only small things with great love," and "Peace begins with a smile".She taught that "Love begins by taking care of the closest ones—the ones at home"and that "The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved," stressing kindness, faithfulness, and seeing (God) Christ in the suffering."(1) I truly believe that Mother Teresa was "right on" with her life's philosophy. Her lessons are still practiced throughout the world. Now, that's a really good thing!!

So, where do we go from here...as we start a New Year, Personally, I think that I would benefit from reflecting on the things that I've accomplished in my life. The GREAT things; the WONDERFUL things that have happened that make me who I am. I would then list them on a sheet of paper and reflect on each one. You'd be surprised to see that when we reflect and make a list (by either writing them down on a piece of paper or using your computer) of our accomplishments, how amazed we become at the things we've done over the year. Hey! You can even give yourself a pat on the back for being so PAWsome!!
Then, I suppose, after doing this positive and uplifting task, I would think about the things I'd like to change moving forward in 2026. I'm really not one for big New Year's resolutions. Many are lofty things that are basically unattainable. Now, don't get me wrong, setting goals is a really good thing to do. However, when we set our New Year Resolutions too high they often become failures leading us to give up. If we set small reasonable goals we are apt to build on these small things and before we know it we've attained more then what we set out for. 

However you choose to start the New Year,
do it with a kind and loving heart.
Be good and gentle with yourself.
Remember to do your best and the best is yet to come!!
Happy New Year!!
Happy Tales to you,
​xoxo Yvonne

Bibliography
(1) new year resolutions
​https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=new+year+resolutions&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8