This is Holly Golightly.

Holly was heavily pregnant and wandering the snowy streets in Alberta, Canada before she was found and taken to the SPCA. She came in wearing a collar that read Suzy, yet no one had ever come to claim her. The shelter kept Holly long enough to deliver her litter of eight before weaning them off of her milk and putting them up for adoption. They chose to separate Holly from her puppies, and to our knowledge, she never saw any of them again. My husband and I went into the shelter just before Christmas. We weren’t looking to go home with a dog that night, but we read Holly’s story and noticed how everyone was fawning over the puppies. Holly was alone, underweight, shivering, and yet, still so beautiful. There was no question in our minds that it was her that we would be taking home, and that she would become our best present to one another that year.

We do not know Holly’s exact age, but we assume that she is around nine years old. We have had her for three of those wonderful years, and have chosen to treat her adoption day as her birthday. Even though it turns out that Holly was born with chronic health problems, we love her more for being our special girl. In true Audrey Hepburn form, happy birthday, dahling. We love you more than anything.