The Change of Seasons

As I sit down at my laptop and lift its lid to start typing, I find myself doing it a lot recently. Part of that has to do with the change of seasons.

As a sportswriter, these few weeks when I have to cover football and soccer playoffs along with the beginning of basketball season, are always busy. Just over the past week as part of one of my three jobs, I have covered Duke and Texas basketball in Charlotte and Clemson basketball in Littlejohn Coliseum. That’s in addition to the high school and college football games I cover.

Gabe takes a break from helping in the yard to give me a hug

Even though the change of seasons are hard and it keeps me busy, I always enjoy them. The weather gets colder, Christmas music fills the airwaves and as the holidays draw closer, it means getting to spend time with family and friends. I always look forward to celebrating with them each year.

Gabe also loves the change of seasons. He has even more energy, if that’s possible in the cold weather. One of his favorite hobbies is barking at the leaf blower or rake while someone is cleaning up fallen leaves. If a stick or limb also falls and we try to haul it away in the golf cart, Gabe will steal it and claim the limb for his own.

The aftermath of the Lincoln log house. After gabe came in the house for just a few minutes

Even though Gabe has a heated garage to sleep in at night, if it gets really cold, like it did when we had snow flurries in Charlotte recently, we let him come in the house. That’s when Gabe goes into hyperdrive. The first thing he did when he came in the house a few days ago  was: Eat the cat food, Jump on top of Mom in the recliner, Steal her shoe and proceed to chew on it, Dump the trashcan, Rip the newspaper into shreds and finally he destroyed a Lincoln Log house my nephew had built and then proceeded to eat one of the pieces. Gabe would have eaten more if I had not offered him an Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treat as a replacement. This all happened in approximately five minutes. We probably won’t put up our Christmas snow village this year. No telling  what “Godzilla Gabe” might do to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gabe even stole the Baby Jesus from the Nativity.

Those are just a few things that might land my Good Boy Gabe on the naughty list this holiday season. Even so, no matter what others think of him, Gabe will always have his stocking full of gifts from me. That’s because I believe you give gifts to people or animals out of love, not because they deserve them.

Gabe’s stocking will include a new frisbee, a plushie and of course Arin’s Good Girl Dog Treats. Just in time for those of us who like to get their shopping done early, they now come in the perfect stocking stuffer size, for your own dog or to share with friends. What a wonderful gift and a great conversation starter to share Arin’s mission of disability inclusion by cultivating thriving work environments with purpose and potential for employees.

If you don’t want to stuff a stocking, you can also hang the treats on your tree, with the holiday treat balls, filled with treats cut into festive shapes. No matter which you choose, I’m sure the good boys and girls in our lives will love them.

I hope you enjoy this change of season as much as Gabe and I do. I will have a proper Christmas blog in December, but until then, it’s never too early to say:

Happy Holidays!!!

From Jacob & Gabe