A Thankful Thursday Brought to You by Tonks

It's Thursday, and on a rare occasion, Thimble has agreed to just this once let Tonks take over for Angel Brian's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

Yesterday, in my precious angel Astrid's first Halloween post of the season, I mentioned how I bought her spooky cookies from the pet store before she significantly declined and gained her angel wings. This is the selection of cookies I picked for her this year.

It truly breaks my heart that Astrid never got to eat those. As I mentioned yesterday, I'll likely give some of those to the neighbor dog. A couple of those designs have some sentimental meaning given the circumstances around which Astrid had them in the past. This especially goes for the mummy. After all, Astrid had three surgeries in Octobers throughout her life, and each time I'd get her a mummy cookie to celebrate being all bandaged up. I'm working on figuring out how to use resin and anything else I need to preserve and display at least the mummy cookie in Astrid's honor.

All that said, where does Tonks come into this? Well, Tonks helped inspect Astrid's cookies when I brought them home and took the annual festive food photo this year.

Tonks did the same thing with last year's Halloween cookies. Last year's selection was much bigger, but I was devastated that they didn't have the usual mummy cookie then. See him missing from last year's lineup?

Sweet Astrid also supervised last year's Halloween cookie photo shoot.

Don't worry, because Astrid got to eat a cookie early last year, since she noticed their arrival and watched their photo shoot. Though, she wasn't the first one who got a bite of last year's cookies.

Tonks is always ready to help with anything and everything, apparently including taste testing dog cookies.

The calico left behind the icing chunks she removed, so I guess she deemed it unworthy. Astrid certainly enjoyed every last one of those cookies, though.

Tonks as well as my angel Astrid hope you all get to enjoy some festive food this season!

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Now, how about the fill-in statements for tomorrow's Friendly Fill-Ins challenge? My amazing co-host Ellen of 15andmeowing came up with the first two, and I came up with the second two.

1. It's impossible to _________ when you _________.

2. _________ is great until _________.

3. I wish I could solve the mystery of _________.

4. _________ is one of the creepiest _________ I've ever encountered.

We'll see you tomorrow, friends!

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Spooky Flashback Doodle of the Day

Depending on when you see this post, you might notice that today's doodle will be serving as our Halloween blog banner. This is another one I scribbled up as an illustration for a story that I hope to someday get back to writing, when the time is right. That story as well as this doodle star my angel Rosie.

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Tip of the Day

As we mentioned yesterday, we're dedicating October to tips all about Halloween. We already discussed keeping wreaths, garland, and other similar Halloween decor either pet-friendly or out of your furbaby's reach. Today, we're expanding on this with a tip that we've covered in a variety of ways in past tips. We're talking, yet again, about candles. This time of year, candles often become more popular because of cool weather, and because of the delicious scents often associated with this season of autumn. What's more, candles often come into play when we carve jack-o'-lanterns. Jack-o'-lanterns can pose just as much of a risk as open candle flames. Curious paws or faces, or even wagging tails, could be burned by candles out in the open or those in a pumpkin. Fire could also result if a kitty or pup knocks over a candle, or a jack-o'-lantern containing a candle.

For the above reasons and more, light plain candles or those in jack-o'-lanterns only if they are safely out of reach of your furbaby, even if that means lighting them in a room not accessible to your kitty or pup. It is also of course best that candles or jack-o'-lanterns be left lit only if you are available to monitor the situation. If you are not able to keep an eye on a candle, jack-o'-lantern, and nearby furbabies, then do not leave any flames lit.

Candles and jack-o'-lanterns can make for very festive decor. However, flames can of course pose a risk to your furbaby, and also to your home in general. Therefore, always put the safety of your furbaby and everyone else in the home first when it comes to fiery festivities this time of year.