In my wedding vows, my wife insisted that I promise to have a dog. “A” dog. Over the years, I have kept that promise many times over. The chart doesn’t even mention Max, who was with us such a short time, he didn’t make it over an anniversary.
I will have to update this chart each year. I thought about it after I had to update the spreadsheet I have because Katie left us the day before my birthday in 2022. When you need a spreadsheet to track your pets, you have kept the promise to have “a dog.”
It was an interesting project building the spreadsheet, because most of the past twenty-two years is a blur, and all the dogs seemed to be here at once. I really couldn’t tell who knew whom or shared the house. So, I put together a spreadsheet with approximate birth dates (i.e. the date we told the pharmacy for their prescriptions), the date they actually joined the household, and the date they crossed the bridge. I then added a function to show who was in residence on any given date. That’s how I built this table.
We know Bubba’s actual birthdate because he was a wedding gift. We know Flower’s because my Mom-in-law got her from a breeder. Yes, mistakes were made. All the rest are rescues, so birthdates were approximate. Flower was actually older than Bubba, but she didn’t move in to the house until my mother-in-law moved in with us.
| Anniversary | Bubba Elvis Gilhooly | Ripley J. Gilhooly | Sparkplug Ulysses Gilhooly | Flower “Pot” Pesce | Murphy James Gilhooly | Kaitlin Renee Gilhooly | Rockford J. Gilhooly |
| 2/11/2000 (Wedding) | |||||||
| 2/11/2001 | Bubba | ||||||
| 2/11/2002 | Bubba | Ripley | Sparky | ||||
| 2/11/2003 | Bubba | Ripley | Sparky | Flower | |||
| 2/11/2004 | Bubba | Ripley | Sparky | Flower | |||
| 2/11/2005 | Bubba | Ripley | Sparky | Flower | |||
| 2/11/2006 | Bubba | Ripley | Flower | ||||
| 2/11/2007 | Bubba | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | ||
| 2/11/2008 | Bubba | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | ||
| 2/11/2009 | Bubba | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | ||
| 2/11/2010 | Bubba | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | ||
| 2/11/2011 | Bubba | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | ||
| 2/11/2012 | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | |||
| 2/11/2013 | Ripley | Flower | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | ||
| 2/11/2014 | Ripley | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | |||
| 2/11/2015 | Ripley | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | |||
| 2/11/2016 | Ripley | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | |||
| 2/11/2017 | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | ||||
| 2/11/2018 | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | ||||
| 2/11/2019 | Murphy | Katie | Rocky | ||||
| 2/11/2020 | Katie | Rocky | |||||
| 2/11/2021 | Katie | Rocky | |||||
| 2/11/2022 | Katie | Rocky |