Gandalf the Westie’s First Birthday | Ocala Florida Pet Photographer

A year ago, I would have never thought that I would turn out to be one of those crazy dog people who obsess over their animals as if they were their children.  Now, I get it.  I AM one of those crazy dog people.  After Gandalf, our West Highland Terrier, joined our family last summer, he became our first furchild and is a daily joy in our lives.  We HAD to throw a birthday party for him.  Granted we were busy and we had to leave for Jacksonville right after, we still wanted to invite a couple of his best dog buds over for kicks (Tahoe the St. Bernard mix and Brandy the Boston Terrier)… we managed to have cake, and have them eat it, too.  It was to our surprise, that the neighbors brought Gandalf birthday hats and gifts and the girls next door even made him cards!  It was pretty awesome. We will have to plan it even  better for next year. (PS. YES, that is a Florida Gator bow tie that my mother made him in the above photo.  My mother is now a converted dog lover, too.)

Side note:  I tried to make those cool Westie cupcakes that everyone is making and utterly failed.  The icing kept melting even though the cupcakes were made the night before.  Here’s an iPhone pic of after I frustratingly gave up for your amusement (left is what it should look like, right is my goo):

Anyway, I ended up just doing regular funfetti cupcakes with NORMAL icing.  And doggy safe cakes for the dogs, too.  Not pretty but they liked it. <3