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Here’s an idea for a New Year’s resolution you might find easy to keep: If you subscribe to our (free!) Morning Report newsletter, you will not only get the day’s local headlines curated and summarized for you, you will get an online exclusive that our subscribers tell us they appreciate: We sign off every day with our readers’ pet photos and stories.

“As depressing as the daily news can sometimes be, the animals always brighten my morning,” wrote one of our readers recently.

We like to think of helping you start your weekdays in 2023 with a smile!

We also remember pets we’ve loved and lost on Memorial Mondays.

To sign up for any of our free newsletters, including the Morning Report with its daily pet feature, go to TwinCities.com/newsletters and follow the prompts.

Meanwhile, here are some of the pets our readers shared with us in 2022.

“Meet Cocoa!” wrote Macie. “She is a 12-year-old chihuahua with two different colored eyes. Cocoa loves to go on walks and see all of her friends. She enjoys taking car rides in her car seat and being able to look out of the windows to see where we are going for our next adventure. Another favorite activity of Cocoa’s is ‘food hockey’ where her kibble food is catapulted down the hallway for her to chase after. In the winter, cocoa can often be found warming her feet above the heat register in her many festive outfits.”

“This is Gandalf the Grey, an 18-month-old Russian Blue cat,” Armaiti wrote. “We adopted him from the Humane Society in February of this year at a time when there weren’t many cats available for adoption. He was the only cat at the Coon Rapids site and I got there a half hour before the doors opened in the morning to meet him. He’s an exacting copy editor, as you can see in this photo, striking fear in the hearts of writers and mice alike.”

“This is Jack (black cat) and Oscar (orange tabby),” wrote Rachel. “Jack is an alley cat from Washington, D.C. Oscar is originally from Texas and came here via Twin Cities Pet Rescue. Both enjoy their Cathedral Hill views and snuggly naps. The Minnesota hygge lifestyle works well for these two.”

“This is Winnie and Belle, the sheltie sisters, enjoying a vacation to Hilton Head, South Carolina,” writes Annika. “These senior ladies (12 and 10) were my travel companions when I went on the road as a travel nurse during the pandemic. Belle loves long walks and Winnie loves playing fetch until she passes out.”

“My husband, Ted, sat down to relax for a while,” wrote Cathryn. “Suddenly, he found he could not move — as the cats all came to join him.

“From left to right, that’s Sidney Jet, Piper (a ‘Hemingway’ cat) and Antonio.”

(A Hemingway cat, we have learned, is a polydactyl or six-toed cat.)

“Here is my favorite photo of our 10-year-old Brittany, Cid, and our 6-year-old granddaughter, his BFF,” wrote Kyle.

“Fourteen years ago, on Aug.16, 2008, my husband Jon and I adopted our Miley,” wrote Linda. “We had thought about maybe fostering cats for the Animal Humane Society: On that day, a Saturday, we went to a meeting about fostering at the Coon Rapids Animal Humane Society.

“We ended up meeting Miley there — it was love at first sight — and adopted her instead of fostering cats.

“Miley was our greeter: She had to greet anyone who came to the door. She loved to ‘help’ repair people.  She would growl when she heard a strange noise. She loved food and was even known to eat Pop-Tarts. She loved to be cuddled. She would give me hugs at night and she would head bunt Jon and knock off his glasses.

“Unfortunately, our time with Miley was too short (just a little over 10 years) and she passed away suddenly on Nov. 13, 2018. We did not know her exact age as the Animal Humane Society said she was a stray — they figured was about two years old when we adopted her, so that would mean she was only 12 years old when she died.”

One thing they know for sure, though: “It is heartbreaking when we lose someone we love,” Linda wrote.

“This is my grand puppy Cali enjoying a hike on vacation,” wrote Linda. “Of course, ‘Mom and Dad’ are close behind. Rumor has it that she can out-hike her humans! Must be that puppy energy.”

We asked where this photo was taken, as it looked so European.

“It is in the area of Zinal, Switzerland,” she replied.

Her grand puppy and family, she says, “live closer to Lausanne, which is on Lake Geneva … hence they really were on vacation!”

“This is my cat, Judy,” writes Heather. “Judy is a 3-year-old Norwegian forest cat, and she’s super smart. She uses talking buttons to communicate her observations and tell us her demands. ‘Play string,’ ‘Play bird toy’ and ‘Walk outside’ are some of her frequent commands.”

We thought Heather was joking. Nope.

“The buttons are from @fluentpet — they’ve got some good highlights on their account,” she wrote. “It all started with Stella (a dog), @hunger4words. Stella’s owner is a speech pathologist who was wondering if a verbal assistive device would work for a dog. Spoiler alert: It did, and she wrote a book about it.”

“I don’t know this dog’s name or its story, but if there is an award for ‘Most chill dog ever,’ I’d like to nominate this one,” wrote Ellen M. Perrault, a newsletter reader who occasionally submits photos of pets living their best lives around St. Paul.

“The dog was sitting in a Jeep outside of Kowalski’s on Grand at the start of the 4th of July weekend,” Ellen wrote last summer. “Everyone who saw it stopped to comment about what a beautiful dog it was. The dog paid no attention to all the attention, it was just another day out for a ride with its people.”

“You’ve met quite a few of our pets,” wrote Cindy, who lives on a farm in Red Wing. “Meet our newest addition, Slingshot.

“I volunteer at our local animal shelter, River Bluff Humane Society in Red Wing, and Sling resided there for 260 days — way too long for this wonderful gentle guy.

“Maybe it was his size (16+ lbs.) or his long hair, that he’s been passed over. I couldn’t leave him there any longer.

“I wanted to submit my pup for the morning report pet spotlight,” wrote Paige. “Here’s our story: We adopted her at the beginning of the pandemic after she had just had a leg amputated. She was not fixed yet since that was a non-essential surgery, to help save PPE (personal protection equipment). Well, it turned out that she was pregnant!

“We worked with the adoption agency (Ruff Start Rescue) to get all the supplies we needed to help Flora raise her puppies. I temporarily moved back in with my parents who live up north (since we were in an apartment complex).

Flora birthed seven adorable, healthy puppies. We named them each after Minnesota Twins players: Nellie (now Freyja), Rocco (now Marty), Buxton (still Buxton!), Jorge (now Enzo), Sano (now Mo), Rosie (still Rosie!) and Max (now Gemini).

“We spent nine weeks raising them, then delivered them to their forever homes. We came back to the Cities to settle into our lives alone with Flora.

“Thankfully, we still get to keep up with many of the puppies. They just celebrated their 2nd birthdays.

You can find more photos at instagram.com/florathetripawdexplora.

“Here is my daughter Lydia snuggling with her guinea pig, Violet,” wrote Joy. “We have three kids and in 2020 when we were distance learning we decided to adopt three guinea pigs. They are the best of friends and they needed each other to get through a tough time!”

“Here are Djangers and Virgil, brother Goldendoodles, relaxing at an overlook on the Superior Hiking Trail during a fall foliage hike near Round Mountain,” wrote Lisa. “They are wonderful doofballs who would rather wrestle with each other than eat.

“I got Virgil and my son got Djangers as puppies from the same litter during lockdown in 2020 and they have regular play dates and vacations at our cabin up north.”

“Greetings,” writes Jennifer. “Found this little girl living in an abandoned garage across from my street. She is enjoying the Christmas tree and lights. She still is very hard to snuggle with she is building trust every day… I’m very grateful to snap this photo of her. Happy Holidays!”

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

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