Happy Birthday and welcome to NGA. You received some wonderful and thoughtful gifts from your family. I have always loved St. Francis statues and I think yours is the nicest one that I've ever seen. So beautiful! I am enjoying your blog posts too.
Many years ago I gave my parents a St. Francis statue for their garden. At the time they had a mixed breed rescue dog that they named Rudy. He was the shape and size of a German Shepherd, but his coloring was that of a golden retriever - all except for his ears which were the red coloring of an irish setter. Rudy had a habit of taking things that he found about the house or garage and dropping them at the foot of St. Francis. It could be anything from my mom's sneaker, my dad's ball cap, or even a paint brush. We thought it was funny but pretty special too - was he making his offerings to the patron saint of animals??? Anyway, Rudy passed peacefully from old age but I still think of him fondly, especially when looking at St. Francis
