I’m Jemma, aka Miss July. I’m a black furred, blue-eyed husky lab mutt and I’m always ready for action. I love to swim, and I love to play in the snow. My “joie de vivre” makes everybody around me smile. I seize the day every day, and I show my humans what they take for granted.

Ok, so I had a few bad days in the beginning... I left my mom when I was teeny and went home to the ghetto with my first dad. Less than a week later, I went to the vet where I spent the first month away from my brothers and sisters. I was full of worms and my owners were too busy to care for me, so I stayed there, in a cage...

When the month ended, they decided to give me up and my second daddy took me in. I was too much for him too, so he gave me to his girlfriend, second mommy. She was a runner, so he thought we’d be a good match. We were. But then she had to go visit some friends on the other side of the world for five months… I was left in the apartment and my second daddy came back to let me out onto the balcony for fresh air for a few minutes twice a day. I was so bored and lonely. I got creative with furniture to keep myself busy.

When my second mommy came home and realized she needed all new furniture - I guess she didn’t like my creations - she put an ad up on a pretty terrible website offering me free to a good home. I was up there for over a month. I think she described me pretty well, but nobody wanted me anyway.

And then came my forever parents. My forevermommy knew she loved me right away, even from the ad. My big brother, Boo loved me from the minute he saw me. He even dreamed about me when I wasn’t there. My foreverdaddy needed some manipulation though. He was really allergic to me in the beginning. Luckily, I’m great at manipulating and I try not to shed too much so I don’t aggravate his allergies.

It took me a while to trust my forever family because I wasted so much trust on people who didn’t want me forever, but once I figured out they were my real family, I dropped all my bags and started fresh.

I have some complicated allergies (gluten and pollens and ragweed), an estrogen deficiency, and my teeth are all broken from playing too hard, but my parents love me just the same. They do their best to keep me happy and they always will. They are very lucky to have me and they know it and I’m a very lucky girl, too.

Thanks for voting me Miss July 2007.