I had never painted a dog portrait before, but I was new a mother and full of ambition to try new things, so I found some watercolors buried in my art drawer, sat down at my kitchen table with a blank sheet of paper and a photo of Keeli, and got to work.

I’ve seen my dad teary-eyed on a handful of occasions. I’m sure you could guess the obvious milestones and passages, but the one that surprised me the most was when he opened a rectangular package wrapped in pink paper on Christmas morning 2020.