Last month I came across a gorgeous vintage tooled leather box, something that perhaps was a lady’s small suitcase in years gone by. I bought it as a tote for my paints – impractical, yes, to use such a beautiful box for schlepping my paints around in. But if I could repurpose it, then I could also justify the splurge. Imagine my surprise, then, when I was cleaning the box out, and found a treasure tucked into one of the interior pockets. A vintage dog tag, oval in shape, with a tiny bulldog face engraved and ribbons undulating underneath her head. The ring on the tag reads “please return to,” and I’m guessing the ribbons were the space allocated for the owner’s name and address. But they were never filled. I wonder who’s little dog this tag was meant for, and how it ended up in the bottom of my case. The tag is now tied to the handle of my paint box with a beautiful blue ribbon. Well, really, NOW it’s hanging from a piece of string on an old nail in my studio, but it’ll be returned to...