Where's Daddy?!?!

So, Maxx and I were taking the dogs out yesterday and decided we'd go to the off-leash dog park, after dropping a friend off at the mall as she needed to swap out some photos she had up at the gallery.

Turned out, she wanted Maxx do drive her around doing errands, not simply drop her off so he and I could get on with our day, so Maxx asked if I wanted to come with them and walk the dogs later.  Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to indicate that if the dogs and I did not get dropped off first, then it would be too dark when they were done and Angel and Hobgoblin would miss out on their outing.

So, Maxx dropped us off at the dog park (you're allowed to be one person to two dogs, but no more), and I got them in and took off their leashes.  At the time we showed up there were just two other little dogs, one named Raisin (I forget what breed she is, but we've met her before), and a little tan puggle named Lucy.  Hobs of course likes meeting the other dogs and after his initial sniffing and peeing at the gate and a first poop, he's off to play and run around.  Angel actually preceded me into the off-leash area, and did hesitantly go forward to sniff noses, but she spent most of her time walking around and around the track with me, although this time quite often out in front.  She seemed more confident.

The two who were there when we arrived did leave, and a dog or two showed up and left (there were quite a few big dogs in the other side), but we ended up being left on our own.  At one point, Hobs was over near the gate area and a man was walking past that end of the small-dog only part of the park ... and I think Hobs at first thought it was Daddy, for some reason on the outside of the park.  But when the man spoke to him he realized it was NOT his Dad, and started barking and growling a little, then he wouldn't leave the gate while Angel and I did another 5-10 circuits of the track.  I think he had only just realized that his Dad wasn't there, and was waiting for him.

Silly fella ... you'd think he would have realized from the get-go that Daddy hadn't come into the park with us but had driven away in the car!

Coon Hound Rescue Calendar 2012

We opened our Black and Tan Coon Hound Rescue calendar for 2012 from John and Steve today ... and for the life of me I can't pick out Bruce, even though I know he's one of the smaller pictures this year. When I talk to them next I'll have to ask which month he's on.

I feel like such a horrible auntie!

New Dog?

So, Maxx and I were talking the other day and he mentioned he'd been thinking about the Chihuahuas I'd mentioned seeing on the Victoria SPCA website for adoption (as there were so many of them, I'd been wondering if there had recently been a large seizure), and that he was seriously considering checking them out ... he's wanted for a long time to adopt a Chihuahua, but a very special one.

He wants what he calls a "pure blood Asthma Hound Chihuahua", so he can name him Ren.

Silly man!

If there's anyone in the Victoria area who reads this blog, there are quite a few dogs waiting for homes right now, and if you are specifically looking for a smaller sized dog, there's lots of Chihuahua mixes and also lots of Terrier mixes right now ... I don't know if the "Home for the Holidays" campaign is still officially on, but could you open your home and your heart to one of these wee darlings?

Merry-sick

I guess I suddenly got Merry-sick last night.  I crawled into bed (cold and shivering) and was lying there trying to warm up and get to sleep, then all of a sudden I got a vivid picture of poor Merry's face, and just started weeping.

I miss my little Muffin Man.  I hope he knows that one day I will catch up with him, and Shep, and PV, and other pets who have passed on.

Santa Photos

Remembered yesterday that I hadn't been by Buckerfields to pick up the photo of Angel and Hobgoblin with Santa, so stopped by today after work to pick it up.  They look good, and the photographer managed to snap it when Hobs wasn't staring wildly in fright (he's not good with Santa, he's nervous around strange men).  Angel of course is just lounging comfortably on Santa's knee and looking at me like "What?"

Dropped it getting back into the car, as it slipped out of the photo frame, and it slipped under the car in the wet ... but luckily I was able to reach it and quickly wipe it off with a tissue, and it looks fine.

Happy Holidays

Hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate.

Remember to keep the pets safe from ornaments and holiday treats, be careful with antifreeze and salt for the sidewalks ... and if you adopted a pet as part of the SPCA's "Home for the Holidays" campaign ... thank you for opening your hearts and your homes to an animal who needs you.

Bright Yule!

Christmas Miracle Doggy

Read a story in our local paper the other day, which was a follow-up to a story from November.

On Remembrance Day, a lady was walking her wee dog, (which she adopted two years ago from the local SPCA, and had been rescued from a puppy mill) on leash in Bowen Park, when four other small dogs attacked Maggie, who then slipped her leash and collar and disappeared into the park.

The lady reported her lost dog to animal services and the SPCA, put up missing dog posters, and even went for walks in the park after dark with a flashlight, hoping that Maggie might come out at night to be found ... but she was never seen again.

The lady had given up hope of seeing Maggie, and adopted another dog from the SPCA, who became sick and had to be put down on Monday, which was just another blow before the holiday season.  But, when she got home, the phone was ringing, to tell her that Maggie had been found.

 A man and his daughter were in the park and spotted what they thought was a dog or a cat on a ledge, made there way over, covered it with a blanket and contacted authorities.  When the lady got the call and got out there, she knew it was Maggie as soon as she saw her, and rushed her to the vet.  They think she fell down the hillside, was injured (she's lost an eye), and was stuck ... covered in feces and not strong enough to lift her head.

It's a miracle that she survived as long as she did ... and I'm so happy that the folks in the park noticed her, so that she could rejoin her human parent for the holidays.  Actually, when I read the story I just started bawling and rushed to show it to Maxx, and could just gulp out "they found that little dog that got attacked early last month" and thrust the paper at him, so he could read the story for himself.

Just a wee little miracle, in time for the holidays ... and while I'm sorry for the little dog that got sick and had to be put to sleep, I am so glad that Maggie got to come home.

Sneaky Sneaky

So, Maxx drove me to work today, so he had to come back and pick me up at 2pm.  When he left the house, both of his slippers were where they are supposed to be ... in the bedroom.

We arrived home to find that Hobgoblin (we are making an assumption, but he's been caught with the slipper so many times now that we feel justified) had gotten the slipper and left it in the hallway near the door to the spare room.  I mentioned it to Maxx, who grumbled about his dog and snatched the slipper up to toss it on the bed.  Just after he did so, I glanced down at the floor and what should I see but dog poop!

Now, both the dogs do know they aren't supposed to go potty in the house.  I couldn't tell who was the culprit of the potty accident, but we could tell that Hobs had tried to cover up the evidence ... sneaky sneaky!

Sweet Doggies

Angel and Hobgoblin are both curled up on the bed right now, with Hobgoblin's head pressed to Angel's bum.

They're so cute!

Once I upgrade to Lion OS, I'll be able to synch my phone with my computer again, and be able to take photos to post.  Need to back up my files first, as I'm scared that I'll be the one person who has issues with the upgrade and lose not just all the pictures I have on the computer (particularly pet photos of pets who have passed on), but also the novel.

Animals and Nicknames

If you've ever had a pet, you've likely named the pet and it's then ended up with one or more nick-names.

Our first pet as kids, a teddy bear hamster we received for Christmas and promptly christened Nikki, never actually received a nick-name, but all the other pets I've had since then have received at least one.

Buddy, who we got the Christmas after Nikki died, had several: Budweiser, Budster, Bud.

PV, the lovely Norweigian Forest cat I got as an adult, as "my" first pet: her name actually came from a term from Amway (which Maxx and I were involved with at the time), product volume; however, she became known as Princess Vicious, and Princess.

Shep, our wonderful black lab/border collie/husky mixed breed, who was picked out from an animal shelter for me by Maxx and his mother: he was very shy at first as he'd been beaten and abused, so he quickly got nick named Boo, then we added BooBoo, Shep-a-roo, Sheppy or Sheppy-Shep-Shep (mostly me, not Maxx, for the latter names).

Merry and Pippin, our pair of black and white cats, likely Maine Coone or a cross: they received nick names right at first, as they were actually named after Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took from the Lord of the Rings (and yes, this was long before the movie came out, back in 1997, as we are both Tolkien fans).  Merry then had Mer-Mer, Muffin, Muffin Man added, and Pippin gets called Pippy-Lip, Pip-Pip.  Together, we called them "The Meepers".

Jinx, who adopted us after being tossed out a window, another black and white cat who looks as though he could be Merry and Pippin's love child if same-sex couples could reproduce: I originally wanted to name him Motorboat but got vetoed.  Jinx gets called Jinky, Jinky Wink, Winky, Winkers, and Jinxie.

Trouble, our black cat who was left in our car by her dying feral mother cat when she was just a week kitten: full name is actually Car Trouble; she gets called Trub, Trub-Trub, and Troublesome.

DJ, our little silver tabby, who was a member of a litter left locked in a shed in a cardboard box at three weeks of age -- without their mother -- left to die as the family which owned the mother cat went on vacation.  All were rescued, and DJ adopted Maxx when he was over at the home of the friend who rescued the family of kittens.  DJ actually stands for her full name, Duchess Justine; we often call her Deej, Baby Girl, Tiny, and Squeeks (she has a tiny wee cry).

Angel, my lovely little maltese-poodle mix (so named because she was born on the day Shep passed on, and when I first met her was coloured just the same except for the tip of her tail, which was white): she gets called Angelkin, Kinny-Kin, Kinny, Kin-Kin, and Angelicious.

Hobgoblin, who we rescued from the SPCA down in Victoria: when we originally picked him up, he was named BeeBee at the time, which got changed to Hobgoblin almost immediately (partly because Maxx calls Angel our "Nose Goblin" since she loves kissing inside noses): he gets called Hobs, usually, or Hob-a-loo, Hobson, or Hobby.

When I had my little Lady Gouldian Finch, his full name was Rainbow, but I called him Beau.  My two remaining parakeets are named Buttercup (yellow one), and Summer (white with bits of blue and yellow), but they actually don't have nick-names ... at least not yet!

You Need a Vacation!

If there's anyone out there looking for a vacation, check out www..onlinevpm.com .... our vacation property is actually up for rent at this time, ad # 20898.

We just never seem to get enough time off or money ... or both together ... to be able to do a vacation.  Plus, if we were to use our time at our local resort, we can't bring the critters, so we'd be back and forth each day from there to home to check on the babies and get the wee dogs out for walks.

Really looking forward to the day when we can actually make use of some of our yearly points, though, and take a real vacation.  Waiting for the new catalogue to come to us in the mail so we can go through it.  We get access to resorts around the world on our points, just have to be able to book well in advance.  How does an all-inclusive in Mexico sound?  Or an Alaskan cruise?  How about a trip to the Mediterranean?  I'd like to go to England and Scotland ... all the choices, once we finally get the opportunity to start vacationing!

Snuggled

I certainly do get snuggled in bed at night.  Angel is always there with me, and will ask several times during the night to go under the covers by coming to my face and gently scratching at the edge of the comforter, so I'll let her under and she'll curl up at my feet and lick my toes for a while.  She only comes out again when she gets too hot.  Often I do have Hobgoblin with me, too, and he's taken to asking to follow Angel under the covers, but he curls up against my stomach or my back and nods off to sleep.  Trouble almost always sleeps on the pillow beside me, and often I have Pippin on the bed as well, lately.  He curls up on the side nearest the window, and will move back and forth between the bed and the window sill during the night.  Rarely, I may have DJ up on the bed, but she's mostly there for a visit, and Jinx likes the bed without humans in it, so he may relax on the bed during the day, but as soon as I got to climb in he leaves.

Sometimes, I even have Maxx in bed with me!

Quizzical

So, when I ask Angel to sit down, and then ask her if she's hungry, she tilts her head to the side as though she's quizzical, asking me if I really really mean it.  If I ask her if she wants food, she gets excited.

Funny how she reacts differently depending on how I phrase the question!

White Stuff?

Well, last week the weather channel was forecasting quite a bit of snow for this week ... but they've changed their tune.  Then, they were forecasting quite a bit of snow for next Monday, but they've changed the forecast AGAIN!

Now, I do like snow.  I'm just wishing we could have copious amounts of it fall on yards and gardens, and leave the roads, driveways, sidewalks, and parking lots alone.

... I don't want much, do I? ...

Anyhoo, if we do happen to get enough of the white stuff, hopefully Maxx and I will be able to get the wee doggies out on a walk while it's deep, and I'll do my best to get pictures or even video.

Shep used to love the snow.  He would root in it with his nose and toss snowballs for himself, and he would always make himself a "wallow", too, which would end up getting very compacted and icy and would be the last patch of snow to melt out in the yard.

Physio

Had a really quick physio appointment today after work ... measured how far I can bend backwards and forwards.  Backwards I'm up to 42 degrees, forwards we didn't measure when it starts to hurt today but how far forward I can go period, which was 116 degrees, which is close to average (average is 120 degrees).  While I'm not sure how many degrees I was able to bend forward without pain, at least when it started to hurt, it didn't hurt any worse the further forward I bent!

Now, I have three arm exercises and two leg exercises to add to my stretches, to start building upper and lower body strength.  Good thing I already have the five pound weights at home.  Doing bicep curls, lat press (or lift, I guess), and military press for the arms with the five pound weights, then for the legs doing a "potty squat" which isn't a full regular squat, and doing a dead lift (no weight, though).  For the leg exercises, I'm supposed to hold something straight behind my back to keep an eye on whether I'm managing to keep my spine in neutral position.  Wonder if we have a mop or broom with a handle which detaches .... did my first set at home today without the handle but did pay close attention to the alignment of my spine.

Angel seems to have calmed down with the other stretches I do.  While she does do some frantic face licking, she seems more content to either sit on my gazing down lovingly, or lying beside me waiting for me to finish so she can have some attention.

Dog Park

We had Angel and Hobgoblin out at one of the local off-leash dog parks the other day.  They have two sections, one of which is specifically for small dogs ... and at the height of the time we were there, there were about 15 or so little dogs racing around playing.  Most of the dogs were having a ball chasing each other around and just being exuberant, but there were a couple (Angel included) who weren't all that interested in playing.  Angel just stays at my heels, and if I or Maxx sit on one of the benches she just pops up and asks to come up on our laps.  So, I walk around and around the park, with Angel usually behind me at my heels, but sometimes she ventures out in front of me.  She was actually more open to meeting dogs this time, as she actually approached a couple very cautiously and sniffed noses.

I'm wondering about getting a little fake leash to attach to her harness, to see if she thinks there's a leash attached she'll have more confidence, as she's fine meeting dogs when on leash on her walks.

We'll have to see if I can find something like that when we have some spare money.

Jinx Seems to Understand

Jinx has been so very good about not being allowed outside since he tested positive for FIV.  I know it's only been a couple of days, but while he has asked to go out, he hasn't carried on and on and on like he usually does until he's let out.  He seems content to go and use the litter box and then wander back to the bedroom and curl up on the bed.

It's almost like he understands that since he's FIV+, he needs to stay in not just for his own health and safety, but for that of the neighborhood cats with which he might fight.

What a good little (20 lb) kitty!

Great Vet News

We had Pippin, Trouble, and DJ all into the vet today for blood tests to see if they are positive for FeLV (found out it's not FVLV, it just sounded like it at first!) and for FIV.

The great news is that all three tested negative, so now we just need to get them the shots to see if we can prevent them catching it ... and see about convincing Jinx (and hopefully the other three) to stay inside from now on.

Yay!

Bad Vet News

So, we had Pippin, Jinx, Trouble, and DJ all in for their annual shots the other day, and we found out that they'd never been receiving the extra vaccine for FIV and FVLV (feline aids and feline leukemia).

Since Jinx is the one who's always fighting the neighborhood cats, we decided to have him tested, and decide what to do depending on his results.

So, we found out today that while Jinx is negative for FVLV, he is positive for FIV, and there's nothing we can do about that .... other than he now has to be an inside cat if at all possible, to stop him from spreading it around to the local pet cats or to feral cats.

Now, we have to take Pippin, Trouble, and DJ in tomorrow afternoon to get them all tested to see where they stand.  If they are positive, we have to try to keep everyone in.  If some or all of them are negative, they'll need to get started on the vaccine (which is a series of 3 vaccines, I understand).

Poor Jinx, he's going to hate having to stay inside.  I think I may have to go out to PetSmart and get him an indoor cat patch with grass or something.

Bad timing, too, what with the commissions snafu on Maxx's paycheque meaning he doesn't have any more money coming in until mid-January, likely.  I guess I'll be trying to cash out my stock options as well as cashing out my existing stocks, to make sure all the bills and these unexpected vet bills get paid.

Wish us luck!

Work Worries

Well, I will be changing to working 6 hour shifts in the week of December 16th, so I will have to re-schedule my physio appointments for that week to be later in the day ... hopefully they will be able to accommodate, as I'll be working from 8am-2pm instead of to 1pm.

Yesterday was busy-ish on our chat service, so instead of working on email I was doing chats, and I got stuck on a really long one, so missed out on one of my micro-breaks to get up and stretch my back ... and boy could I feel the difference yesterday, and even today, with missing those breaks!

I have one exercise I can do at work, the others I have to do at home (I would have to be wearing pants to do the standing versions of these various exercises at work, and I certainly don't have any work-friendly pants which fit and would allow for the necessary range of movement).

Angel just LOVES me doing these stretches at home on the bed, though.  When I do my sloppy push ups she's under me trying to kiss my face, and those stretches done with my lying on my back, she ends up planting herself on my chest or even on my face to sloppy kiss all over me .... it's a good thing she's just a wee dog!

Thumb Twiddling

Seems like I'm at a loss for things to do recently.  Working half-days at work due to a back strain and possible disk displacement, going to physio twice a week (which is making a difference and I'm hoping I'll be back to 'better than new' sooner rather than later), and not spending much time sitting in front of the computer as I'm not supposed to sit too long at a time.

I have some exercises or stretches that I do ... one is called a "sloppy push up" which is essentially lying face-down, putting your hands beside your shoulders as though you were going to do a regular push up, then pushing up but leaving your torso as relaxed as possible, to stretch your back (think the cobra asana from yoga).

Angel thinks the sloppy push ups are just the best.  As I push up, she rushes over and stands on her hind feet to kiss my face, and as I come back down she frantically tries to stay directly in front of my face between me and the bed.  When I'm down she clambers over my back and sometimes as I start to push up she wriggles under my arm from behind to get in at my face.

As I said to the physio yesterday, while working to stretch out and get looser, I certainly am not lacking in endorphins from laughing at my Angel!

Holiday Party

Went to the office party last night.  Made sure to show up later than usual, although that meant that Maxx couldn't get us drinks before the bar closed for the pre-dinner speeches and videos, etc.  Once they started sending tables to the buffet he zipped off and got our drinks, and the dinner was yummy as usual ... but when I went back for seconds there was a decidedly smaller amount of food left to choose from ... the mashed potatoes were all gone!  Visited the desert room and had a slice of spice cake and a piece of black forest cake, then we packed it in and left as my back was sooooo not happy!  I think a big part of it was trying to twist and went my way between tables/chairs/people to get from our table to the buffet and back.

Maxx was saying maybe we won't go next year, but I reminded him that it's a free meal, and some folks did win some great prizes (biggest was a 42 inch plasma screen tv and Shaw Gateway, there were also a Gateway by itself, two iPads, two digital cameras, and a $200 gift certificate for a local spa).  It was nice to see folks all dressed up, too ... although I feel jealous of so many of the beautiful ladies who work with us!

Santa Photos

When I got home from work today, before I had my lie-down for my back, I managed to get Angel and Hobgoblin out to Buckerfields for their Christmas photos with Santa.  While we don't actually celebrate Christmas, we like to try to get yearly professional photos.  Last year I had taken Merry as well, but we decided I wouldn't try to take Pippin, as it would stress him out ... and Maxx has a Santa hat that he's going to put on Pippin to take his picture.  We may even put up some Yule decorations this year, which is something we haven't done for a few years now (just haven't felt like it).  Maxx has already turned around the wreath on the front door, so it's hanging outside for people to see, instead of on the back of the door where we end up storing it (saves space!)

Lame-o

I'm feeling so lame being off work with my back.  Doctor thinks I may have slipped a disk, and put me on muscle relaxants and prescription pain medication.  At night when I take both, the pain eases off so I can sleep, and during the day when I just take the pain pill in the morning, it eases off the pain if I'm lying down ... but eventually the old hips start to hurt if i stay in bed too long, so I end up getting up and puttering around until my back hurts enough again that I go and lie down.

When I talked with my supervisor at work this morning, I was joking that if I could lie down to work I could come in ... but if they brought in cots for us they may have a hard time knowing if we're working or napping!

Both Angel and Hobgoblin wormed their way under the covers with me this morning.  Hobbs tends to curl up either against my stomach or back, while Angel tends to cuddle up at my feet.

*Snow Day*

When I was getting ready to leave this morning, it wasn't snowing when I looked out the window at 7am, but by the time I was outside putting my purse in the car and scraping the windows, it was snowing really quite heavily and beginning to stick.  Since last night the Weather Network had put up a snow warning for east Vancouver Island stretching from Campbell River to Nanaimo (for 5-10 cm of snow), and this morning they'd update that to be from Comox to Parksville (for up to 5 cm of snow), and since we don't have our winter tires on the car (waiting for our Tuesday appointment), I woke Maxx up and asked if he'd drive me to work.

By the time we got to work, it wasn't snowing any more, but when Maxx got home it was snowing quite hard still, and when he got up to come back to work to pick me up for 1pm, it was snowing heavily at home and snowing really heavily at work ... although by the time we got back to the south end of time the snow was gone.

My back's been bothering me quite a bit since our last trip to the pool, and this morning at work I was in agony sitting and chatting for 5 hours in the work computer chairs, so we popped down to the doctor's office, and I was actually able to sneak into an appointment with only a 20 minute wait  ... we love our new doctor's office!  The doctor actually thinks I may have slipped a disk, and put me on prescription pain medication to take twice a day, as well as muscle relaxants to take at night ... and thought I should maybe be away from work for the weekend.  I want to go back tomorrow, so I have a note for the second part of my shift today that I couldn't make (I did call in to work while waiting for my prescription), and the doctor said if I was still in a fair amount of pain tomorrow to come in and see him during his drop in clinic from 10am-4pm, and he'd give me another note.  I only have (*had*) four hours of sick time left, though, so I'm as of this evening over 1 hour (not counting the two unpaid sick days I had off in January), so I'm really hoping that by tomorrow morning bending over to do things such as put on nylons and undies and deal with shoes is much less painful.  We'll see!  You should have seen me yesterday when we did some errands, and found some new slippers for me (two pairs for $15), with me struggling not just to stay upright on one leg to try them on, but to bend far enough to reach the ends of my feet to take off my shoes and try on the slippers!

So, tonight I'm hoping Angel will dive under the covers and curl up against my back, that always makes me feel better!

Silly Us!

Turns out the Lion OS is not available for sale in stores, but only available for purchase through iTunes ... but we did buy some disks so we can back up before upgrading, since the Time Capsule they had in-stock was over $500 ... A bit beyond our means!

Maxx will upgrade his system first, likely, and then next weekend I'll work on my back up and upgrade mine.

Upgrade Time

Off to go see if we can get Lion, and perhaps a Time Capsule.  Terrified of updating the OS on my Mac in case I lose all my files, so we need either a Time Capsule and full back up done first, or a bunch of disks so I can pull off my personal stuff and then load back on if it gets kiboshed by the upgrade.

I'm told that when upgrading with a Mac it just upgrades, it doesn't essentially wipe the computer, but I have too many photos and enough writing (novel and many many poems) on the computer it would be devastating if things didn't go as expected.

Wish us luck ... mostly in finding parking downtown so we can get into the store without having to walk and walk and walk and walk ... ;)

Chilly and Wet

So chilly, in fact, that earlier when I looked out the front and saw Jinx hanging out under the neighbour's car, so I opened the front door so he could hustle across the road and into the house, the "rain" which was falling was evidenced by ice pellets in his fur.

... and apparently at work it is snowing and sticking -- or at least it was earlier.

This morning on the Weather Network, they were calling for 5-10 cm of snow on Saturday.  Go figure that we're getting our winter tires put back on the Tuesday after!

New Poem

Hallowe’en Night

As the day draws down to a close of gloom

Wee ghosts and ghoulies start to roam

And soft and loud call “Trick or Treat”s

And sometimes even “Thanks” or “Please”

With open bags and widened eyes

They wait for this stop’s candy prizes

At each and every opened door

The sugar troves swell more and more

Costumes, face paint, plastic masks

And sometimes we do have to ask

“And who are you dressed as today?”

Before the gluttons rush away

Yet soon enough there’s no more knocks

We wait and wait, then by the clock

We know this Hallowe’en is passed

For kids and now it’s ours at last

And one by one our candles light

While murmuring names, so that we might

Make special remembrance each year

Of our well-loved departed dears

Annemarie Cummings

Nov 15, 2011

Irony

So, yesterday had to leave work early to take Maxx to the hospital, as he was having an allergic reaction causing an asthma attack.

Ironically enough, the allergic reaction was to the new lotion he put on his Medic Alert tattoo that he recently got and is still healing ... Medic Alert tattoo for asthma.

Writing Group

So, hoping to join a writing group located in my home-town of Penticton .... online, of course, since I live in Nanaimo and that would be quite a commute!

Just waiting for the group moderator to approve my membership, then I'll be able to submit my first submission, with this month's subject being, appropriately enough, Hallowe'en.  Of course, I do have to write it first!

I'm hoping this is just the next step in getting back into not just writing, but getting the rest of my creative outlets back online (painting, drawing, crafting jewellery, making soap).  2012 is going to be THE YEAR I get my mojo back and start getting back into the past-times I used to enjoy so much .... that's my promise to myself.

Breezy Day

Well, those of us who live on Vancouver Island know that's a bit of an understatement!  Was nice and sunny at work one moment, with black clouds looming on the horizon, then the next thing we know a wall of wind hits the building and there's leaves being torn off the trees and rain is driving sideways.  Driving home there was sleet in the rain ... not surprising as it was just 4 degrees!

Came home to no power at 1:30pm, and Maxx told me the power finally came back on at 9:20pm.  We've only ever had momentarily power outages at our house before.

Cats seemed happy to be inside while I was home at lunch, and Angel refused to go outside at all.

Minor Emergency

Had a bit of a house emergency yesterday.

While I was home at lunch, while letting critters in/out through the back door, something in the corner of the laundry room caught the tail of my eye.

Steam coming out of the hot water tank!

Sent a message to Maxx at work, who said to just switch off the breaker for the tank for now, and then he got permission to come home early ... and when I showed up to pick him up I spoke with my supervisor about the situation, so he sent a message to scheduling to use 5 of my vacation hours to get the rest of the day off.

We did have to pick up some supplies ... We needed to check the temperature to make sure it wasn't that the tank itself was getting way too hot, not just the release valve failing, and of course our "people" thermometer doesn't go up as high as we needed (that would be quite the fever!).

Maxx got the panel off the side of the tank so we could check what the water temperature is set to, and the temperature was right on the money, so the poor man had to crawl around under the house looking for the shut off valve, so we could swap out the release valve on the tank itself.

Apparently, while we have three sinks, two toilets, one shower, one tub, and one washing machine ... there are TONNES of valves on the pipes under the house.  Some of the pipes are even orphaned, so they don't have any water in them and don't connect anywhere.  He ended up finding the main shut of valve near the front of the house, so we got that taken care of and were able to swap the valve.  By the time we were done, it was after 8pm, but we should be good to go now, although I'll be checking into provincial and federal programs for performing energy upgrades, to see if we could get something back for replacing the tank with a tankless hot water system or hot water on demand system.

So, glad this didn't happen when Merry was still with us.  The top of the hot water tank was one of his "spots" because it was nice and warm.  If the valve had gone and shot steam into his face to scald him, I would have been just devastated!

Animal News

So sad to hear that Hickstead died of an aortic aneurism just shortly after competing in a jumping competition in Italy.

On a happier note, here in town a family which had their house burn down basically to the ground the other day got a nice surprise 11 hours later when the excavators were pulling off the collapsed upper story so that fire investigators could get access to the home.  Their 200-lb English mastiff Daisy, who had followed the husband back into the home when he dashed in for clothes but didn't manage to follow him back out, had somehow survived the smoke, the fire, the destruction, and came rushing out.   She suffered from minor smoke inhalation and burns but is going to be a-ok.  Considering they were expecting the excavator or inspectors to turn up her remains, that definitely did put a better light on the whole situation!

Grey Day

It's grey out and rainy.

Not pouring down hard slashing cold November rain, just a gentle sombre rain.

Does make me want to curl up in front of a fireplace with a dog or cat cuddled into my lap, though.

Guess I'll have to keep working on those Lotto numbers to see if I can make that happen!

Distracted Pippin

We have a small stepladder set up in front of our washer/dryer, so that Pippin is able to climb up and have a much smaller jump to the top where the cat food is set out, to keep it away from the dogs.

Pippin came in through the back door this afternoon, and was going up the ladder to go get some food, but he got distracted by the scene through the front door of the washer, which was running.

He stood there on the top step, watching the wash spinning around in its cycle, then started to jump up for food once more, only to be distracted once again by the spinning wash.

I ended up giving him a boost to the top so he could have a bite to eat, as he kept making a move then stopping to stare into the front of the washer again.

Silly Pippin.

A Must Read to Brighten Your Day

A couple of suggestions before following this link:

Do not be imbibing liquid or even holding a drink in your hand.
Do not be eating anything.
Go to the bathroom first.

Don't share with anyone else around you until you provide them the link or let them start from the beginning to read themselves.

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/13603/the-25-funniest-autocorrects-of-dyacs-first-year/

I literally laughed so hard I thought I might be sick and couldn't breathe, scared Trouble out of the room, and Angel was standing up leaning against my leg to see what was wrong.  These are just priceless.  Hope the neighbors could tell the noise coming from my house was uncontrollable hysterical laughter!

Lonely Pippin

So, it certainly does seem as though Pippin is missing his brother.

Maxx has found him wandering around the house and he goes out and back in and out again (more so than usual).

He's also taken to climbing up into my lap for snuggles, which he really hasn't done.  He's always been a Maxx-lap kind of kitty.

We'll be making sure to take him to Buckerfields on the 26th along with the daggits, for photos with Santa. I'm so glad I took Merry with them last year, so I have a final Santa photo of him.

I really need to go through all my photos and get them into some albums.  I even bought a couple of large albums ... I just never think about doing it when I have the space and time to dig them out and go through them.  Figures.

Anticipation

The weekend is almost here.  On lunch now and have five hours left tonight ... hope I can keep my contacts per hour up and maybe increase it a bit for the week ... we have an incentive going right now and it would be SO nice to get a little extra cash-ola!

Stopped at lunch to pick up some more cat food for the boys and girls, so they'll be happy we can fill their bowls tonight.  Of course, now I'm broke for the next 11 days, but hey, who's counting?

Conflicted Emotions

I was actually feeling happy today about the number of emails I'd gotten through at work on the first part of my shift.

Then I realized that today is the four-week anniversary of putting Merry to sleep, and started to cry.

Poor Maxx, living with this emotional roller coaster.

Day of the Dead

We did our candle-light remembrance for those who passed on last night.  We were going to hold it on Samhain, but there are just enough trick or treaters later in the evening that we'd be interrupted, so we held off.

Hobgoblin climbed immediately up into his Dad's lap once we had the candles lit and were sitting watching them, remember, and Angel came over to us on the love seat ... for once not running away when I reached down to her.  She let me pick her up and did her version of snuggling and comfort-giving (ie trying to lick the inside of my nose) for a while, but hung out for quite some time.

Tears, of course.  Not as many good memories passing through my mind and heart as usual, since Merry passed away so recently.  I miss my little Muffin.

Samhain or Howl-o-ween

Took Angel and Hobgoblin out for their walk yesterday in their costumes, Angel with her angel wings and Hobs in his devil costume.  They received more than the usual amount of attention and "aren't they cute!" comments.  They also wore the costumes last night during the evening while the trick or treaters were hitting the pavement ... and got lots of comments from the kids and teens as well, and those of the parents who came up to the door.

Funniest comment was from the mother of an adorable little purple unicorn, though.  She took one sniff as the door opened and said "Something certainly smells good!  Can we take a bowl of what you're cooking?"

Dinner was finished and Maxx was just plating it up ... spiral cut ham with roasted veggies (parsnips, red/green/yellow/orange peppers, onions, carrots), with steamed cauliflower, and personal ramikins (not sure how that's spelled) of potatoes Romanof.  Yum yum!  The personal potatoes Romanof worked out great, just had to go in the oven once the ham and veggies came out and had to sit, and only took about 10 minutes to bake through instead of the usual 45 for a full casserole.

Fair number of fireworks were going off.  As we were getting ready to pack it in for the evening, there were two extremely loud booms that almost sounded like someone was shooting off cannons or actually exploding something.  Hope they WERE just big fireworks.

Dog-Walking in the Dark

Took Angel and Hobgoblin out yesterday for a while after it had gotten dark.  We have a light-up clip on for Hob's leash, and Angel has a heart-shaped flashing tag for her collar which I put down on the end of hear leash so it may be a bit more visible than under her low-slung little body!

They were really good critters considering there were folks setting of fireworks, even though they are illegal in Nanaimo unless you have a special permit and have been through a training course to handle them.  When they went off the dogs just jumped a little bit or stopped and looked around.

Not as loud as the fireworks down at the park, which did scare them in the summer!

Gorgeous Day

Absolutely beautiful out today.  Had my appointment with the nurse at the doctor's office today at 9:20, finally got home just after noon, so after a really quick potty break and a quick call to a friend to see if she still wanted to come out for a walk, got the dogs out.

Since our friend had too much homework to do, we didn't end up walking around Colliery Dam (I have this thing about not wanting to walk in the woods, even on easy-to-follow trails, without another human with me -- figure it's better to avoid the crazies and the indecent exposures that way), but we did walk along the promenade down at Maffeo Sutton Park, and around Cameron Island, too.  Figure the distance is about 4 to 4.5 kilometres, and took us pretty close to an hour.  Remember, doggies like to stop and pee ... and stop and sniff ... and stop and pee ... and stop and sniff ... so an hour is pretty good!

Poor Angel got scared when the ferry to Gabriola Island was leaving it's berth as we were walking beside it, and the whistle went off.  She certainly put on a fair turn of speed!  Hobgoblin didn't care.  Then, once she'd relaxed from her fright with the ferry whistle, we spotted a flock of Canadian Geese in the boat basin, and just was we paused to watch them mill around they took off suddenly, so Angel got scared again.   Then, once she was calming down from that, one of the float planes took off.

Needless to say, Angel got a good workout today on her walk, she spent way more time than usual on the second half of the walk as far out in front as she could get, pulling for all she was worth!

Homecoming

Merry is back home again now.  We drove out to the Parksville SPCA and picked up his ashes in the pine box just about noon.  They sort of messed up the inscription.  The plaque was supposed to read:

We'll always love you

Merry

July 1, 1997 - Oct 6, 2011

But they put on "Will" ... guess whoever was either writing down what we wanted on the 6th or whoever was doing the inscription doesn't have the best grasp of grammar.  You'd think that would be a fairly obvious error to correct.

Oh, well, he's home, which is what matters.

Afterwards, we took the dogs for a very quick walk and them headed out to Pet Smart for the Hallowe'en photos.  Had one taken of both the dogs with both of us, and one photo taken of each of the dogs alone.  Angel looks awesome in her photo.

Had them out today at Maffeo Sutton Park, and managed to get most of the walk in during sunshine rather than rain.  When it did start raining it wasn't very heavy, and there were still splashes of sunshine, but we cut the walk short rather than keep going as we didn't know how heavy it would get and Maxx hadn't brought a jacket.  Dogs seem content now at home, anyhow.

Fireworks and Critters

My brother-in-law had posted earlier on his Facebook about fireworks season being upon us.  Their dog is terrified of fireworks as so many animals are.

We actually took Angel and Hobgoblin down to fireworks towards the end of summer here in town, at Maffeo Sutton Park.  They were absolutely fine with the crowds, but when the announcer came over the air to indicate that the fireworks were about to start, Angel really took exception to that, growling and carrying on.

I think if the fireworks had slowly built up, with smaller bursts to start and then the louder KABOOM ones a minute or so in, the dogs may have been okay with the whole scene, but on that first crash of noise they both got scared, so we calmly walked them back out through the park to the car and took them home.

While at home, neither of them seem to react to fireworks if they can hear them from a distance, and there's once or twice been some firecrackers set off in the neighborhood, which also doesn't seem to bother them.  They're fine with thunderstorms, too ... at least the few that we've had.

We will definitely be keeping the cats inside on Hallowe'en, though ... preferably all day if they all start off inside.  Once the trick or treating begins the cats will be locked in the master bedroom to keep them inside and out of mischief.  We'll set up the doggy gate at the front door so that we can open and close the door to deal with the kids looking for candy, and Angel and Hobgoblin can come to the door in their costumes but we don't have to worry about them trying to wander off with kids (Hobgoblin tried that with one group last year, just seemed like he'd decided he wanted to go for candy, too!)

Animal-centric Day

Got home from work to find an email from Pet Smart indicating that on this coming Saturday they're doing Howl-o-Ween photos from 3-5pm, with a pet parade and costume contest at 3:30.  Photo packages are $4.95 each.  Hopefully we can make it there with Angel and Hobgoblin.

Also had some mail from the Island Veterinary clinic.  Reminders for our remaining cats that they are due for their nose-to-toes wellness exams and shots, and a condolence card for Merry.

And had a voicemail waiting from the Parksville SPCA that Merry's ashes are ready to be picked up, so had to call them back and make sure that it would be fine to come on Saturday as we're working during the week.

Needless to say, I'm now in tears, but I'm glad that I get Merry's ashes and his box with the plaque on it home on Saturday, so that he's "home" again.

Doggy Costumes

I know it's sort of silly, but in September when I was at Pet Smart I got Angel what I thought would be her costume for Hallowe'en (the dogs go to the door when kids come by for candy, so it's cute to have them in costume).  It was labelled as  Unicorn but also has wings so it's really kyrrin or pegacorn.

So, today after we had the dogs out to the park for their walk, we headed out to PetSmart to see what we could find for Hobgoblin for his costume.   Spotted what we thought was a pretty good one, a lizard ... and then we spotted a devil costume which we ended up picking out.  In the cat section we found a little pirate hat which I put on Angel and left on her as we were going to the cashier, as it was just so darned cute ... and then by the cashiers we found angel wings, which fit pretty well (the ones in the cat department were just a little bit too small) ... so this year Angel has her choice between the pegacorn, the pirate, or the angel costume.  Think I'll end up putting the wings on her.  After all, her name's Angel!

I know I'm not photogenic, but they are!

Autumn Loveliness

Beautiful sunny day out today.   Got Angel and Hobgoblin out before lunch to take a stroll around Maffeo Sutton Park and along the promenade.  Lots of folks out and lots of other dogs both big and small.  I even took a few photos that I might send in to the Weather Network.

Here's a shot of the statue of Frank Ney, aka "Black Frank", a past mayor of Nanaimo who really put us on the map with the bath tub races.

This past summer someone broke off his sword and it had to be replaced.  It's not yet weathered to look like the rest of the statue.

This shot is of the Harbour, looking out between Newcastle and Protection Islands.

There was a cormorant fishing in the harbour, but I couldn't get a shot of it as I'd get the camera zoomed in and focused on it and it would be back down under water fishing.

The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow as well, so hopefully Maxx will be up early enough that we can have the dogs out together before lunch and then pop in to Cobb's Bread on the way home to pick up some artisan bread for our lunch/dinner, since tomorrow would be the day for us to cook our Thanksgiving dinner.

Winter is Coming

That statement sure seems to be floating around at work a lot lately ... wink wink nudge nudge.

And it is.  Glad we already have the snow tires, we'll have to get those put on in about mid-November, I think.

Having to keep my eyes on the Buckerfields flyers now, watching for Santa picture day.  I'm so glad I made sure to take Merry in last year, when I had Angel and Hobgoblin in for their photos.  He was the only cat we did ... only possible to take one cat while I've got the two dogs, unless there's both of us on the job, and even then it's not easy.

This year, we want to be sure that Pippin goes in for his photo along with  Angel and Hobgoblin.  Maxx thinks that Pippin's started to go downhill over the past couple of months.  He is starting to get a bit skinny, and he's started to have difficulty jumping up onto the washer and dryer where we feed the cats.  I did put one of our step stools in front of the dryer, so he has a way to climb up .... but I don't think he's figured it out yet.  Jinx, has, though.

So, it's certainly gotten cooler.  Supposed to have gotten down to 4 degrees overnight last night.  I believe in a week and a half there's a day showing with a predicted high of 8 degrees.  Leaves are skirling around in the breeze when you're driving to and from work ... and our one short-haired kitty, DJ, is starting to get some long guard hairs, so we're thinking this will be a cold snowy winter.

Makes sense.  When we first moved over in 2004, we had tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of snow.  It snowed over Christmas for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT.  Absolutely beautiful.  If I don't have to drive in it myself, I'm just over the moon for snow.

Long Weekend

Have a four-day weekend starting tomorrow.  Last weekend was four days, too, but it wasn't restful at all with putting Merry down.  I may have spent most of the weekend in bed, but I was just emotionally drained and so tired for this past week of work.

This weekend will be a bit better, and each ensuing weekend I'll find it easier and easier to remember my poor little man without bursting into tears.

Have another four-day weekend for Hallowe'en, which is nice ... and what's even better is that it looks like Maxx is also approved for his vacation request and has the same four days off.   A long weekend together at the same time!  So novel!

Kitty Comfortable

Got home from the morning half of my shift and Jinx was outside on the front step waiting to come in.  Let's just say that it is pouring rain and fairly miserable out ... and Jinx has found a "kitty comfortable" spot to lounge in now.  He's curled up on top of the HD terminal, getting warm.

I'll have to move him fairly soon so he doesn't cause it to overheat, but I'll let him get warmed up first, darling fella.

Ouchy Toe

My poor Angel.

I was trying to trim her toenails yesterday, and I cut one of them too far back and it started to bleed as I caught the quick.

She didn't even complain, the darling little girl.  All she did was give me kisses when I blotted the nail and let her up and gave her a hug to say I was sorry.

Jinx Steps Up

Since Thursday, Jinx has decided that it is now his job to be a super snuggly fellow when on the bed with his humans.  He even thought about crawling under the covers with me the other morning as I was trying to get up out of bed.

It's interesting how animals react when one of their fellow animal babies passes on.

Sad Farewell

Merry passed away this morning at 9:10am, with Maxx and me petting him and letting him know we loved him and would love him forever, while the vet put him to sleep.  We then drove him out to Parksville where he'll be cremated privately at the SPCA.  We're getting a pine chest for his remains, with a plaque, the same as we did for Shep 2 1/2 years ago.

It's so tough to say good-bye.  I always fear that at the last moment they realize what's happening and think that you've betrayed them.  I do so hope that Merry was at peace when he passed over, and knew we were there, and is now happily back together with Shep, PV, and Tekk.

I'm glad I believe that when I eventually die, I will be reunited with my beloved pets.

Hard to say exactly how the other cats and the dogs will react, if they'll even actually notice his absence.  While Merry and Pippin were brothers, they really haven't hung out together for years.

I think I'll go have a hot bath and a good long cry.

Rest in Peace

Our Beloved Meriadoc

My Merry, My Muffin Man, My Mr Mischief

1 July 1997 - 6 Oct 2011

We love you forever

Misery is Tasty

Apparently, misery is tasty.  At least Angel thinks so.

Other than while I've been at my desk at work today for the first 5 hours of my shift, I've been crying all day.  Got home and lay down beside Maxx on the bed for a few minutes and he was comforting me ... and Angel was right in there, too, licking all over my face, but I think it's because she likes the salty tears.

Westview

So, talked to Dad yesterday and he mentioned that Mum was first on the list for either the interim extended care facility in Penticton or the one in Summerland.  Found out today that she moved into Westview today, so she's still in Penticton, which is great for Dad as he won't be having to spend lots of travel time back and forth between Penticton and Summerland.

Next step would be moving into a full care facility, where she's got a room of her own, which will likely be in about a year.

Blech

Fighting a cold, couldn't sleep at all last night as my throat was so sore and it was hard to breathe.  Managed to do okay during the morning half of my shift at work, though, so that's good at least.

Have an appointment to go into the doctor's on Friday afternoon to talk to the nurse there about asthma.  It'll be a long appointment, guess we'll do some testing like Maxx did and then figure out what needs to happen to make sure my asthma is controlled and whether or not I need a medic-alert bracelet same as Maxx.

With the cold and the fact I know I'll be spending lots of time crying on Thursday, I dare say that if my asthma will be acting up to some extent, so good time go to in.

Guardian Angel

For some reason, even though she is NOT a fan of water falling on her, Angel will almost always come and curl up just outside the shower door when I'm in there.  It's almost like she wants to be on-hand in case she needs to protect me from the rain room.

.... And she always seems to think I need help getting dry when I get out, too.

Getting Wobblier

Sweet Merry was out in the livingroom last night on the arm of the chair, and I had been giving him wee bits of food there which he'd been eating ... but when I put down the last piece and he bent down to look at it, he'd stood up and lost his balance, ended up doing almost a headstand and falling off the arm of the chair.  Luckily Maxx had just walked into the room and was there at the perfect moment to catch my poor little sweetheart.  He'd likely have hurt himself so badly if he'd fallen to the floor, he's so thin.

I know you're not supposed to give your pets table scraps, but as we were saying yesterday, he's only got a week left with us, and he can eat whatever he wants during that time if it gives him any pleasure, poor wee thing.

Passings

As I was trying to get to sleep last  night I was thinking of my loved ones who have passed on.

Nikki ... our first pet, a teddy bear hamster, who passed on in the fall while I was in Elementary school (I believe in Grade 5 or 6).

Uncle Tom ... my Aussie uncle, who passed suddenly of I believe an embolism ... while his son and brand new daughter-in-law were visiting us in Penticton.

Tekk ... who was Maxx's cat but who I loved anyways, the little three-legged cutie.  He was still young and in good health until poisoned by the neighbors who put out rat poison.

Buddy ... who passed two weeks after Tekk.  He'd reached a good age of 12 1/2, but his epilepsy got the better of him and he was put to sleep after a horrible day of endless seizures.

Nana ... who passed away in New Zealand and who I only got to see a couple of times through my life, with our one family visit to New Zealand and a couple of her visits to Canada.

Maxx's grandfather ... who passed away of bone cancer, who I didn't know well and had only met once or twice, but was such a huge influence on Maxx, his true father-figure.

PV ... our sweet little calico cat, who we had to put to sleep ten days before we bought our house, when we finally learned that what was ailing her was a tumour under her tongue which had spread to her brain.

Maxx's Nana ... who passed away due to medical complications, she made me think of a mischievous older pixie.

Beau ... my little Lady Gouldian finch, my rainbow birdie who had such a sweet melodious song, I think he was scared by one of our cats and had a heart attack.

Shep ... who passed at the ripe age of 13 1/2, when his heart gave out on him, he'd been slowly failing after a stroke a couple of years prior, and we missed out on getting him out for his last picnic at Piper's Lagoon.

Grandpa ... who passed away not long after Shep, I didn't really know him all that well as he and Grandma had gotten divorced when I was really little, but who I loved.

Grandma ... who passed away a couple of months after Grandpa, we always used to have such fun when I was at university and would go out for a weekend visit to her in White Rock ... though her Yahtzee game was slightly less than scrupulous!  I still have to get some dice to leave on her grave when we make a trip through to the interior.

Peep and Cloud ... my little Zebra finch and I'm not sure what type of finch Cloud was .... I think they got cold overnight before we got the heat turned on in the fall, and passed.

The year I lost Beau, Shep, Grandpa, Grandma, Peep, and Cloud, we thought Maxx was in danger of passing on, thought my younger brother Michael was in danger of passing on, and almost lost my mother-in-law's dog Xara who was with us at the time (to leptospirosis, which could have taken Shep, Maxx, and myself as well .... vaccinate your dogs against lepto!).  That was a really hard year, and the spring after on the anniversary of Beau's death, I basically started having a mental and emotional breakdown when all the anniversaries started piling up on me.

So, I have lots of people to remember on Samhain.  Luckily, I have Oct 31st off as my regular day off ... haven't heard back yet if my vacation request for Nov 1 will be approved or not, though.

Lucky Kitty

When I was at the

Melancholy Day

Picked up the last bag of the special cat food Merry has been having to eat for the past year or so ... did make sure to get a big one so that once he passes on Oct 6th we should still have some left to use to ease the cats back onto a regular food.

While at the vets picking it up, they had two sets of kittens in, and quite the story with one litter, especially about one of the little guys they named "Hawk".  Seems this litter was born out at the dump, and when they were 4 weeks old a hawk came by and snatched up one of the kittens, then came back later for another but Hawk fought back and I guess was dropped, was found by a nice family who also got his siblings gathered up, and they're now 8 weeks old and looking for forever homes.  Lovely little black and white kittens.

I just love kittens, particularly when they are sweet and interested but not too sure of themselves ... and when they come over to the front of the cage and reach through trying to interact with you ... and the silly wee silver tabby who started off being interested and kitty-purring (very rumbly), but by the time I was leaving was fast asleep draped over one of his siblings ... and still purring away madly.

Just Ducky

I forgot to mention that the other morning when it was rainy (steady, but not really all that hard ... but all night long) as we left for work we pulled out of the driveway and around the corner ... and there was a duck walking in the middle of the road.

She stopped (female mallard).

We stopped.

We looked at each other for a split second or two, then the duck took off in a bee-line flight right down the alley.

.... Sure, it was wet out, but it wasn't THAT wet out that you'd expect to just run across random ducks while driving!

Of course, about a week ago there was a fire in a nature sanctuary just up the road, so Maxx was wondering if the wee thing hadn't lost her home in the fire.  Hope she's safe and snug somewhere.

Autumn Rains

We had our first rain yesterday that really felt like an autumn rain.  Still warm enough that many of the house windows are open, and you could hear the ran falling falling falling, music even with the lowering skies.

Those rainy fall days when you are snug at home listening to the quiet and the gentle rain are a sweet sort of melancholy.

Of course, it's raining in my heart right now, so while I'd usually love warm sunny days, the rain suits me much more ... and will for some time, I'm sure.

Merry

Sad Decision

Merry's last day with us is going to be Oct 6th.  I have an appointment to take him in that morning at 9am.  That would have been my Friday preceding my regular weekend, but work was nice enough to not only accept my request to use 10 hours of my bank time to be off Oct 6th, but to already have that updated on my schedule.

My poor wee fellow has just not been doing any better, and he's just so skinny and lately I think he's stopped cleaning himself, as his fur is starting to get not so nice ... and he's getting a bit wobbly on his feet more often.

I had to make the decision that it's time.  He may hang on for a long time yet, but I don't think he's got the quality of life, and while it's going to hurt like hell to be there while they put him down, I'll be there for him until the bitter end.

Hopefully he and I can have some quality snuggling time between now and then ... usually that's only when I'm on the toilet and he wanders in for a drink from the shower stall.

Caterpillars

I saw a couple of caterpillars while walking with the dogs the other day.  I'm not sure why I didn't stop and take photos.

One was a pale green and looked much like a snow pea pod wriggling along the road, while the other was one of those fuzzy orange and black caterpillars, looked much like a tiger tail squirming along.

Trying to think what time of year you usually see caterpillars ... I want to say spring, so that they then go into the cocoons and metamorph into butterflies later in the summer, but I'm guessing that they over-winter and come out as butterflies in the spring ... or does it depend on the species and the location?

No Lotto Max for Me

Well, not on this past Friday.  But nobody else won it too, so it's up to 30 Million smackeroos for this coming Friday, and I've got my ticket ...

.... Hope springs eternal, right!?

Ah, well, on my weekend right now.  Not the hugest fan of one day weekends (particularly when used to three day weekends), but if I'm reading the schedule rotation correctly, when we rotate for the middle of October I should be changing from Fri/Sat/Sun off to Sat/Sun/Mon off ... so I get the Fri/Sat of my last weekend of this current rotation, then the Sun/Mon off of the first weekend of the next rotation, so that should be a four-day weekend!

Maxx and I got asked to take Oct 31st and Nov 1st off as vacation days, and I see that the 31st is a Monday, so that would in theory be a day I already have scheduled off, so if I'm right and if the request gets approved I'd then have another 4-day weekend, with only having to take one vacation day.

Sweet!

What we really need to do is both take a week off work at the same time, and then really buckle down and get the house cleaned and organized.  Neither of us is (or perhaps will is more correct) do it alone, but together we could make a big difference.  I hate having the house in such a state that I'm embarrassed if someone comes over.

Friday ... Lucky Friday?

Fingers and toes very crossed ... would so love to have the right numbers for the Lotto Max tonight.

... Sigh ....

It's nice to dream, huh?

On an upbeat note, the 10 hour split shift trial at work has been extended for another 90 days, so that means once this coming four week rotation is through, there's another three to come ... we'll see what happens after that.  Doing the ten-hour days does make for a long day, but at least it gives a third day off for the weekend, and it's so much better doing either split than constantly swapping back and forth between days and nights!

Grooming Day

Had both Angel and Hobgoblin into PetSmart for grooming today.  I didn't realize when I picked them up that Angel actually hadn't gotten the tunnel portion of her requested service, but she got the poodle-face trim which was the most important part ... and her "sanitary area" has been clipped, even more important!

Every time I take Angel in for grooming she gets wee bows by her ears, which are adorable, but she doesn't really like them.  She managed to get the first one out at the cash desk, so I just pulled the other one off as well.  She's so fluffy right now!  I should take some pictures of them and see if I can post them to this blog.

Hobgoblin got both his poodle-face and the tunnel portion of his groom, and his feed tidied up like I asked, so he's looking good!

The groomers are always so happy to see my little daggits, they behave themselves nicely during the groom and are just such adorable wee critters!

My Doggy Nephew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2WtJn5VBoc&sns=fb

Isn't Bruce smart!

Auto- Correct

I don't know about folks who have Blackberrys, but for those of us with iPhones we've been through the sometimes dreaded / sometimes hilarious "autocorrect" when sending text messages to friends and loved ones.  After all, there's even a web-site "damn you auto correct" (which is darned-tootin' hilarious to read through, too!).

So, the other day I was at PetSmart and they had Hallowe'en costumes in ... more than I usually see since it's still about 6 weeks to the big day ... and I found one that I thought would look super-cute on Angel.  It's labelled as a Unicorn costume, but it's got wings too, so really it's a kyrin or a pegacorn.

So, I find the size that fits her and buy it and bring it home ... and when I get home I send a text message to Maxx about it, indicating that I've found her costumer and it's a pegacorn.

What does autocorrect make of those text messages?

Me: Angel has her customer for Samhain this year
Maxx: Nice
Me: She's a organism
Me: Pegacorn
Me: Autocorrect!

Now, sometimes auto-correct is helpful, and sometimes it's darned funny or makes up some really interesting text messages (like the time I asked a friend if she was done with my gardening magazines (according to auto-correct, "orgasims").  But let's face it, aside from the obvious usage error (Hello ... it would be AN organism), that's a pretty pathetic costume!  I mean ... she's an organism 365 days of the year!

"Indian Summer"

I sure hope that we do get an Indian summer this year.  It's been so nice this past week with the hot weather and blue blue BLUE skies.

We're hoping that tomorrow after work we can stop at the store on the way home and get some bread, some cheese and some cold cuts, then come home and whip up a couple of sandwiches and get the daggits out for a picnic dinner and walk, since it's still supposed to be nice, just not quite so hot.  Hopefully neither one of us gets stuck on a call or a chat ... and nobody asks for favors for Maxx to pick them up and drop them off and run errands, etc!

While I've had some nice outings with the dogs, I sort of feel like I've missed summer.  Working split shifts may not have the swapping back and forth between days and nights that I can't handle, but it's just not quite enough time being home for 2 to 2 1/2 hours at lunch to really get out and enjoy the weather.  I feel like I've cheated my wee dogs of their nice weather enjoyment, too ... although to be fair when it's hot Angel gets overheated with all that wooly fur, even when she's clipped fairly short.

We've both requested Oct 31 and Nov 1 off, so hopefully we both get approved.  We're specifically NOT having anyone over on the 31st this year, as a bunch of years past we've said we wouldn't and ended up with people over anyhow.  We're actually going to take the evening and remember our dear departed, for once.

Checking over my time off manager page at work the other day, I realized that I actually haven't taken another sick day since the end of March ... although there's been a couple of days I've used banked time to have the second half of my shift off when I was feeling really poorly and we didn't have hugely busy days ... guess those days are behind us, we've just been so frantic lately!  Ah, well, gives me 8 hours of OT tomorrow, which helps out my paycheque AND helps my team, so it's all good.

Heat Wave Winding Down

Supposed to be another scorcher today, up to 29 with a humidex of 34, tomorrow it's supposed to be fairly hot as well, and then on Tuesday it cools down to just above 20.

Will be working an overtime shift on Tuesday at work, so at least I'm giving up one day of my weekend and it's not SUPPOSED to be fabulous weather, although it's still nothing to sneeze at!

Squeaky

My cat Trouble squeaks.

She doesn't really meow, she squeaks.

And if she's sleeping and you make some noise like sneezing which annoys her, she will squeakily complain about it ... without waking up.

Funny critter!

Earthquake

According to The Weather Network, earthquake today off the coast of Vancouver Island was 6.4, not 6.7 as I found online.  They felt it in Vancouver (the tower was swaying, we heard in our instant messaging room), but I didn't feel it while at work today.  No worries about any tsunami, apparently, as it wasn't large enough, so that's good.

No Picnic

Well, we didn't manage to get out for our picnic yesterday.  Maxx was stuck on a call until 6:45, and then he had to go deal with picking up one of our co-worker's daughters from the hospital where she volunteers and taking her home, so by the time we picked up the bread and meat/cheese, etc, it was too dark to go for a picnic.

Picnic

Think that when I pick up Maxx from work today at 6pm, we're going to head to Costco to pick up some burgers and buns, and we'll head to Superstore to pick up a few other things, then pop home to do a drop off, make up some sandwiches, grab the pupperoos and head out for an evening picnic.

It's just so lovely and warm out today, and supposed to be hot again for the next couple of days, so Maxx will have some nice hot days for his weekend, but next Tuesday the weather is supposed to cool off considerably, so we'll see what sort of summer outings I do on my coming weekend.  Although, this week was originally being forecast to have much cooler weather than we've had ... I think it's been our hottest week so far this year!

Had Angel and Hobgoblin out along the boardwalk at Maffeo-Sutton park this morning, and we were all glad for the breeze, as even then it was pretty hot out!  Actually saw three of the really big orange starfish, so I think I may suggest the picnic at Maffeo-Sutton and then after eating walk the dogs along, to see if I can point them out to Maxx.  I don't think he's seen those giant ones yet, just the regular purple and orange starfish we see.

Hallowe'en

Was at Pet Smart today and found Angel's costume for Halowe'en this year.  It says it's a unicorn, but really it's a pegacorn as it also has wings.  Very cute, tried it on her in the store and she's absolutely adorable ... well, even more so than usual.

Will have to have Maxx go in with Hobgoblin to check out costumes for him.  If you get in before the selection is all picked over, sometimes you can find such cute wee outfits!

Cougar Sighting

So, off work yesterday but got a text message from Maxx that a cougar was spotted in and caught by animal control in the work parking lot.

Exciting!  Usually cougars are spotted on the outskirts of town.

Penticton Trip

Got back last night from my trip to Penticton.

On Sunday, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece picked me up at the ferry in Tswassen (took the 5:15am to get a quick start on the day), and we drove up to Penticton.  Lovely weather, construction on the highway in the Lower Mainland slowing things down a bit ... and I'd forgotten it was IronMan Sunday, so things were awkward in the interior for traffic.  We ended up being stopped not that far out of Keremeos, and told we would have to wait 20 minutes for the pilot car to take us through the course, or go back and take the Green Mountain Road as a detour.  After Noa took advantage of the facilities that happened to be available where they'd stopped us, Noni opted to go back to Green Mountain Road.  Windy road, lovely scenery, saw some beautiful horses and some foals, and a completely dilapidated old cabin which made us think of a Bob Ross painting.

Got in to Penticton about 1pm, visited with Dad very shortly and then we were heading up to the hospital to visit Mum, but with the IronMan on Main Street it was quite a wait to cross the road, and Noni decided that they'd better head out and pop back over to Green Mountain Road to get home.  Such a long day for them!  But at least we did get to visit while driving in the car.

Sat with Mum for about an hour and a half on Sunday before I wore her out, then walked home from the hospital.  Goodness, it was hot!  About 34 degrees, and I was worn out and wringing with sweat by the time I got to the house ... don't know how the Iron Athletes do it!

Dad got home just after midnight, got up to see him briefly and then back to bed, then up again after 1:30 to take something for my ankle and Dad was up as well, his back was really bothering him.  We sat up together for a while and then turned in.

Monday and Tuesday Dad and I were back and forth to the hospital twice a day ... we seemed to keep getting there when the nurses were doing stuff with Mum and having to wait 15 or 20 minutes before we could start visiting.  I guess we kept her up too long on Tuesday, as yesterday she was very tired and she said that after breakfast they were going to put her back in bed as she'd been up too long the day before.

It's tough seeing Mum in the hospital, but at least she's getting the care and they have the lifts to get her back and forth between the bed and the wheelchair.  We're not sure when she'll be into an interim facility, and once she gets into a permanent bed she wants it to be at Trinity in Penticton, on Green Avenue ... Dad says because it's close to the Barley Mill.  They're looking forward to going on dates to the pub once she's in Trinity.

It's been awfully tough on Dad.  He's still working, and trying to get things done around the house for housework and gardening, and now starting to pull boxes up from the crawl-space to go through and determine what's garbage, what needs to go to family members, and what can be sold at a yard sale or given to charity.  It'll be a long process of winnowing.

Maxx drove up Tuesday night after work, with the dogs, as we figured out if he took the ferry the next morning we wouldn't be able to make it back down to the ferries to be able to get home for a decent sleep before he works today.  So, he made it in to Penticton close to 2:30am Wednesday morning, immediately crashed.  Hobgoblin hopped up onto the bed with us and was ambling around, but when Maxx told him to lie down and go to sleep he immediately did so, pressed between us.  Angel for some reason had difficulty getting up onto the hide-a-bed, but I got her up and she was so excited to see me that she didn't sleep for quite some time.  Messy kisser!

We headed out of Penticton yesterday at about 12:30pm, later than Maxx had hoped.  Managed to pick up a bit of fresh fruit at Bear's fruit stand in Keremeos, and grabbed a quick lunch in Princeton at the Dairy Queen.  There was construction at Twin Lakes, and in Manning Park, and of course in the Lower Mainland, but we hit Horseshoe Bay at 6:45pm, so we figured we'd be on the 7:30pm ferry, but they let us on the 6:55pm one, so that was a nice piece of luck ... not that it would have been much of a wait.  Grabbed dinner on board, then hung out in the car with the dogs.

Since arriving in Penticton, Angel hasn't let me out of her sight.  I guess she was very upset that I was gone, and now she has some separation anxiety.  She loves me so much!

Anyway, Maxx is getting ready for work now (I work tomorrow), and he's very tired, poor man.  I'm glad I don't work as travelling always messes up my back and I'm very sore right now!  Going to relax and read a book today.

Jack Layton's Final Letter to Canadians

I wanted to repost this here in my blog, as any time Mr Layton came to my attention he struck me as a man working for the good of all Canadians and sticking to his ideals and morals.

TORONTO - Jack Layton's family has released a letter the federal NDP leader wrote just two days prior to his death today at the age of 61. The text of that letter follows.

August 20, 2011

Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don't be discouraged that my own journey hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don't let them tell you it can't be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

Under the Weather

Been quite hot over the past few days, and I'm under the weather.  Think it's likely related to both the heat and (mostly) stress.  Sick to my stomach, and yesterday almost didn't manage to get out of the two chats I was in at work and get to the ladies' room, so after that got permission to do email while I'm feeling so bleachy.  Go figure I haven't had to make a made dash since (at least at work), but still feeling like I might need to at any time, so hopefully I'll be able to work on email again this evening.

All packed up for the trip to Penticton for a couple of days, so when we get home tonight it's straight to bed as need to get up at 4am to catch the 5:15am ferry.  Going to be a long day!

I know that Merry and Trouble will miss me, and I am guessing that Angel will.  She's never been away from me before, so hopefully she'll eat and behave for her Daddy.

Dog Park

Had the munchkins out to the off-leash dog park this morning after dropping Maxx off at work, and again in the afternoon before we picked him up from work.

This morning, Angel actually was upset at one point because Hobgoblin was playing with three other little dogs and she was being left out.  When I told her she could go over and meet the other dogs and she could play too, she slowly went over and met the Papillon named Bella, very briefly, then came back and stayed by me as we walked around and around the park.

Hopefully the more she goes the more outgoing she'll become around other dogs when she's off the leash.  Hobgoblin just has a good time!

All Clear

Just have to use Angel's antibiotic eye drops for another week, and then we'll be good to go!  At her appointment today, the dye test showed it's not sticking to anything any more, even though there is still a mark on her eye where the scratch was, so we don't need to do anything more for it.

Yay!  So, had another vet bill submitted to Trupanion, and I must say I am just so very impressed with how quickly the last three claims were submitted, reviewed, approved, and paid out!  Worth that $50/month I pay for my Angel-kin, as I don't have a deductible, so everything that's covered gets paid out at 90%.  It really does make a difference for times when she's sick or hurt.  If I'd had that for Merry, there's been some vet visits for him that have been multiple hundreds of dollars and the only thing from the visit that wouldn't have been covered would have been the exam fee ... so if you run into an expensive visit your reimbursement is actually much greater than if you have multiple smaller price-tagged visits.

Found out yesterday that Maxx's schedule has changed so that he starts at 9:30am instead of 8am, so I'll be popping out later to pick him up from work, and then see if we're able to head out to PetSmart to pick up some more bird food, possibly some dog food, and take a look at a new type of litter box, to see what it's like and how much it costs.

Speedy Returns

So, when I had Angel in at the vet last Monday, we submitted claims for that and the previous two visits to our pet insurance company, Trupanion.  When on Wednesday I saw online that the claims were approved I contacted them to find out about how they send out the funds and was told a cheque takes about 7-10 days ... and I got my cheques in the mail today.

How's that for a speedy turnaround!

Good thing, since I can put them into the bank tonight after work and then use those same funds to pay for Angel's visit tomorrow.

Raven Call

For some reason, any time I hear the call of a raven, I'm instantly transported to a sense of alpine stillness and peace.

I love ravens.

We seem to have a fair few around our place, and it's lovely when they strike up conversations.

One Day Weekend

I hate one day weekends.  I guess I can be grateful that I have it followed immediately by only two days of work and then a regular three-day weekend ... but still.

We're broke, and the VIEX is on this weekend so the off-leash dog park at Beban will be out of the question, as I'm sure it's parking lot will be crammed with people going to the Ex, and the weather is supposed to be pretty hot tomorrow ... so I think we'll make it a pool day.

Twitch

I've been having a twitchy eye for the last couple of weeks (stress, I'm sure, with Mum in the hospital, Merry just getting old and being so unwell that he's likely going to have to be put down in the next couple of months, Angels' eye, and trying to afford to pay bills).

And I'll tell you ... the customers at work aren't helping any!

If you're chatting in for assistance and provide your account number, make sure that's the correct account number for your services.
If you're providing your phone number, make sure that's the one set up on your account.
If you're providing your address, provide the one at which the services we're trouble-shooting are located.
When we ask you to check the serial number on a piece of equipment printed directly on that piece of equipment, check that and not the cardboard box in which it was packaged.
When we ask you if cables are connected and power is hooked up ... DON'T LIE!

Argh!