What am I monitoring so intently?
Intruders! We had 4 kids from the 'hood over to pick up a toy for Callie (she doesn't have a Kong and we have extras) and they hung out some. They loved lots of our people's toys. Lady says she is glad they didn't find the Man's virtual reality goggles!
We were very good and Lee only barked a little. They were good and only stayed a bit. We are sure they will be back.
I am now off my meds and feeling so much better. I am eating and being myself. It makes Lady happy.
Anyway, we had a bit of a storm last week and I did ok. Lady was at work and Man was at home, and I found comfort peeing on the bed in her office and rubbing my nose too much.
It was able to be washed but it is a little lumpy. Piggy thinks it is comfortable. Lady said if we don't like it she can get us a new bed at Costco.
To always take time to stop and smell the roses, and anything else that grows.
Thanks to Rosy for hosting this hop.
Dead pals,
In spite of my tremendous guarding skills . . .
it seems the Trash Panda's cracked our people's routine and know Friday night they are likely to be next door. It is the only thing that explains this . . . .
I think my people are just going to need to stay at home,
Your pal Zaphod, who just coincidentally had a sore tummy the next day.
It has been a bit since we talked about how we are doing here on day 486 since the first day of lockdown. Things are slowly returning to normal. Masks are still required in public places and now 1 meter distancing is required instead of 2. Businesses are all up and running and capacity limits have been removed as long as 1 meter can be kept between groups. This is how it will be until 70% of us are double vaccinated. It is estimated that we will hit this milestone by the end of August here in Quebec.
We know some of you are thinking, how will we reach that number as you in in places where this will never happen. Well, we were slow to get the vaccines rolling but at the time of the writing of this post 82% of people 12 and older in Quebec had at least 1 dose and 45% had both. Ananda wide it is about 80% one shot and 50% both. Perhaps it is Canadians general trust in our healthcare system or the fact we have had such harsh lockdowns that has us all very motivated to get both shots. Or maybe it is our desire to leave winter behind and travel and we know vaccine passports will be a thing. Whatever the reasons, I am proud of my fellow Canadians for coming together for this.
I had my second vaccine (I am club Moderna) a week ago. My arm hurt like insert HBO words here. For a few hours the next day I was exhausted and felt a little feverish. I had set my schedule so I could nap and I did. After this all that remained was a sore arm and some fatigue. I had the best nurse while I was convalescing.
We hope things are safely returning to 'normal' for you too.
We were left alone for over 3 hours Friday night while our parents were visiting Callie and her peeps.
Dear pals,
As you know my Lady is medicating me. While it is helping my anxiety (I am not freaking out when their is fireworks for example) but I am not always eating. Lady and Man have been giving it to me every other day like they were weaning me off and I eat 24 hours after. There is one exception I will eat the topper and if there is whipped cream and syrup on it. So Lady is going to talk to my vet this week and see what we should do. I am keeping it interesting.
On Canada Day, because it is allowed as our Covid rules lessen, we went to see Grammie and the Big Guy. Aunt C and her family were there too.
I really like going to their house because there are a lot of great places to sit and relax while still supervising.
There is the settee where you can see the people on the deck and watch the front door.
Dear pals,
We are living in hard times. The Man has cooked duck a few times lately and kept the duck fat. Because we have not been as enthusiastic over our food, sometimes he puts some in it.
The first time, he just put it on, and Princess Hailey, did not like the texture. Therefore, he has taken to heating it up and pouring it in our food.
As we mentioned last week, we made the decision to put Hailey back on Prozac. We had a thunderstorm one night and she peed on one of the dog beds, but no other destruction. We will call this a win.
To help her on Canada, because we knew there would be fireworks, and then Saturday night as we actually got to go out and we knew there would be fireworks, we also gave her a Valium. In both cases, there was no destruction.
We are not loving our girl on the Prozac. She isn't eating as much and she is extra sleepy. We can't tell if it her adjusting, her also having Valium or something else. We are going to give her another week or so, without Valium and just the Prozac, to see if she is more herself. If not we will be talking to our vet.
Because she is in human drugs, this cracks me up.
Warning: This story makes reference to abuse.
On what normally be a day to celebrate, we are taking this Canada Day to reflect on the treatment of the Indigenous peoples of Canada. In the past month, 215 and 751 unmarked graves of children have been found at 2 of the 139 former residential schools in Canada. (Yesterday another 182 unmarked graves were found at a 3rd site).
From 1894-1996 all across Canada, at least 150 000 Indigenous children, aged 4-16, were forcibly taken from their families to live in church run schools. Here they suffered terrible abuse and neglect. This was done to prevent the parents from rebelling against the government and to take the Indigenous culture from the children. It is estimated 40-60% of the children died while in government/church care, however, due to lack of existing records, we will likely never know exactly how many.
The residential school system reflects just one of the Canadian government's policies of genocide. All these policies have caused generational trauma, social issues and extreme racism in the country I love. They make my heart hurt.
Instead of fireworks, we will be lighting a candle and thinking of the horrors those poor children and their families were forced to endure. We will be looking for guidance from the Indigenous communities on how we move forward as a country.
Every child matters.
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Here is a LINK to Cree artist Kent Monkman's work The Scream (2017), that captures the removal of Indigenous children from their families. He is an amazing artist whose works capture colonialization in a profound way. You can learn more about him HERE.
