Wordless Wednesday - It is Only Fun When It Is Empty

 

Tuesdays with Tigris - Hunt Training

 Dear reader,

As Lady and Man have mice in the house every year, they are hoping we are going to be able to help with this. We have started hunt training.

I shared with you my butterfly that spins and you can catch.

Me and my butterfly toy

Lady has upped her game and brought home a few other hunt training toys.

The next one to add to our collection was an electronic mouse. It has a rechargeable battery and it runs across the floor and you can chase it.

Caught it and am chewing the feather

Her latest find when buying me food on Saturday was this all in one toy. It is a ball, that dispenses treats. It also has a battery so it wiggles around and you can get the bee on top. There is also a laser to chase when it is moving around.  It is an everything toy. It is also fun to play with when it is turned off.

Styx enjoying the treat feature

Checking it out

 

She may not be the perfect Lady (wanting to pick us up when we don't want to be and all the singing), but she is a good provider of the toys. Some might even say we are spoiled. I would say I am fairly compensated. 

Tigris, who loves to play and hunt

Mischief Monday - Lost and Found - by Styx

 Dear pals, dear pals,

Lady was a little frustrated with me because in the night, I got up on the charging counter and I knocked her AirPods on the floor. Did you know AirPod cases are really fun to chase around the floor? They are flat and slippery and so much fun. You can slide and chase them and have lots of fun. 

During Gris and my play with it, she played too,  we opened it and while Lady found one earbud, the other was missing. She looked and looked and count not find it. Later that day, the Man found it on the floor by her mats. This made her happy. She did not want to buy new AirPods. 

Now she has ruined the fun by keeping them in a drawer. I haven't figured out how to open the drawer yet. I will keep working on it. 

I will give Lady a point, since she took the AirPod case away, she got me  a ball. I love my ball, but it is not as fun as an AirPod case.

Gris playing with the ball, cause the mischief may be there is no picture of me playing with it

Have you found a fun new toy at your house?

your pal, Styxy

Nature Friday - Up High - By Styx

 Hi pals, hi pals,

I am so jealous, so, so jealous. My people left me for the day to drive to Mount Tremblant to go up in the trees!  People aren't lucky like me, they can't just climb the tree. They need to build things, big things. 

The tower peaking from the trees - about 131 feet/40 meters high

I would have loved to climb those trees. 

But on to  nature you may care about more, me fighting with Gris. I love to get her! She does not love when I get her. 

Thanks to Rosy and Sunny for hosting this event.

Dreaming of a tree, your pal, Styxy

Travels - Quebec City - Last Day

Welcome to the last day of our travels to Quebec City. As mentioned last week we started the day by visiting the Citadel. Then after lunch and some wandering the wonderful streets, we did a tour of the Chateau Frontenac. 

The hotel, which has been built in 6 parts over 100 years, opened in 1893 and was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was the second hotel they build on their route from Quebec City to Vancouver (Banff's hotel being the first one) and was originally built so those using the railway had a place to get off and stay.  To get British Columbia to join Canada, it needed to be joined with the country and the railroad allowed this. 

It has become a very famous hotel where celebrates etc. like to stay. It has an exclusive section within the hotel. It also hosted several secret meetings of Ally leaders during WWII. We did not stay there. When looking at rooms, during the time we were there, a normal room was going to cost about $800 Cdn a night  ($580 US/497 Euros). That was just a little less than the cost of 4 nights at the hotel we stayed in (which was lovely).   

Our tour took us into a guest room as one was available.  This was part of a suite. 

In 2014 they redid most of the hotel. Trying to keep the charm alive with a modern touch.

From the lobby looking up towards 2 of the ballrooms

One of the original chandeliers in the 3rd wing built in the 1920

A ballroom

The balcony in the ballroom

One of the old fireplaces in a meeting room - since a fire in 1926 fireplaces have not burnt wood

A modern light fixture

After our indoor tour, we wandered the streets some more.  We saw some fun street art.

After dinner, before our last big event, we sat in a park and watched children (and a few adults) play in this fountain. I love when cities allow people to use all the spaces like this. 

Our last event of the day was a Crimes of New France tour. Led by the ghost of Marie Riverie, the wife of the longest serving executioner in the city, we wandered the streets learning about some of the history of the city and much of the crime history and history of the criminal justice system.  Marie, was a woman who was sent from France by the King, at the King's expense (known as the King's Daughters), to provide a wife for a settler. Approximately 800 women came to New France with this program. 

Our guide

On our walk, we met other ghosts, criminals and victims alike, who shared tales as well. It is so fun to see the faces of other people when you are walking around talking to ghosts. 

A criminal we met who had 12 burned bodies in his house when captured

Fun fact: No one wanted the job as executioner, so it was given to a criminal facing execution. It paid well (300 a year, compared to the 250 a surgeon would make a year) and came with a house outside the city. The executioner also delivered all the other sentences (beatings etc.). It was a rough and dangerous time. 

My favourite ghost - not pictured here was executed after killing her 2 husbands. While telling her story, she tried to recruit the Man for her 3rd husband. I laughed so hard. 

A victim, whose family was murdered by the people who were helping them leave the city

Me with the actors

After a fun evening, we walked back headed back to our hotel. 

The next day, we were tried and we had a slow morning before hitting the road home.

It took me a long time to get to Quebec City, but I can imagine going back again. I hear you can get reasonable prices for the Chateau Frontenac mid-week in November, so maybe that is in my future.

                   

I hope you enjoyed this snapshot of our trip. Thanks to Gris and Styxy for sharing the blog.

Wordless Wednesday - Harvest Time Tax

 

Tuesday with Tigris - Disruption

Dear readers,

First, Lady says I should apologize on her behalf for not having a post yesterday and for not getting to visit you all recently. By the time you read this she should have remedied the latter at least. Life has been busy and while she doesn't talk about it here much, her grief remains a big thing. She and Man are making their way through it, with our help of course.

Ok, now onto things I care more about, me.

I have recently decided that sleeping in the hammock part of my downstairs tree is one of my favourite things. I like to curl up and stay low, so I can sleep and also keep an eye on the bird feeders and other nature. 

Of course I look very cute while I do this. I always look cute. However, I don't think this is justification for the disruptions to my sleep I get when the Lady comes over and looks at me and wants to my picture. 

I guess it is the price I pay for room and board and it is much better than the hat tax. 

Tigris