Brief Check In

 Sorry we have been MIA - we have so much to tell you. 

The biggest news is we have new fosters and Tuesday night, one gave birth! Celeste was a rockstar and we have 4 newborns. At this time we aren't sure if they are staying or going to another foster, but for now, we are enjoying them (from a distance to not stress out mom!) and getting a crash course in newborn kitten and mom care. At the time of writing this we have 12 cats in our house.! We promise more soon. 

Mischief Monday - Nothing Caught but a Catch Up

 Hi friends, hi friends, hi friends!

It has been busy, busy, busy here. Things have been happening and I have been too tired to catch up.

First last weekend, our cousin Troy came. He was a nice boy, although Lanie thought stranger danger, strange danger, stranger danger, and hid a lot. Troy didn't get to see her much. 

Troy gave lots and lots and lots of treats

Then Lady was gone for 1, 2, 3, THREE, whole nights. She had to go away for work. Man was in charge and it was good but not the same. We like our routine.

Then Lady came back tired and had to keep working, working, working, so when the weekend hit, she was done, done, done. 

Like my new sitting place?

She says she has a quiet week this week. While you are reading this, she is likely driving cats to get spayed and neutered again. 

We are all well, and busy, busy, busy so we are tired, tired, tired. 

A very busy and tired Styxy

Catch Up Time

 Dear pals,

Oh how we have missed you! We are hoping by the time you read this Lady will have done some catching up with all of you. Even when she is not able to drop by virtually regularly, she is often thinking of you and wondering how you all are.

On the way home from camp Lee went under the seat cover. 

Lady says work has been busy.  Adjusting to the September schedule is always something and every year she says she is going to take September off, and instead, she stays for the craziness.

Lady and Man had a great 36 hours away. Sir Elton John was worth it. We were fine at camp. We were caught napping in a room full of other dogs at pick up, so it is hard for us to say we were totally mistreated. 

An angry Phod

Lady says she is also adjusting to referring to the former Prince Charles as King Charles, and has been driving everyone insane going around singing God save the King. The King is the Head of State for Canada. Lady has no real feelings about living in a constitutional monarchy. She does follow the royals some out of curiosity. She is actually more interested in learning that she is the 26th great-granddaughter of King John, made very famous in Disney's Robin Hood. 

Lady volunteered her and Man to take Callie out on the days Callie's Lady has to work in the city now. So 2 days a week, we spend lunch with Callie. Lady says it lets her pretend she has 3 dogs.

Also, if Milo their kitten comes out, she gets some Milo time.  He hasn't figured out he can run away from her yet. So she is also pretending she has a kitten.

Life keeps moving on here and we are really all good, just settling back to busy times.

Looking forward to being around more.

Lee, Phod and Lady

Terrible Tuesday - Plans Postponed by Lee

Pals, a few weeks ago we said we were going to be away for a bit off adventuring. Instead, our Lady is learning to live with being flexible. You see she was suppose to leave for New York City this morning for a couple days of training before heading to Tanzania with the Global Autism Project. After 2 weeks of crazy preparations, mainly for work, especially for lady's who don't get paid when they don't work, around 7 pm on Saturday evening, she received an email saying that due to the Coronavirus all trips for February were cancelled. So for the past couple days Lady has been busy rescheduling a February here. She keeps saying it is Flexible February. 

Now Lady is having me write this so she doesn't go on a tirade about her believed over reaction to this new, but not new virus. She won't say the deer she was within centimetres of hitting yesterday morning is a greater threat to her personal safety. Instead I will say, she is disappointed and a little frustrated. She is also learning to respect other people have different concerns regarding health and personal safety. 

You may be asking, what about all the $$$$$$$ she had to raise for this trip? Many of our friends were generous donors for this. Well, never fear friends, your donated money will allow her to go on a trip later this year. The next trips run in July and October. Lady will be placed on a team soon. It is a huge undertaking for the organization to reschedule what Lady guesses is about 100 people. 

So while Lady is a little upset, we are very, very happy to have her home. Even if it was very confusing on Saturday with the packing the suitcase and unpacking the suitcase (and by suitcase we mean carryon size backpack, Lady has learned to pack small!)

If Lady can get herself organized, we will be back to blogging and visiting you all (we really miss you) soon!

Hailey Bug

We Are Back - by Lee

Hello Blogville!  How we have missed you! We are back!

Lady is going to share her adventures while we were in jail in a Traveling Tuesday series.

My tough face/ignoring Lady

We survived jail. We refuse to call it camp. To make sure we ruled the yard, I, Hailey Bug, picked fights through the fence with any dog I could. I wasn't allowed to play with anyone but Phod.  Sometimes I got Phod going too, but I was the worst. Lady is completely embarrassed and thankful the Man is the one who picked us up on Tuesday. I have stayed at this kennel before and never thought to be the Queen. Lady wonders if I learned this bad behaviour from watching Orange is the New Black and Wentworth with her.

Other than that, and Phod's ears being a complete mess, jail was fine. We have been giving our Lady the cold shoulder (even though it was Man who took us and picked us up).

As many of my blog friends have moved from blogging to this thing called Facebook, I have a Facebook page (I am sharing it with Lady as of course I know dogs can't have pages as Facebook page, but Lady is only connecting with blog/animal people, she isn't even connecting with the Man or other friends). I am Hailey Merriland. If you can't find me and want to be my friend, let me know.

We can't wait to catch up with everyone!

Make sure you stop by on Monday to celebrate me! It is my 7th Gotcha Day!

Catch Up Thursday

Being friendly with the neighbour

We were away last week as Lady had a crazy work week. Business has picked up, so she will still be busy, but she thinks we can squeeze a little bit of blogging time in. We may not get to visit everyone every day or comment as much, but we are going to be around. We just missed you all too much!

Our week looked like this.

Sunday: Lady had a freak out when the friendly dog who wanders the neighbourhood was out and sniffing us. It was on our road by the house, so she called the Man to come and help. Turns out, she would have been fine without him, as we were all amazing.

Phod being friendly

Monday: Our first 4:30 am walk - we were not thrilled.

Tuesday: Our second 4:30 am walk - we loved listening to the owl hooting. The internet went out. 

Wednesday: Lady got stuck at work late on Tuesday and was so tired and wanted an extra 45 minutes sleep (meaning she didn't want to get up at 4:30 am) the Man walked us in the morning and the Lady walked us in the evening. It was fun. Still no internet, which made Lady mad as she had time to sit and visit some of our pals! 

Burr Tail

Thursday: We got to sleep in until 5:20! We got an extra big walk. Still no internet. 

Friday: Lady worked from home. It was great, but the internet guy came and when he was here we had to be in the garage. We didn't like a stranger in our house. Lady says he may be her favourite person as he finally fixed the internet. Phody ran deep into the bush and came out with 15 burrs in his tail. He didn't like having them removed. 

Saturday: Grammie and the Big Guy and 2 strangers (Lady's aunt and uncle) came for lunch. We loved seeing them, we were so happy. Everyone thought we were wonderful dogs, so it was great. Phod was amazing while being treated for his ear infection.

That was the week we missed you all!

Wordy Wednesday - Lady is back!

Howdy!

Lady had a great time in San Antonio. She says she is sending her best wishes to the folks in Texas affected by all the terrible storms. San Antonio only had a few little storms (Lady loves storms so was a little disappointed). Lady thought the storm warning system that pops up on your phone was really cool.

While Lady was away having Margaritas for breakfast, Man did a pretty good job at taking care of us. We tried to tell Lady we were hard done by, but she didn't buy it. Man even took us to the beach one day!

We did have a visitor one morning.   Lady and Man are not happy he is around. We think he would make a cool friend!

Introducing "Porky"

We were both over the moon to have our Lady back. Hailey spent the evening on her legs and Phod did the unusual and curled up in bed with her for a long time (even though it is pretty hot here).

We Didn't Go Fishing

Lady lied. She wanted to do a quick post indicated that we would be away for a bit and that was the first thing that came to mind.

We didn't go anywhere.

We didn't do anything fun.

Life was very, very boring.

Instead of a fun fishing trip, Lady's business was very busy (it is a good problem to have as much as she complains) and she needed a few days to catch up on that and all the other life stuff. She was a little overwhelmed a lot bit cranky.

We did check in with you as much as we couldn't but didn't comment much. We will see how this month goes, Lady doesn't expect business to be too much slower, so we will do the best we can!

Sepia Saturday - Another Catch Up Day

Wow, that was another busy week. Work got the best of me!

First we would like to thank Ms Bree from http://cowspotdog.blogspot.ca for creating this for all those who participated in Safety Week. Thanks so much!

Black and White Sunday: It is really funny to me that I had this huge desire to post a picture of Baggy, not knowing Sunday was black cat appreciation day. Perhaps the universe was sending me a message to help. 

Mischief Monday - Bad Poetry Day:  We do hope that with more exposures, Lee will learn to at least tolerate Maggie. If not, I fear she has lots of crate time in her future. We have been saving everyone else's bad poetry for this weekend and are really looking forward to reading it!

Tuesday - The Man's birthday: He says thank you to everyone for the nice birthday wishes. He had a great day off work. Today we are going to a third birthday celebration for him with friends. It is the birthday that never ends! 

Wordless Wednesday - Super Phod: I do love this picture in that it does show off Phod's muscles that can be lost under his fur. Everyone wanted to know what he was flying after, so this is the picture snapped right before Phod's great leap:

And if you look very close in Phod's mouth you can see his Precious. 

Thursday - I can be brave: We are proud of Hailey for slowly finding ways to be more comfortable in scary situations. She will hide in the closet or basement bathroom in storms or when there are fireworks (which in cottage country is almost every not raining night in the summer). She will settle in her crate when children have invaded, and she is willing to approach new and scary things. Part of the problem is we live so secluded now, she isn't faced with new things very often.

Jackie asked, why the road with the digger is her favourite. There are not many roads to actually walk down in our area. There is the main road with a few  small roads leading to the lake are off. Some of these are private and visiting is not encouraged. We sort of only have 4 roads to walk on, and we always have to turn around and come back the way we came. The road with the digger is a side road that leads to the lake. A mountain is on the left and fields are on the right until you get almost to the lake when houses/cottages appear. There is something about the smells on this road that she loves (and Phod also enjoys). I am not sure if it is wildlife or other dogs (we see tracks of both). This street is our Tuesday/Thursday walk.

Friday - Grief: Thank you all for sharing your stories about grief. Grief is the price we pay for loving something else. It is a steep price to pay, but one I am willing to. 

Our weekend plans are Man's next birthday party, and attending the CFL RedBlacks game tomorrow. We also hope to get to the golf course for some practice and the regular errands.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

Catch Up

What a week! I forgot how crazy life is when I am back at work. I am so looking forward to a quiet weekend. I was very neglectful to taking pictures of my pups, oops, will have to remedy this over the weekend. Today's pictures are from my collection:)

Black and White Sunday
-This picture was taken at the dog park after the vet. They had such a good time. We would have time to take them today, but it is suppose to pour and none of us love that. [On Tuesday, it was raining so hard on our walk, they wanted to turn around most of it and finally I let them. We were all soaked, it was miserable]. After our very, very hot weekend, we had the coldest August 14th on record. These temperature swings are driving me crazy!

Mischief Monday - Phod's Annual Checklist
- We are happy to report that Phod's ear cleared up very quickly. In about 2 days, he learned the word ear means you should push your ears as far as possible into your head, put your head down and pretend you can't hear your people. He did try and walk away a few times, but for the most part he did a good job with it.
- Lady says she is glad to hear other pups aren't well behaved at the vet. I was so blessed with my Loki, he was amazing at the vet, it was his favourite place and Gemi was pretty good too - these two are not good and we don't go often enough to really work on it.

Safety Week: Wild Animal Encounters
-Again thanks to Sarge and Bites for putting this week on.
-Reilly and Denny asked if we have rabies here. Yes we do. I was thinking about it when I wrote about keeping pets safe, and maybe should have mentioned more about it. Both the dogs have been vaccinated against it.
-Lady and Man find it comforting that other dogs dead small things too.
-Lady has not be able to determine if the toads in our area are poisonous to the dogs. We have been lucky that Lee has not been harmed.

Wordless Wednesday: Buddies
- The picture was of Nin and Lee. They have always been good buddies who snuggle. It makes me happy, especially because Nin has lost his best snuggle buddy Baggy.

Writer's Process Blog Tour
- Thank you all for you wonderfully kind comments. It brought a huge smile to me on a grumpy day (I never like Thursdays, I always find them too annoying). I am happy that my ramblings touch others, maybe as much as theirs touch me!
-Your kind comments helped motivate me to work on my grief piece. I am hoping to have it ready to share sometime this coming week.

Relaxation Day
-We hope everyone had a great one!

Lady is Back!

We were very, very excited when at 10 pm last night a delayed Lady walked through the door. Then we remembered we were kind of mad at her and gave her the cold shoulder.

Lady had a wonderful time at her conference. She is tired but happy.

We had a wonderful time without her. The Man did a good job at keeping us busy. He said we were very good while Lady was away.

It might take us the rest of the week to fully catch up/get back into our routine.

Have a great day!

Catch Up Saturday - a More Normal Week

Last week felt more normal, although I am still behind on life and am desperately trying to catch up before my trip to Chicago this coming week!

We are all happy to report that the Man is all better. He was back to work last week, he is eating like normal. He is a little fatigued by the end of the day, but overall he is all better.

Hailey has had a very good week. We had some serious rain and while she was nervous (and couldn't settle and kept us up a lot of Thursday night), when she was alone, no destruction!

Celebrating
Thank you all for the Mother's Day wishes and Aunt C says thank you for all the birthday and anniversary wishes. I love that picture of Aunt C and Lee too, it shows how much Lee loves her Aunt C.

One thing people may not know about me, is I am a planner. I like things to go according to my plan A, B, or C (I usually have many plans to help plan for the unexpected). I CAN roll with things that are unexpected, but I hate it. Half the stress for me when the Man was sick, wasn't his health (although I was concerned), it was my week not going as planned LOL!

We are also impressed at how well the cats and dogs get along. The cats have been tolerating dogs of some sort for about 12 years (they have had some practice).

Remembering
One of the biggest drawbacks to loving, is that we have to learn to say goodbye. The scars on our hearts, remind us of how lucky we were to love so deeply.

We got Mail
For those of you who may be interested in learning more about K9 Kelp (it is a Canadian company), you can visit their site at: http://www.k9kelp.ca. We have noticed some bugs the last few days, so will be able to talk about how it works as an insect repellant. It does seem to be doing a nice job at keeping the dog smell sound down now that it is very wet out. I am also happy to report that putting it on the dogs is going much better, they don't love it, but don't look terrified!

A Comfy Nap
Lee sleeps like this a lot, so it must be comfy. I think she likes it because she hardly has to move if she hears things on the TV that need to be checked out.

The Beach is Back 
The lake is still very, very cold, but that doesn't bother Phod. Hailey is not a swimmer, she will go in to her "knees" and she loves to snap at the waves. Lady and Man were very proud of us for our polite manners with the neighbours. We don't see many dogs in our daily lives, so we don't get a lot of practice being social.

We don't like the litter
The lesson is that change is not good and I need to listen to my old cats. Given the amount of $ I spend on extras for the dogs, buying more expensive litter for the cats is within the budget (and isn't the place to go cheep!)


Have a great weekend!

The New World Order

I really don't know where the time goes, but here we are late Saturday morning just getting around to a post!

I have started experimenting with a new work schedule this week since I am my own boss and can do this. As mentioned earlier, in general I am not a good boss because I never say no and I don't set clear work boundaries. I am hoping by publicly stating my goal it will help. My goal is to work 4 days a week. I am flexible on which day I don't work and understand there may be times that one week I can't make this happen.  Ideally at least 2 weeks of the month one of those days will be from home, meaning I only leave the house 3 days for work. I always have a lot of paperwork to do (I spent 7 hours on it on Thursday and still had more) so I would be very busy on my day at home.

The problem with this schedule is that it has me out of the house 14 hours a couple days a week, which means on work days I have less time for the things I love (like reading all your blogs). This week I was able to visit a lot of blogs on lunch or break times but not comment. So don't be surprised if we are commenting less than we would like.

Don't worry about Lee and Phod on my long days. They always get their long walks. The man works shorter days, so they aren't alone that long. Also, I am making sure to give them extra love and exercise time in the evening. After all, we have 3 acres we hardly use. This week I added strolls through our own bush in the evening. The dogs love this and climbing up and down the hill behind our house adds exercise. Plus I am using this land I am working so hard to pay for!

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Thank you to everyone for their advice on what to look for in a breeder. My friend is on her way to check the place out this morning, armed with all your info. Will let you know how it goes!

Lupul and Panda also thank everyone for all their birthday wishes.

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A very special thanks to Millie and Walter for this pawsome award. We feel so loved!

Catch Up Saturday

Where did the week go? It wasn't extraordinarily busy, but it flew by. The weather has been nicer and we are optimistic we will see grass soon. The snow is almost all gone in the city but us mountain dwellers still have some. They are forecasting warm temperatures and rain the next few days, so that will hopefully wash the rest of it away. We won't talk about Tuesday's forecast!

The great thing about spring, is it makes for awesome smelling walks according to the pups. We have gotten to sniff fresh deer tracks and deer hair. We even saw a deer yesterday. The wild turkeys are back as well. We have mostly heard them, but did see one early in the week. Morning walks are now accompanied by the sound of birds and not just the crunch of snow. It is a nice time to live in the country.

My arm seems to be all better. I guess I just seriously bruised it. It never turned all the cool colours I had  hoped it would! Even with two good arms, I am continuing to use the couplers for the walks. Overall we have less pulling this way.

Now to catch up on all your comments:

Monday's post:
While I would never fence the entire 3 acres (with the bush and the hill it would be too big of a job), I would really love to have a big fenced area for the pups to run and play. This is not something the Man wants, so I don't know if it will happen. As for her latest escape, now that time has passed, I can truly appreciate that I did this to myself and realize how ridiculous it must have looked!

A Busy Weekend:
Hailey tries really hard not to jump up on her favourite guests, but can't help herself. If they manage to get past the front door without a jump, she gets them later. It is like she remembers, I haven't jumped yet. While this is an undesirable behaviour, it is better than angel Gemi's jumping and biting the people she loved!

He did it to himself:
Chuck 2 is Phod's favourite toy in the whole wide world. When given the choice between Chuck and his new frisbee, Chuck wins every time. Over the winter he has been chewing that big hole in it. I throw it, he runs into the deep snow, chews it a bit and brings it back. Sometimes when he picks it up, it flops over his face like that picture. What you can't really see is that he is holding it in his mouth! Man happened to have his phone ready when it happened one day, to capture it. It always makes us laugh! Phod doesn't care if we are laughing as long as when he puts it down we throw it.

Hailey's Big Adventure:
I am very proud of Hailey for her behaviour during her big adventure. Our first dog, Angel Loki, loved the vet, which spoiled us for the dogs who followed. I think as Hailey remembers seeing the vet at social occasions last year it helped her during the exam part. That or she was just so glad to get away from the Reiki lady . . . . I can't believe this lady either and I think if I thought she was a true danger I would have said something or moved.

Brotherly Love:
They melt my heart when they are so lovely. Yes, I was watching the food network. It is currently my favourite channel, which is funny since I don't cook.

Have a great weekend!

Snowy Sunday

After a very exciting Friday with melting snow, we are getting 5-10 more cm today. Sigh!

We haven't been around as much because Lady was away for work and then she caused some mischief (more about that tomorrow). we will be able to visit today but may not get to comment.

On Friday the dishwasher got fixed.

Baggy had a great birthday. He got to eat bacon.

Special thanks to Hawk for this award. We really need the sunshine!

Catch up Saturday - 3

Good morning,

Hope everyone had a great week. It was another cold one (-30 C during morning walks several days)  until Friday, now it is a around 0 and we are hopeful this winter is behind us. We look forward to catch up with all our friends this weekend.

Black and White Sunday/Phod the Dragon Slayer

It is really my hope that the only mark that is left on Phod from his horrible start to life is his little scar. We hope our love has erased his bad memories.

Mischief Monday: The Blower

At first, because we are slightly crazy dog owners, we weren't using the blower as much because it did upset the dogs (especially Phod). Then we got the hydro bill and they have to learn to accept it. We generally don't run it when we are watching TV as it is so loud. This means the pups can lay in front of the fire (on or off the beds as they wish) and enjoy the warmth.

Tasty Tuesday:

Bake-a-bone makes soft cookies. The instructions say you can make them crispier by putting them in the oven. I have never tried this. I am thrilled to report that Huey loved them. Huey's little people were very excited that he had "doggy pancakes" for Shrove Tuesday. Huey has also borrowed a puzzle and has enjoyed it. He is doing so well in his new house.

Hailey is not as deprived as she thinks, she has had a lot of these cookies this week! Hailey looked sad because she was trying to use sad eyes to get more cookies.

Wordless Wednesday: Eyes

I think those pictures show the dogs' personalities. Phod's are soft and maybe a bit hesitant. Hailey's are on full alert! (Note: It was much harder to get a picture of Lee's eyes, she kept moving!)

Feline Friday - Old Nin

Thank you all for your love and support. At this point, while maybe a little slower and not eating as much, Nin really is Nin. I have had a little more free time this week and Nin and I have had some great long snuggles on the couch, after he has taken 87 million years to get curled up in the perfect spot (something that has always taken a long time for Nin).

Catch up Saturday

Lady has had an insane work week (several days of 14 hour days) and she has to work today, so she says Sunday we will catch up with all of you (she did OK with visiting until Thursday and then it went to heck!)

The News from here:

Uncle Chris came over Friday night and stayed over. He is taking Emma home today. We have had a good visit and will miss her.

Until next time Emma!

Today we take a minute to remember our cousin Lemew. He died a year ago today.

Now to the comments:

Sunday: Dreaming of Spring
It got really cold again this week. It was acceptable until Friday, when our walk was only the 60 steps to the end of the driveway and back. Spring is 20 days away!

Mischief Monday: Man's Bad Day
Lady admits she did laugh a little at the Man for all his troubles. It really was his own fault. We are happy to report he hasn't driven into any snowbanks this week!

We have only seen Shadow one time and we were inside and he was out. We do hope he gets the help he needs to be an excellent dog. We hope that whatever happened was related to being new around here.

Lady says thank you to everyone who voted and for your congrats for the Canadian Blog Awards Best Pet Blog. She still has no idea how she got on the list. So thanks to whomever is responsible for that.

Tasty Tuesday:
We are going to check out the foods you suggested. We are also sharing them with a friend who welcomed a 7 year old rescue into her family this week. We purposely avoid seafood in this house as the Man has a sensitivity and we don't want to make him sick (he does enough to himself!).
The Canadian food she was thinking of was Boreal.

Wordless Wednesday:
That picture of Loki was taken in June of 2009. This was around the time he was diagnosed with his immune disorder (and 11 months before he died at age 8). The side effect of one of his drugs was that baby soft fur. It was a great side effect! Seeing the pictures of it reminds me of how soft it was.

Training Thursday: Loving Hailey:
Thank you all for the support on this topic. I thought hard about sharing this or not. But I have always tried to keep my blog honest and this is the honest place we have been sitting in. I do realize much of the problem is cause by me and some by the weather. I did try the treadmill earlier in the winter, but it has fallen off the radar, must put that back in. The past few weeks have been easier as I have had a better attitude, the weather has been nicer, and Hailey and Emma have found ways to play. We will keep looking for solutions and take the time to celebrate our successes. I know at the end of the day, it is going to be Hailey whose memory burns the brightest in our house! She is unforgettable!

Feline Friday:
I really do hope to catch Baggy loving one of the dogs again, but I don't hold my breathe. I live with the comfort that he is content in his old age.

Awards and Other Catch Up

First, we would like to take a moment to say goodbye to our friend Daisy from http://scotsmad.blogspot.ca who lost her battle to oral cancer this week. Run Free Daisy. Hugs to her sisters, Roxy and Bella.


I am embarrassed by how long it took me to formally thank Love is Being Owned by a Husky for the following awards:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I admit to having been too busy and overwhelmed with work to give my blog the full attention it needs. I see this being a bit of a problem for the next couple weeks, so will do my best to keep up with this and everyone else's (we may comment a little less, but know we are visiting!)

To help with this catch up,  have decided to copy others and have one day a week where I do this. For now this is going to be my Saturday post.

Monday: Attack of the pb

It is far more challenging to get pb on the dogs correctly when you are laughing so hard you can't see! It was a very fun, if unsuccessful photo shoot and perhaps turned out better then planned! 

Tuesday: Life with Emma

Easy: I am sure Emma would love to date you, but I don't think her dad would allow her, he is very strict.

Moving the cat food: The cats are feed their soft food on the counter. Nin can jump up and down but Baggy can't so they are lifted 2 times a day for this. They also have access to hard food during most of the day. The issue is, Baggy can't climb up. We  keep the cat food in the laundry room. We have a baby gate across the door. Our dogs are too big, Emma is smaller than Baggy so she can fit under. I don't think we have another place to put it. We are just monitoring Emma more and during the week only putting the hard food down once Emma is in the crate for the day or gone to bed for the night. 

Cat poop: I don't think Emma eats it, Lee does . . . . Lee also eats cat vomit, dog poop, deer poop etc etc. Lee is just gross! 

Wordless Wednesday:

Hailey gives me lots of kisses (usually when I first come home). I don't normally have to resort to pb, but to get the picture I wanted, I needed help. I washed my face after not because of the pb but because it was covered in slobber! 

Thursday: Love your pet day:

Yes, you are all correct, love your pet day is pretty much every day in the house (maybe a little less when people do things like eat the wall or pee on the guest bed).

Nin has been our simplest pet, so him clearing the magnets is like a human curing cancer. 

Friday: Laundry Inspector:

Baggy has always loved warm laundry and other warm places. When he was younger, I discouraged it as I didn't like the cat hair on the clothes. Now in what may be his last year, he can do what he wants!

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Wishing the Canadian Men's Hockey team all the best tomorrow morning, not because we really care about hockey, but we care about the mood the Man will be in for the rest of the weekend! 

Wordy Wednesday . . . . Catch Up after the Storm

Last Friday we had 2 huge storms. One happened around 4 am. There was so much lightening it was like a strobe light. Hailey hid in the closet, and Zaphod and Emma were a little nervous and wanted snuggles.  Friday morning we woke up to the first tree down, across the road. After a delayed start, I did get to my last day of work before holidays.

Our lost tree - blocking the road out

The afternoon another huge storm ripped through. We weren't home, but it must have been bad. We lost at least 6 more trees. The power lines were taken out. It took about 95 hours for us to get our power back.

We camped in the house for the 95 or so hours. We got lake water to flush the toilet. Our diet was not great, but we ate. We caught up on sleep (as we went to sleep as soon as it got dark). We learned a lot about generators and are waiting for an electrician to get back to us as we want one installed sooner rather then later. We were lucky that it was cooler (in fact, I needed to wear my flannel pjs one night), so we didn't get too hot.

One of our trees ripped up by the roots

Besides having to empty the fridge and freezer, and not getting the yard work we had planned done (this is why we were both on holidays), our dogs developed a few new issues. Hailey is now scared of wind. It was mildly windy one day and she freaked out. Last night it was fairly windy around 3 and she was up pacing. At one point she wanted love, which is really unusual, but no amount of love could help relax her. Finally the Man put her back in the closet. Also, Zaphod is now a little nervous during a storm. He is not as bad as Lee, but he wants to be snuggled with you. I don't think Emma notices anything different.

It is going to take us a few days to catch up and clean up. We have piles of trees to cut up and move. We have lots of cleaning to do inside the house. We have to refill the fridge and freezer. But we survived it, no one was hurt  and have a greater appreciation for running water. Also,  luckily I have 2 1/2 more weeks of vacation!

Some of the trees our neigbour took off the road that await us to cut up.

PS: Today Phod goes for his annual check up. 3 posts to 1000 stay tuned!

Catch up Tuesday

I have been behind in my blogging and blog reading. Work has been crazy and will be crazy for the next 2 weeks. Today we will catch up on our adventures.

Emma amused me one night being both interested in and afraid of a toad. She would sniff it, it would jump forward, she would jump back and then step forward to sniff it again. This repeated all across the yard.

What is this? FYI Phod likes to pee on the big cones

We have had to go out extra early for our walks because they are paving the road we walk down. We need to be back from our walks around 6:30. We can go in the bush but the mosquitoes are really bad back there and I need to wear long pants and sleeves and it has been very, very hot here. Even though I have a natural bug spray, I don't like to put it on if I don't have to because I feel sticky and gross after. We are a little sad to see that much of the frogs habitat has been destroyed as they have dug out the ditches. Hopefully it will grow back. It is equally disturbing to see the number of dead frogs (killed by the machines) every day. There were at least a dozen on Friday. We will see if this paved road is worth it or if it would have been better to stay a dirt road.

Lee checking out where the frogs use to live

Our biggest adventure happened on Thursday. Wednesday night we had to close the windows because it smelt like skunk outside. Thursday morning the dogs and I went out (and they were off leash) and it was skunky. They did their business, we came in and ate, and went for our walk. As I was walking down the driveway with the 3 dogs on leash I spotted it. The skunk. He/She had decided to come into our yard and die beside the driveway. I was able to keep the dogs away from it during our walk. I came back in, woke up the Man and told him we had skunk removal to do.

Now, I am not really a country girl as far as dealing with dead things go. I knew I wouldn't be too much help, but I tried. I tried to hold the bag and not throw up while man scooped the skunk into the bag. I am proud to say I didn't scream. Fortunately it was garbage day so the poor skunk was sent off to the landfill. Since it's removal, the dogs have all been very interested in the spot where it died.

We had a good laugh about this dead skunk as we asked "what is with us and skunks?"  As some may remember last summer (see July 17, 2012 post if you like), we had our house up for sale. A mother skunk and 2 babies moved under our front stairs where mom died. We had to do live traps to catch the babies. It cost us a lot and I am sure turned off perspective buyers.

Those were our adventures last week, let's see what this week brings!

Note: We are getting close to our 100th blog post. We will have a little celebration for this. Stay tuned!