Fall Work Begins

 Sunday marked the first official day of autumn. This means the lazy days of summer are behind us. This is hard to believe because we have had summer temperatures. Now the work to start to prepare for winter begins. 

Our people are so lucky to have us to help.

We can help keep an eye on the fire (still slowly, slowly burning the old deck).

We can point out where the leaves need to be raked. 

We can ensure the Man isn't raking up anything we want to eat. 

We are really big helps. 

Helping Out

 Dear Pals,

Before the horror of yesterday's post we were very helpful in getting the back patio summer ready.

Let's get this umbrella up!

Lee, I don't think I can lift it!

Lady is not sure how baby was going to help, but it was nice of Lee to offer him.

Lost and Found

When I arrived at the centre I work at out of town (it is a former school) there were 2 big dogs standing in the parking lot.

They were very friendly and clearly well taken care of. They were both wearing shock collars but no tags.

One of my colleagues snapped pictures of them and put them on a lost and found dog Facebook page.

Another got the dogs into the school into an empty classroom. I went and found a big bowl and got them some water. Some staff found some cheese to give them. These dogs found the perfect place to be lost as most of the staff at the centre are dog owners and lovers! 

Within 15 minutes the owners had been found and within 40 the dogs had been picked up. Their owner said they were grounded!

It was a fun start to a Thursday and a reminder to have a phone number on your pups when they are out. 

Helping Out -by Lee

I had to help my Lady with some very important chores on the weekend. 

A couple weeks ago, the Lady and Man finally found some chairs for our dining room table. They have a table that seats 10 and only 4 decent chairs. They have been looking for something they liked, that would go, that was affordable. They came across 5 of these in a vintage pop-up store. They are in excellent condition and well worth the $25 per chair they spent. The only issue according to them (as I have not been allowed to sit on them), is the seats have no padding and the colour is not their colour. 

New chair

Now Lady likes to make things more complicated than they need to be. She decided, she needed to find a fabric that matched the 4 nice chairs she had already. It would have been far easier to just reupholster the lot, but she likes the chairs she has. 

Current chair

She and I spent a lot of time on Saturday going through the fabric books she brought from the place that is going to do the chairs. Then we had to check them all again Sunday morning when the sun spills into our dining room. 

I don't think so - it is too dark

Maybe the one down here a little

In the end, she went with this one, called comfort. It wasn't in a book she brought home, but was similar to the colour of one she liked. Because she is looking for small ways to help the planet, she wanted a natural fibre and not a synthetic one, so she found a cotton fabric.

Final colour

The chairs will be recovered at the end of the month or early October. Lady says she doesn't mind the wait. She can live with the not her yellow knowing she has taken steps to get the work done. 

I am sure without my superior help, Lady would have picked an inferior colour!

Help Our Lady - by Phod

Hi, everyone's favourite Phody is here, with my sidekick Precious, to share some important news.

If you don't know our Lady well, she is organized, dedicated, headstrong and independent, which makes her current endeavour sort of her personal hell. She told me she feels about it like I feel about having to have my ears cleaned every day, twice a day (so that is terrible).

Lady is on a fundraising mission. If you don't know, she works with individuals with autism. She has volunteered her time to abandon us forever travel to Tanzania in February of 2020 with the Global Autism Project. The Global Autism Project is on a mission to create sustainable treatment for autism worldwide using a train the trainer method. Lady is going to use the skills and talents she has obtained during her career and her love of  travel to help others (and maybe see a giraffe too. I don't know what that is, but Lee says it is something I would love to chase - I think she would love chasing it more). One of the requirements is for her to fundraise a minimum of $5000 USD. This covers some of her expenses while she is away. She will be paying for her flight, food and non-work related travel. We will be stuck here with the Man for like 2.5 weeks, while she is living her dream. (She told me the only thing that would make it better would be for her to be able to take us).

If you happen to have any extra treat money laying around that you could spare, please consider making a donation to her CrowdRise page  HERE. If you do go, please click on Kristen's (that is her name - it isn't actually Lady) Tanzania so the money goes to her account and the charity sees she has raised it and let her go on the trip.

For those of you who saw it on Facebook etc. and have been able to make a donation, Lady gives her most heartfelt thanks. She is humbled by the generosity of others.

Thanks for considering this, even if it means she is not spending time with us. She made our dreams come true when she rescued us, so we can repay the kindness by helping her have hers come true too.

Your pal, Phod (and Precious and probably Hailey if she wasn't so medicated, and Emma who is being pretty good this trip).

Helping Lady - by Phod

What is that Lady? You didn't say lay on this mat you want to workout on? Are you sure? I am a big help and would happily lay on it.

Fine, I will move to the chair. 

I guess it is a better view! 

Helping Reunite a Lost Dog

This pup, who would not pose for a picture for Lady (clearly didn't understand she may have cookies) was running around our yard last week. Her face (when Lady could see it) looked like a Shar Pei mix. This pup was clearly scared and Lady couldn't get close. So Lady got that not great picture and went to the municipality Facebook group and posted where it had been seen and the direction it was going. 

In less than an hour there was a note on the group to Lady that mystery dog and her sibling dog, who had somehow escaped and been on the run for about 1.5 hours, were both safe at home. The people were very grateful for the Lady's help in locating them. Lady said she was glad to help because we may have both escaped before, and it is very scary for peeps.

We are so happy the pups went home (but do hope they had a little fun while on the run!)

Helping Our Peeps Workout

Lady and Man have been working with a personal trainer. In a few months (19 sessions but who is counting) they are going to be transferring to working out at home. They are starting to collect gym equipment and practice at home.

We are working on being excellent coaches to try and replace their coach. Lady says we are nicer but perhaps we need to work on not being in the way. We don't see a problem. 

Thank you for leaving this mat out for me

Chew one, two, three

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In other news, this is a picture from our from yard last night. Even with all the rain, there is still going to be snow in the yard today. Today was the first day picked in our contest. We appreciate Molly's optimism for the end of the winter and are sorry she isn't the winner. Thanks for playing Molly!

Spring Has Sprung - Mostly

While we still have some snow in the yard, the day time temperatures are closer to normal this time of year (about 11C/52F). Last weekend we had the first amazing weather weekend. Sunday it was about 18C/65F. We started to get the yard and garage ready for spring. We had some great help.

Hailey on her favourite rock

When we wouldn't play fetch, Phod dragged out the entire Chuck to try and get the ball

Hailey bathing in the sun

Phod helping with the sweeping of the garage

Cooling down in the snow

Insisting on playing fetch when the work was over

Truly Canadian - bare feet and snow:)

Helping out in the yard

First - sorry we didn't get to visit all our friends yesterday - our internet has been sick since Sunday - it is suppose to be all better today. 

On Sunday, we got to help out with some yard work. It is autumn, which means that winter is coming soon. One of the tasks the people have to complete before the snow falls, is to move 4 cords of wood from a pile to the shed. 

Here we are helping:

This was the pile before we started on Sunday - note - Lady had already moved some

Here is Hailey inspecting to make sure the wood is ok. 

This is our second garage or shed - this is where the wood has to move to

This is our septic field - you can see the pile of wood on the right.
The wood is going to the second garage (or shed as they call it) which is under
the deck to the left. The 2 garage doors you see are for the cars. 

Phod testing some of the wood to make sure it is ok. 

Phod inspecting the Man's wood

Phod giving the Man an A+ for effort

Lee enjoying the stick she stole from Phod

Are you helping your people get ready for the next season?

Mischief Monday - She says mischief, I say help - by Lee

Dear Blogville,

Please help settle a dispute Lady and I are having. Sunday was fill the bucket day.

I believe I was helping. She says I was causing mischief. What do you think?

---------------------------------------------------

We would also like to take a moment of silence to pay tribute to everyone's friend Mr. Pip.  He was a wonderful little guy, who brought so much joy. He will be sadly missed. We think of him and eat cheeseburgers in his memory.  Run free Pip!

Houston do we have a poop problem?

Sleeping Emma

As we have been getting to know Emma better and as she has settled into the routine of our house, we have noticed something. This dog poops a lot. And by a lot, I mean 5-6 times a day. At first I thought it was because she had too many treats or because she wasn't use to eating just 2 times a day or because she wasn't in the routine, so we cut treats to next to none. Still all this poop.

We have had 4 dogs in our lives, 2 small ones and 2 big ones. Loki, Gemini and Hailey generally pooped/poop 2 times a day. Zaphod usually goes 3 times. After surveying my dog owning friends their ranges were 1-3 times.

This had led me to conclude 6 is probably too many. This has also made me think that perhaps she has some sort of food sensitivity. I do know that a Greenie (a favourite treat in our house) really upsets her tummy, so we are avoiding those. I know many of you have pets with food sensitivities, so here is our question to you:

How did you figure it out? What do you feed them?


Thanks!

Feline Friday - And help Ruby Sue

Baggy has found a new place to sleep when we aren't around to put him on the counter (he can't get his old butt up there) under his heat lamps.

You woke me up, let me sleep!

He likes the front door mat beside the heater. We are proud of him because this would be very exposed to the dogs!

I am going to ask everyone who visits today to take a couple minutes and pop over Furry Four Legged Foster Friends (if you haven't done so already) and read about Ruby Sue. Mel (as always) has done a wonderful job writing about her.

Thanks!

Help Wanted

We have 2 issues we want to know if anyone in blogiverse can help us with.

1) Mr. Phod
Somedays Mr. Phod is not able to hold his poop while we are out and some days he goes in the games room. We have not found a pattern to this. It happens days he has 2 poop mornings, it doesn't happen days he only went once. Last week it only happened 2 days, so far this week it has happened 2 days. If he is crated and has to go he will still go. It rarely happens on weekends, but we tend not to go out much then.

Ideas on what to do?

2) Miss Lee
She needs a good no slip collar, she keeps getting out of hers. We make it tighter and it quickly stretches again. Any recommendations for a brand/type I may find here in Canada?

Thanks so much!

The Digger - Help Wanted

Last year Lee had one huge hole in the backyard. I didn't love this, but it felt contained, so I could live with it. This year she has dug at least 6 holes. Soon the yard will be one big hole.

Any ideas on how to stop her from digging?


Thanks