Project Hailey - An Update

This is how she seems a lot of the time

It has been a week since Lee's prozac was increased. At this time we are unsure if we are happy with how she is doing. It is a bit challenging to know what is the drug and what may have been the extreme heat last week. 

We have noticed some changes in her. She remains anxious, especially in the evening (not helped by the fireworks that continue as they are allowed all year here and we live in cottage country).   However, she is able to just go and hide. She is less pacy.  She has not destroyed anything. She does seem more drowsy/wanting to sleep more. But again, could some of that have been the heat? Finally, she is eating so slow she would not finish her food in her Slo-Bowl. We have put her food in a regular bowl and she is eating at a regular speed. This is a first.  One night, she was nervous of the thunder and refused to eat dinner. She just hid. 

We are going to give it another week or so and see if she adjusts. Our goal has always been to let her be a calmer version of herself, not a stoned out pup. 

The contractor comes to start fixing our wall today! He is doing it in the evenings after his other jobs so it will take some time. We are just happy he is fitting us in.

This is where we are today. 

Mischief Monday - We Thought We Would Melt

As we write this, we are celebrating a drastic drop in temperature. It is about 17C/62F which feels almost cold after last weeks high of 39C/102F. Yep, you read that right, it got to the 100s here! We bet this is not what you think of as Canadian temperatures, but it happened.

It presents a different challenge for us because our house does not have air conditioning. Yep, you also read that right (we swear, it is not April Fool's Day!). We don't even have a window unit. We do have fans and a great system of closing all the windows in the morning and opening them all in the evening. It helps. At the worst, our house reached about 28C/82F. It was warm, but livable. 

This is about how we spent our days!

The tile is cool!

We have a few more reasonable days in the mid 20s/70s before we hit the 30s/high 80s again. 

In other news, look who has stopped by for a visit . . .

Yep, it is cousin Emma. She is with us for a week while Uncle Chris is in San Diego for work. We hope to not have too much mischief to report next week.

Stay cool dear friends! 

Travel Thursday - Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg

Before we begin our very Canadian post, we would like to wish all our dear American friends a Happy 4th of July. As you may recall, Hailey is actually a transplant to Canada. She was born in Ohio and move to Canada when she was about 6 months old with a convoy of pups from overrun rescues. We celebrate without fireworks! 

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This will be the second part of my trip with my mom and sister to the east coast of Canada.

On our second full day, we piled into the jeep and headed to Peggy's Cove. This famous little fishing town was named by Champlain after his mother. It boasts the year round population of about 30, so at pretty much any given moment there are more visitors than residents. 

Besides the fresh seafood, the cove is famous for the lighthouse. 

A piper busked at the rocks leading to the lighthouse

We visited June 1, the lobster season ended May 31st so there were traps everywhere. 

After our exploration of Peggy's Cove we drove along the coast to the charming little town of Lunenburg.  This town was one of the first settlements in which the British attempted to displace the First Nations people by settling Protestants. Founded in 1753, it is now a Unesco World Heritage Site because it is the best example of planned British colonial settlement in North America.  That is because it has retained the original layout and many of the original wood buildings. 

Here we explored the town by horse and buggy. We were toured around by Jack. He was a feisty horse, who would have loved to run the streets if he had been allowed! 

Over the yellow door is what is believed to be the oldest stain glass window in Canada

This is the former school

Known as the wedding cake house

Memorial to the people lost to the sea

Home of the Bluenose who was not in port when we came

On our last half day, before heading to the airport we visited the Maritime Museum in Halifax. There is an excellent display of Titanic relics as it was ships from Halifax that helped recover the dead. Somehow we managed not to take any pictures there. I think we were all just enjoying the moment!

It was a lovely long weekend. If you have the opportunity to visit Eastern Canada, do!

Wordless Wednesday - Roll

Project Hailey - A Fail

This is the mess we came home to on Friday evening. It has been nearly 7 years since Lee went through the wall.

Last week we had a series of thunderstorms roll in. Hailey made the choice to start peeing on the basement floor, which meant Phod started peeing on her pee on the basement floor. So on Friday, I blocked the basement stairs before I left for work. I closed the bathroom door as I always do (as Phod likes bathroom garbage).

A storm rolled through in the afternoon and when the Man got home, this had happened. She had clearly cut her foot doing it (but not serious enough to require medical attention).

We happened to be having brunch with our vet and his family on Saturday, so we discussed this. Hailey has been on 20mg of Prozac. We tried 40, but it was too much for her. So he prescribed another 10 and we will try 30. He is also going to look for other medications we could give her if we knew a storm was coming and we weren't going to be home. 

Of course this was followed by a very stressful weekend for her. We had our niece and nephew here all weekend. Plus there were fireworks. One night, so she wouldn't wake the kids up, the Man sat with her in the bathroom. The next, he just carried her to bed and made her sleep (I missed all of this as I was with the kids). 

We are feeling a bit defeated again, and we have a gaping reminder of her stress. We hope the increase in meds, plus us leaving the basement open and moving the bathroom garbage will prevent her from needing to destroy our house. 

Happy Canada Day!

Today we celebrate Canada Day!

Happy 152 birthday Canada!

From the true North strong and free!

Nature Friday - When Storms Strike

Earlier this week we talked about going to the dog park. We hadn't been since the tornados came through our area on September 21, 2018. That day 6 tornados touched down in our region. 3 people died, numerous were hurt and many lost everything (one small community of about 1000 had 60 buildings completely destroyed).

One of the tornados went through a piece of the park. Lady said it was haunting. It may not be the normal beautiful nature we share, but given all the climate change things that are happening, it is important to share. Perhaps it will inspire us all to make a few small changes to help save our planet. (She will get off her soapbox now).

Having a drink in a spot that use to have trees

Remains of the forest.