The Turtle Invasion

Poor Uter, she reminds me so much of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I mean, just look at that worried face, and this picture was taken before the other turtles arrived.

Turtles, you may or may not know have very specific environmental requirements. Obviously they need a tank, but they also need a basking rock or log and basking light, and finally they need food. They don't really need love, but they do need their owners to keep them on a schedule.

My brother, who is moving out of his apartment tomorrow, but not into the new apartment until Saturday, came over last night with his two turtles and we started a game of musical tanks. Uter has been removed from her tank, and has lost her basking bulb. Today she will have to make do with a regular 60 watt, which will give the illusion of sun, if not the benefits of an actual basking bulb. This is unfortunate but necessary, as I was afraid that putting a basking bulb in the only lamp I had left could cause a fire.

Johnny Cakes, I know he's named after some sort of food, but I don't spend enough time in the states to know what that food thing is, or if he looks like one. He has always made me think of a hamburger,or a Dagwood Sandwich. This picture isn't the best, but I can tell you that he is easily 3 times bigger than Uter. As such he had to be given the biggest tank. Poor Johnny Cakes, he's such an easy going turtle, but last night he was headed for a meltdown, too much change, and now to have to spend the day with a dog (he's not used to dogs). I started to worry so I sent Uncle Tim a text message and he told me that if Johnny Cakes doesn't settle down I should sing to him, apparently his favourite song is "Let it Be". It's funny, who knew that turtles were so sensitive.

Bender is another story. Because Bender is very close in size to Uter it was a bit of a toss up as to which one would be given the medium size tank. However, we had some set up work to do so I told Uncle Tim to put them both in the medium tank until we had the chance to get the 10 gallon set up. So he did, and luckily he was standing there fiddling with some cords because it wasn't two minutes from the time we put Bender in until she climbed on top of my poor Uter. I'm sorry, but I will not tolerate that kind of behaviour in my home...not even from turtles who can't be expected to know better. So that decided the issue, Bender, who should be named "tiger", was given the smallest tank.

Bender is by far the most adaptable of the lot. Predictably Uter started freaking out. I didn't worry too much about that since Uter freaks out about going to her feeding bucket. Johnny Cakes was freaking out as I said already, and Cadie didn't know what to make of the whole thing, she just wandered from room to room sniffing, trying to figure out what was going on. At one point she stopped in front of the big tank and seemed shocked to find there was a giant turtle in there, but then, I like to think that she recognized Johnny Cakes' distress because she turned around and came back to the living room. At the same time Bender was just hanging out on her basking log.

This morning everything is better. All the turtles are settled, though only Uter and Cadie (the dog) ate, at least I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to get by until Saturday

House Cleaning

I spent the weekend house cleaning. I am the second worse housekeeper that I know of, and the apartment was a disaster, that was sorely in need of cleaning. So I chipped away at the dusting, laundry and bathroom on Saturday and did the kitchen and floors last night. I also spent some time last night preparing for the turtle invasion that is happening later tonight.

Uncle Tim is moving, and it is going to take a couple of days for him to have his tank up and running again, so in the mean time his 2 turtles will be staying with me. So I had to go down to the storage locker, carefully bring out the spare tanks, and carefully haul them upstairs. From there I just had to clean them and fill them with water. But then I started to have some worries, what if Cadie tries to eat the new turtles, or jumps in and drowns in the tank. So that meant that I had to rearrange the furniture so that I could be sure that she would be safe. Anyhow, Tim's turtles are very pretty, so stay tuned and I will post some pictures of them.

Cadie hates cleaning, she doesn't see enough of it to really understand what's going on. All she knows is that her things are being picked up and moved around. Usually she hovers behind me or cowers on the couch. (poor Cadie, last night I took the cushions off the couch and vacuumed there as well, displacing her again). In total I would say that I spent a good 3 hours a day (6 for the whole weekend cleaning). The really heartbreaking thing is that this is just the obvious stuff like dusting and floors. I still have a mountain of bills that need to be filed, the fridge looks like a bomb has gone off, and I'd like to sort through my tea towels as well. Oh well, at least it's a start. And if I'm vigilant this time it won't ever get so dirty again. Ha! who am I kidding, I hate cleaning. What am I saying, it's not that I hate cleaning, I can't clean, it upsets the dog.

Oh the other hand, I did do some cleaning that made me feel really good. I cleaned out my facebook friends, and deleted my ex and his friends. This cleaning has made me feel really good about things.

Gone with the Squirrels...AGAIN!

Cadie and I had a great morning at the park, she ran, and chased her ball. We had a great "hike" then we were headed out of the park when Cadie caught sight of a squirrel and off she went. She took off through the brush, and all I could see or hear of her was the clinking of her name tags against each other.

She came when I called her, but she was covered in burrs, and had a piece of leaf stuck on her eye ball. I have an eye ball aversion, I just can't handle looking at or touching eye balls, but aversion or not, I had to get Cadie's eye cleaned out, so we headed to the washroom and where I got the leaf out and started pulling the burrs out of her hair.

The de-burring continued most of the day, and I'm pretty sure I just felt another one as I was sitting down to start this entry. I have plans to go to a ball game tomorrow, but I think that we're going to have to find some time for a bath.

My Worst Nightmare

When Cadie first started sleeping in the bed with me, as an older puppy I used to have nightmares that I would roll over on her and break her legs. I would wake up in a panic and check each one of her legs, go back to sleep for like an hour and then do it all over again. Cadie is unflappable, she usually slept througth the whole thing, but would drowzily pull a foot out of my hands if I bothered her too much. I remember one night in particular, when my sleep-addled panic had me saying out loud "I broke all 6 of her 4 legs". However, Cadie was always fine, and it was just my overactive imagination. This fear stems from my last dog, Kaely, she fell down the stairs and broke her back left leg, it's just so awful to watch them suffer, and so terribly expensive, it's stayed with me.

This morning was different. I didn't give it a second thought, I came in and saw Cadie looking pitiful, which isn't really that unusual, as she likes a good lie in, but when I called for her I realized something was wrong. Normally she hops up and runs to the door to wait for me, but today, she stayed on the bed, so I went over and scooped her up, wrapping my arms around her hind legs, and as I did so she cried out in pain. Putting her down I could see that she was holding the back left and still looking pitiful.

I picked her up and put her back on the soft blankets, where I gave her a leg message, being satisfied that everything was attached I put her down again, and watched as she tentative walked to the front door, looking pitiful.

I was really unsure of what to do, should I stay home and observe her, you know in case I need to take her to the vet. But then we opened the door to the building and Cadie got a nose full of fresh air, and she was off, trotting along like nothing was wrong, and I realized that it was all an act when after 5 minutes she tried to pull me off in the direction of the park. Sneaky little girl.

Today is a work day, so I forced her home, where I made breakfast for us both, and as I sat down next to Cadie on the couch with my cereal she turned and gave me a pitiful look. Dogs, such manipulators. And what about me, who nearly fell for her tricks.

The Times They are Becoming Quite Different

I've put off mentioning it, in spite of all my complaining about the humidity I have been reluctant to admit that fall is coming. We're now at the end of August, and on my trip home from my mothers I noticed that the leaves are starting to change colour.

I've also noticed that there are more leaves in the bowls at the park.

And finally I can't help but notice that the humidity is turning into a coolish rain, on a fairly regular basis (all last weekend, and again tonight).

The sky looked so dark after work that I decided to drive Cadie up to the park. We had a good 25 minutes of tennis ball tossing in the baseball bowl, before we headed over to the trail. The plan was to go through the trail 3 or 4 times to make up for missing the walk up and down Mt. Pleasant. We got all the way around once when the rain started.

At first it was good, the leaves made a perfect canopy, and we didn't get wet at all. But then the rain really started and the canopy became saturated. Needless to say we only made it around the trail once before heading for the car.

Thankfully I had put a towel in the car last week. We were soaked! As you can see by the picture of Cadie above (taken after 20 minutes after coming in from the storm) so we sat on the towel and headed for home, where we've been hiding out ever since.

So yes, I'm afraid to say, but it is true, summer is coming to close and soon we will be in the full swing of fall. Let's just hope that it's a good one, and that we aren't getting soaked like this everyday from now until November, when the snow comes.

Virtual Dog Walk

Cadie and I did not go to beach, instead we went back to Sherwood Park. Let me walk you through a typical walk.

We start out by stopping in at the park nearest to us. As you can see it's a great park, the reason we don't really use it is that it's a little too close. Cadie needs a god long walk before her run, as you saw earlier today, cutting out one element of her evening routine leaves her restless.

We head right through the park and out onto street. We walk straight up Mt. Pleasant, window shopping and occasionally running into friends. We also pass a high school with a nice big lawn which always has some wonderful scents.

We continue heading north until we get the Sherwood. Cadie starts to get really excited as she starts to recognize the street leading into the park.

As I've said before the when we first go into Sherwood Park Cadie demands that I throw her tennis ball. So I throw it down into the first bowl, and across the floor of the valley. From there I grab her leash and take her up a steep hill into the baseball bowl where she likes to play catch for a good 20 to 30 minutes. A lot of her time there is spent laying around in the grass. The baseball bowl has a thick bed of long, verdant grass, it's perfect for us. The hills make chasing tennis balls a lot more fun, and the soft grass is a nice cool place to sit and relax for a couple of minutes. I try not to keep her there too long. After a good run I take the ball and  to then try to get Cadie to leave the baseball bowl. This takes some time, and involves a couple of sit ins.

When I finally get her out of the baseball bowl we head over for a quick drink.

After which we head into the official off-leash area, which is a nice hiking trail. We go through the trail once. Trail is a wide, dirt path, with lots of big trees bordering it, and in some cases coming up right in the middle of the path. It also has a nice wooden bride that goes over a small creek. This path is very popular with dog owners, joggers and sometimes cyclists. So it's great time to practice our recall and for me to teach Cadie to get out of the way of oncoming pedestrians, a skill I think every dog, needs whether they are urban dogs or not.







Then head for home, where Cadie gets a giant bowl of food, and a comfortable couch to rest on while she dreams about our next trip to the park.

This all makes for one happy dog!

How Much of a Walk Do You Really Need?

So all that worry and concern was for nothing. Cadie is fine; in fact it was me that ended up in bed early last night. After months of hot humid weather we finally had a good solid couple of days of rain, it started mid day on Saturday, and continued until late last night. The sky is still bleak this morning, but I did see the sun trying to peak out while I was driving in. Yesterday was the day when the whole weather situation finally caught up with me.

I’m prone to migraines and hot, humid and wet weather just does me in. Yesterday I started to feel the pain around about noon, but I’m still new at my job, and I’ve already had to call in once, so I forced myself to stick out the afternoon. I made it. I also managed to maintain verticality until after Cadie’s (truncated) walk, because I knew that she wouldn’t be able to sit still even though I wasn’t feeling well.

The problem with the walk was that it started to drizzle just as we arrived at the park. We were already there, and I knew that Cadie wouldn’t allow herself to be taken home without going to the park at all, so I gave in and took her.

Sherwood Park is shaped like a big bowl, one giant valley after another, (it even has a baseball diamond at the bottom of one of it’s valley’s. I has assumed that it was no longer being used, because the kids in the outfield would be standing on a hill, but if you get to the park about 7 o’clock you’ll see tons of little kids all wearing the same shirt and throwing baseballs back and forth, so I guess they still use it.) Normally, I toss the ball for Cadie down into the first bowl, and across the floor of the valley, then we head over to the baseball bowl where she likes to play catch for a good 20 to 30 minutes (I believe that if Cadie were a child she’d have me at baseball and soccer games every evening). After which we head into the official off-leash area, which is a nice hiking trail. We go through the trail once, about 15 minutes, and then we head up the hill to the first valley. I toss the ball across the valley floor, heading out of the park this time. Then I grab Cadie’s leash and try to pull her to the top of the bowl, where she gets a liver treat for being such a great little dog. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to get Cadie out of the park. Afterwards we head home (about 30 minutes). The whole thing takes a little more than 2 hours.

Last night though, as I said we got there just as it was starting to rain, so I took Cadie into the first bowl, toss the tennis ball and then started the fight to leave the park (it took 15 minutes last night), then we walked home, where I forced myself to stay awake.

Poor Cadie, she doesn’t understand that her mommy doesn’t feel well, so she kept trying to play, and I kept dozing off trying to relieve the pressure between my ears. Anyhow I am keeping a close eye on the weather, if it’s sunny, I might even take Cadie to the beach tonight, we’ll have a lot of pent-up energy to get rid of.

Gluttonous Goose: Update

Cadie is doing well. I took her out for a bio break about an hour after my last post. While we were out she caught sight of a beach ball. so I grabbed it for her (I intend to take it to the park tonight after work), but she was so excited, she danced, and jumped and barked and carried on. Needless to say no "work" was accomplished with that outing. I tried to put her to bed, but she wouldn't have it, instead she sat in front of the closet door, waiting for a chance to leap in there and grab her new, most favourite toy.

Gluttonous Goose

This will not be a long post, but I'm a little worried, and I believe that sharing might make me feel better. I had my bother and his girlfriend over tonight for a nice Sunday dinner. While I was preparing food I brought out a stick of butter to let it soften up. I was very sure that I had pushed it far enough back, and I don't know exactly how it happened, but Cadie has eaten 90% of it. This can give the dogs vomiting, diarrhea and lethargy...so far Cadie has none of this, but I won't be here long as I am going to go and fuss over her.

One Small Step for Anyone Else, One Giant Leap for ME!

What, you may be wondering, could possibly justify such a momentous headline? I overcame one of my biggest fears today. The biggest fear I have is of getting fired from my job, I did not overcome this fear, as I think a healthy fear of the unknown is a good thing.

No, today I pumped my own gas! Does that feel anti-climatic? I'm truly sorry for this, but you have to realize this is a huge thing for me to overcome. I did it all by myself. C was there, she can vouch for my new-found gas pumping abilities.

This morning on my way to work I was listening to the radio personalities talk about the feeling of success. Honestly I wasn't listening all that closely, but I think there was some talk about a study that recorded and compared some responses to survey questions,  the most "shocking" was that successful people don't always feel successful. At this moment, with my current accomplishments under my belt I can't help but feel successful. But I know that this feeling is fleeting. I know that I could well wake up tomorrow and look at the dishes piled up in my sink, and the never ending pile of unread books beside my bed, and that fact that my mother doesn't even read this blog and feel totally weighed down by my failures.

However bleak this thought may be I intend to focus on the positive on this, the coolest, and most fabulous Friday evening we've had yet this summer. The positive is this: Successful people are successful for a couple of reasons; yes, they work hard; sure, they sometimes get lucky; of course they have passion; but those people who are truly successful are so because they are never satisfied, instead they keep pushing themselves to achieve more. So, I will keep pushing myself, but in the mean time I intend to celebrate an handful of my accomplishments:

• I graduated from University, and I only missed the honour roll by 0.5, that's an accomplishment
• I managed to train Cadie, and survive the puppy drama
• I have made, and am maintaining great relationships with my friends and family
• I have a create career that I am building
• I continue to write this blog for myself
• I pumped my own gas

There now I can't forget any of this

“Pilates” is Italian for Snuggle Time Right?

If there are any regular readers you will remember that I am working away on a life plan called the “GYST” (Get Your S%^*t Together) plan. This plan had 4 components:

• Finances

• Weight reduction

• New job

• Organized home

To date only one goal has been fully realized (new job), but the others are clicking along. The apartment is in better shape than it has been for a year, alright, it needs a really good cleaning, but my home used to look like an episode of hoarders, so things are much better on that front.

Finances are doing a little better, no real improvement there yet, but I have a couple of irons in the fire, that, if I’m able to really pull them off, will mean big things for.

So that brings us to weight reduction; I’ve been working hard, not as hard as I should, but I’ve been working to try to get some of the extra weight off. The problem is that my new shoes have given me extremely painful blisters on my pinky toes. Part of the work I’ve been doing to help bring the finances under control involves writing about the treatment of foot ulcers. Now, I know that blisters aren’t foot ulcers, but, if this work has taught me nothing else, it’s that you have to do right by your feet. This means that I have been on hiatus from my exercise routine. There’s no way that Cadie can go without her walk, and my feet needed a break…but it’s been a long time, and I needed to get back in the swing of things so I decided to do my Pilates tape. This tape is an ab workout tape, which was great for me; my feet only needed to take Cadie for her walk, then I got off my feet for the duration of the workout (only 30 minutes, which is even better).

So I got on the floor and started working my way through the breathing exercises, when Cadie caught sight of me. Any time a dog catches you on the floor it’s a big deal to them. Naturally they assume that you have gotten down to their level so that you can play and love them. So there I was flat on my back, trying to concentrate on my breathing when a little head threw itself down on my soft belly and demanded to have her ears scratched. This went on for the next 30 minutes.

If you’ve never done Pilates you may not know that it can be quite painful, especially if it’s been a long time since the last time you did this workout. Pilates is even harder and more painful when you have a 19-pound lump sitting on your stomach. However, until my feet recover, I think this is going to be the way to go.

The Grand Tour

I have been fortunate enough to have a benefactor. That’s right a benefactor, I don’t another person who can make that claim, and even if they could, I suspect that my benefactor is much more generous.

This last weekend my benefactor gave me a car. I KNOW! I am super excited to be mobile. I drive to work now, and I am saving myself about 40 minutes a day in the commute, but I am now able to do small things like stop after work for groceries, rather than having to set time aside for it during the week.

As it so happens I didn’t have any food in the house on Monday night. Well, I shouldn’t say that I didn’t have any food, I had turtle food, but Cadie and I were SOL.

So I decided to stop on my way home. What I didn’t know is that my neighborhood pet food store decided to close an hour early this week, so I was getting there just as they were locking the door. Grrr.

Oh well, no problem, Cadie hopped into the passenger seat and headed out. We went to 3 pet food stores before we finally found her food, but then, since we were already out that way we decided to stop in at Sunnybrook Park. Cadie loves a good park, and she although she has only been to Sunnybrook once, it seems to be a favourite. I have no idea why, but there you have it. I made the mistake of taking her leash off and getting her back was a real struggle. She was having so much fun, she refused to come anywhere near me, in case I was intending to make her leave the park (but it's unreasonable, we can't live at the dog park)

So away she went, where she played and played, refusing to come to me when it was time to go. I almost lost her, except that a friend of mine was able to grab her collar. So we hopped back in the car and headed for home, and thanks to Hermione (my car’s name) Cadie was able to have a nice dinner.

Yesterday morning I woke to find that I did not have any breakfast foods at home, so I made the decision to stop and do my groceries on my way home. It was great. I often stop for some groceries on my way home from work, but it was just great to be able to get everything done, in one fell swoop.

Last night we also had to pop over to my brother’s apartment to feed his turtles, they are huge, and were very happy to see us come in. Once the turtles were all provided for we decided to head over to Eglinton Park. Cadie has been there exactly once too, though she doesn’t seem to love it as much as she does Sunnybrook (Go figure, dogs are weird sometimes).

Anyhow, tonight the grand tour of Toronto’s best parks continues, and I am hoping to get her back to Sherwood. Are there any other fab parks we should take in while we’re at it?

Memory Lane

One of the things I have wanted for the longest time is a digital frame. I feel like we have so many wonderful pictures, capturing adorable moments for posterity, sitting idly on the internet, or forgotten is someone’s my pictures file. Just this morning I found this fantastic snap shot of Cadie as a little puppy. She’s so tired and tiny in this photo that it almost makes me forget how tough those puppy months were.

I have some friends who take beautiful pictures of their pets. My photographic style is to “get lucky” to wait until I manage to catch Cadie in a perfect position. Alternatively I shoot like a maniac and hope that of the 25 pictures shot during that moment in time that 10% of them or more will be useable. This is not a good technique I know, but I have some pretty good pictures as a result.

Still I have to ask myself: what is the purpose of taking pictures if we forget to put them some place where we can see them. I do have a frame that I’ve been meaning to fill for some time with photos. The problem is that this is an old school frame, requiring hard copies, and I haven’t made time to turn my digital pictures into hard copies, so the frame goes unused.

At any rate, I’m glad I have the pictures, and I’m glad I found these pictures, puppies, like babies, are only small for so long, and while I couldn’t handle owing a perma-puppy, it’s nice to be able to look back at those days nostalgically.

The Best One of All

Cadie loves her tennis balls. Last night she got really lucky. It was pouring after work, and hot weather meant that the water was warm; it felt like walking in a running shower. Cadie isn’t much for walking in the rain, and frankly this is one of the quirks that I love about her. So we went out for about 15 minutes. But I decided that I would make it up to her by taking her out to my building’s backyard. We share a fence with a private tennis club, and sometimes the yard will be full of lost tennis balls. So much the better for us. Cadie has an impressive collection. She has at least 1 bucket full of tennis balls, and a dresser drawer that is half full of tennis balls. In spite of this enviable collection, each newly found tennis ball is a treasure that only Cadie can fully appreciate.


As I said, last night she got lucky; the yard was full of tennis balls. She eagerly ran to each tennis ball in turn, while I followed along behind her. Eventually, after having sniffed every tennis ball in the yard, she ran back towards the porch, ducked under and selected a tennis ball from the bucket.

I used this opportunity to grab a couple of other tennis balls. This is going to sound like I spoil her, but, the highlight of Cadie’s day is finding a new tennis ball, so if I see 2 or 3 loose tennis balls I grab them and hide them in my dog walking bag. Then I place them strategically, while Cadie isn’t looking. This way she finds a new tennis ball almost everyday.

So while I was filling my bag, Cadie selected a sodden tennis ball from the bucket, and then indicated that she was ready to go in. So I helped Cadie in the house, by taking the tennis ball, and lifting her up to the landing, (the stairs here are grates, very uncomfortable for little dog feet). While I was helping her, I made up my mind that I would give the tennis ball a bit of a dry, nothing special, I grabbed some paper towel and just did a light drying. Cadie eagerly grabbed the ball and headed for the couch.

I didn’t think anything of it, this is our routine really. I went about my business, getting her supper, starting mine. It was after I turned the water off that I head this disgusting squishing sound coming from the couch. So I made up my mind that that particular tennis ball had to go, I went over and took it from Cadie. At first I thought that I would leave it in the bathroom sink to see if it might dry out.

Cadie was like a dog possessed; she refused to leave the bathroom, and sat, straight at attention, never taking her eyes off the spot where she knew she could find her tennis ball. So I kicked her out of the bathroom and shut the door. She spent the next 2 hours scratching at the door. I didn’t know what else to do, so I gave her one of the other balls I had grabbed. No go, she wanted the one in the bathroom. Fortunately by this time the rain had completely stopped and I could take her out for a walk. We did a short walk, up and down the beltline. Then on my way home I tried to plant a new tennis ball.

This was a disaster. The ball bounced a foot off the ground, and rolled downhill into the street. Of course Cadie saw the ball, and was staining at the end of her leash to get to it. The cars meanwhile are trying to hold back so as not to run over the crazy dog lunging for a ball. Chaotic it’s true, but short lived nonetheless, the traffic soon cleared and Cadie got her new tennis ball. I feeling like I had finally won the battle of the tennis ball, happily headed for home.

As soon as we stepped in the apartment Cadie headed for the bathroom to try to find the first tennis ball. It was no drier, and in fact, seemed to be wetter, so I made the decision that I would through it out as soon as the warden’s back was turned. I got my opportunity about 2 hours later, Cadie had some sort of food that she was chomping away on, and I flew to the bathroom to get rid of the ball while she was otherwise occupied.

I only had 2 minutes; Cadie was in the bathroom looking for her long, lost toy by the time I got back. So I lifted her up, and she gave the counter a sniff, and then accepted the tennis ball as lost. By the time I was finished in the bathroom that night Cadie, looking pretty dejected, had already put herself to bed.

Oh well, it’s just one tennis ball, and tomorrow will be a new day, filled with new tennis balls.

Is anyone out there?

Once again I took Cadie home with high hopes that she could expend some energy in my mother gigantic backyard. This time the weather held, and Cadie had a fantastic romp. She chased sticks, lounged in the long grass and ate and tennis ball, it was everything a little dog could want out of life.




While Cadie was living the good life my mom and I sat on the patio, drinking tea and chatting. She’s been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, which means that she is full of stories about the beach at Port Dover, the sales in the mall, and what the future holds for her. My mom is now about 5 years away from retiring and she is starting to think about a plan. You know the things you will do once you are retired and have all day to sit around and watch day-time television. Since my mother is not even a little bit interested in day-time television, especially since Oprah announced her own retirement, which means that mom needs “a plan” something to do that makes getting out of bed worthwhile.



In the middle of our conversation about her future my mother turned to me and said. “Do you know what would be a great idea? You should start a blog about Cadie.” I gave her a funny look and told her that I am already blogging about Cadie. She tried to laugh it off, but her statement is already out there, and now I have to ask, is anyone reading this?

Sodden

The world is heavy with humidity, it's kind of like walking at the bottom on Lake Ontario. Cadie and I headed out for our evening walk, full of spirit. But after 30 minutes or so we were both dragging. It was the longest walk that I think we've ever been on together. I mean, not literally, but it felt like the longest. So we stumbled home and into the shower, that helped a lot. If tomorrow is like this we won't be walking.

Uter meanwhile is loving the weather it is 28 degrees in her tank, and she is currently spying on from under her dock. Until a turtle moved into my home I had no idea they were such stalkers. But, at least someone is enjoying the weather.

Civic Dog

So this has been a very disappointing weekend for Cadie. I took her to my mother's yesterday so that she could spend a beautiful day frolicking in her huge backyard, only to find that it rained most of the day, and no one was really all that interested in sitting in the backyard.

Instead I took Cadie to visit my grandmother. My grandmother moved into a retirement home in January and she is having a tough time adapting. Because she wasn't sleeping my mother decided not to call her ahead of time to let her know I was coming. This sounds really thoughtless, but the thinking behind it was not that we would catch my grandma off guard, rather, if we tell her I'm coming and something goes wrong the plan has to change we don't want to upset her. Anyhow, Cadie was originally bred to be a therapy dog, and taking her into the retirement home is so rewarding. All of my grandmother's neighbors are thrilled to see the dog. They hover over her and make a huge fuss about how cute she is, and how nice it is to see a dog again. All of this attention puts Cadie on cloud nine. She laps it up like it's food. Grandma seems to like it too before I could even sit down she asked me how many people down stairs had seen me with the dog, and did they know we were there to visit her.  It's good to be wanted, and it makes me happy to know that Cadie brings so much joy to people, it kind of takes the edge off my disappointment.