A Milestone

Yes, this is my hundredth blog post. This blog, that started in February, just before the Olympics, is now 10 months old, and yes! has 100 posts. To celebrate, I took Cadie back to her two favourite dog parks Sherwood and Sunnybrook.

Friday was a great day for me, we knocked off work early, had a wonderful lunch at the Estates of Sunnybrook, and then I took advantage of the extra time by taking Cadie for a good long walk, and romp around Sherwood Park.

 It was the perfect day. Sunny and not too cold, and Cadie was able to play in the park for her usual hour in her favourite spots. But even with the early start, evening comes early in December, and the light is soon started to disappear, it was practically dusk by the time we left the trail at 4:30.

But, night also, must come to an end, and in the morning we headed up to the official off leash dog park at Sunnybrook. Again, the weather was beautiful, bright, sunny, and not too cold, despite the frost on the grass.

Normally I don't take Cadie's leash off in this park because she doesn't have the best recall there, but all the work we've been doing has paid off, and she came every time I called her, and soon her leash came off.

The morning wore on, and Cadie had had her fill of chasing balls, so we decided to spend some time exploring the foot trails that surround the park. This was a really nice treat. It was totally new scenery for me, and new smells for Cadie.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, the weather was perfect, and Cadie confidently trotted along, super happy, seeing this walk through an urban park, as an adventure...that's right, an adventure on the end of a designer leash.

After a good play and a good walk, we headed back to the car, and then home, where we warmed up under a blanket, while drinking hot tea.

I hope you've enjoyed reading our 100th post, as much as we enjoyed living it!

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?

A Party for the Little Dogs

Cadie is exhausted! We had a nice sleep in this morning, and when we got up, I kept her walk short and sweet, in all I think we were out for about 15 minutes. Cadie was so upset, she kept struggling and pulling to be able to stay out longer. I finally got her back in the apartment and forced her to eat her breakfast. She then threw herself on the couch and sulked while I prepared my own breakfast. After 10 of the most despondent minutes of her pampered life, the phone rang, the distinctive ring that it always means there are friends at the door. Cadie immediately popped up and ran to the door. In an attempt to keep some order I picked her up and opened the door so that she could see that her favourite boy-dog Toby, who was here for a visit.

It was kind of like a scene from a movie, the two dogs ran toward each other, and, standing on their hind legs, reached out and embraced, wrapping their front legs around each other. For a brief second it was touching and adorable, then the teeth came out, and the growling started. Instead of a heart-felt hug they were wrestling. C and I kept an eyes on the "kids" while we ate our breakfast, then we headed out for Sunnybrook Park.

C, Salt's mother and myself are all part of the small dog meet up group, and they were having an event at Sunnybrook Park today. For the most part it was pretty low key; Cadie engaged in her favourite activity, tennis ball chasing, for most of the time. Toby chased after Cadie, and a couple of other dogs. The event was a lot of fun, attracted a huge number of small breed dogs, and helped raise money for an organization called Helping Homeless Pets. Cadie came home and immediately fell asleep on the couch, she got up only long enough to move from the couch to the bedroom. She is now back on the couch, head between the feather pillows and the couch back, feet dangling at 45 degrees above her.

Later this afternoon, I received an email from this same organization with the details for their auction, take a look if you're interested in helping a good cause.

http://www.mycausemyauction.com/Items.aspx?a=hhp103