“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.