Sigh…

The boy in the book I’m reading just got one of these.  It’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy.  One day I want to own one!

A sort of long weekend

It’s come and gone.  The Canada weekend spectacular at the Duncan cottage is over.  It was full of adventures, drinking, and peeing in the woods!

Friday afternoon, M and I left the city early (3:00) but still landed in the mass exodus of cars leaving the city.  In the end, we were glad of the early departure, because it could have been WAY worse.  We met up with Dave and Danielle in Peterbourough and followed them all the way to Shawville, QC where we snagged the keys from Dave’s parents and headed to the cottage.  Now, let me explain, Dave’s cottage is a wonderful little house with no running water and an outhouse out back – totally a great place to have crazy good times, especially when you’ve got cold beer – which we did!  That was the first thing we had before heading to bed.

Saturday brought more people to the cottage – Dave’s cousin Rob and Danielle’s sister Lisa plus her awesome puppy, Tia. Then Andrew and Ericka came from Ottawa.  We had a relazing, partly rainy day, playing board games, reading and chatting.  We even managed to squeeze in a swim before dinner of organic beef steaks, potatoes and an awesome dessert made by Ericka.  After dinner we did some fun DIY fire works by the water at Norway Bay before coming back to hang out some more and go to bed.

Sunday was just as relaxing – for the most part – until we decided to have a brilliant stupid idea of hiking to a swimming hole nearby with Tia and with Dave’d parent’s dog Bridget.  It was a good plan overall because this swimming hole is awesome – it’s where I bumped my keister last summer when I chickened out on jumping off a rock.  HOWEVER – we did not fully take into account the fact that we were traipsing through a wooded area that was muddy and exceptionally slick because of a major rain the night before.  M, Lisa, Tia and I went in first, and managed to get somewhere though there were a few falls on the way, and a few nervous moments where Tia went a little to close to the edge of the fast moving water than we would like.  Then we discovered we were at the top of the falls, not the bottom and had to walk crawl on our bums down a rock face towards the pool.  Tia was the first down, moving straight into the water (God loves puppies who can swim) but she couldn’t get out of the slippery rocks to find Lisa!  Marty rescued her, and all three of us and the dog managed to test the waters a little bit. 

Then came adventure part 2.  Dave, Rob, and Danielle arrived with Bridget, a super dominant and slightly aggressive German Sheppard.  YIKES!  This got complicated because she wasn’t well behaved at all and nearly pulled Dave into the water when trying to get towards Tia.  Then she started biting at Tia, and they started a little fighting right on the edge of the fast moving water!  NOT COOL!  We all panicked a little, separated them, and quickly made the call that this was a BAD idea and scrambled out of there.  Dave, Danielle and Bridget left first.  Then the rest of us left together.  We managed to keep the dogs separated and then opted to swim in the bay instead.  That was until lightening and thunder rolled in.  We made it back to the cottage just in time – and apparenely we just missed a huge tree crashing on the beach at the bay too!

Waiting for us at the cottage was more friends, Ash and Maria, who chilled with us the rest of the time.  Lisa unfortunately had to take off with Tia, but we were a new crew of people.  We had dinner – and after that I had to head off to the Duncan’s house to sleep, because unlike everyone else, I had to work on Monday!  Luckily I had the option of going in to the Ottawa office, so it was an easy commute in with Mr. Duncan and an easy day at the call centre.  I was later picked up by the cottage crew who has decided to foray in to Ottawa to look around a little.  It was too bad is started to pour there too so we jumped back in the car and headed back to have an awesome dinner of BBQ burgers.

Yesterday was the last day – we relaxed in the morning in the sun! (I got a little sunburn – finally some colour!)  After tucking in, we cleaned up and headed back to civilization.  We left about 2:00 and made it home just before 8:00 last night.  All in all a good trip.

Thanks Dave for hosting!

Goodbye Candikins…

Well, it’s official now…As of last evening, Candy Alexander has passed on. She lived a great life, and she was a beautiful, well-natured, and very special companion for the whole Alexander family. It’s sad that she isn’t with us anymore, but she lived a long time with us and came a long way. From being a small puppy rescued from the Drake Animal Hospital to being a slighty prima donna-esque old lady, she brought so much love to our family. I will truly miss her.

Today I feel very much more at peace about her passing on. I talked to Mum on the phone, and she said that Candy passed away very peacefully, to the point that you couldn’t even tell when her heart stopped beating. Mum tucked her away in her little blue blanket so that just her nose and eyes showed, the way she liked to sleep, and both her and Dad said their last goodbyes.

So, goodbye Candida, the cutest mutt I ever had the pleasure of calling my own. Goodbye, we all love you. We all miss you.

Ups and Downs

Today has been a weird day. Full of ups and downs.

I had a great day of working hard on my friend Karl’s movie stuff and catching up with a friend. It’s so nice to feel useful and creative again. I didn’t realize just how much I’ve been needing to do theatre-type stuff until today. I just felt so alive and excited, and it was even more clear when my friend Kris pointed out how much my demeanor changed when I was talking with him about theatre stuff. Sigh. One day I’ll get back to it for real.

Tonight was a different story though. My family puppy dog, Candy, has been sick for some time now. She’s got arthritis and has become slightly incontinent (leaky). She’s been going deaf and blind for some time now, but she deteriorating a lot more lately. Last week, Mum took her to the vet, and they suspect that she’s been experiencing some pain. We all prepared ourselves with the fact that some time between now and our planned trip to Africa in October we were going to have to put Candy down. Tonight the truth of the situation became more obvious. Candy just isn’t doing well. Her stomach trouble isn’t getting better and she can’t take her pain medication, on top of which her allergies (which cause her to swell up and need to wear a collar) are acting up. It’s hard, but tonight we came to the family decision that it’s not fair to her to keep her going when she’s so ill. Mum is going to try and book an appointment for Candy to be put down next week. None of us could bear the thought of her continuing in pain, and spending her last month alive wearing a stupid collar.

The saddest part, I think, for me and my sister is that we won’t get to see our precious little pup before she slips away. Maybe it’s just for the best. I don’t think I really want to let her go. She’s been a part of the family for almost 14 years. It’s also tough to think that Mum, the one who rescued poor Candy from the animal shelter after she was abused so long ago, will have to be the one to drop her off…alone for the most part.

We have a couple of choices: to have Candy cremated and then it all take care of, to have a private cremation and to get Candy’s ashes, or something that allows us to get a paw print from Candy before she goes to remember her by. I think that’s what we’re going to do, at least for myself and my sister. Man…I knew this would come some day, but you’re never quite prepared for it.