Sleepy Santa Pug

Okay, this is a bit overdue but here we are. Louise has had to endure lots of rain this past month but now that the holidays are upon us she is starting to perk up.

We put up two trees this year, on opposite ends of our book case. Normally, we have a pet bed in each of those spots, so they had to be moved. In Louise's case though, her bed did not move very far at all, and she ends up sleeping just under the tree. Luckily, she hasn't messed with the ornaments too much so far - the worst that has happened is that she has brushed past them while getting set to curl up on her bed. (Louise tends to circle around her sleeping spot a couple times.)

It just happened that we were home for the holiday this year and I think the pets were pretty happy about that. It means less time being left to guard the house without us. Louise was pretty relaxed, in fact she hasn't wanted to move from the sofa all day.

Well, I need to wrap this up - Louise has started to stir and is looking to go out - right on schedule. Have a happy holiday season everybody and we look forward to posting more in the new year!

First Snow of the season

They have been taunting us with snow in the forecast all week and I basically refused to accept it until the snow actually started to fall. Holly and I were returning home from eating dinner when some light flurries started up. This wasn't enough to inspire Louise to go for much of a walk though. What she noticed more was that it was basically cold and wet, and it was warm and dry in the house. She did her business and wanted to hustle back to the condo.

Of course, this was precisely what I had in mind too, so we agreed to have as brief a walk as necessary.

On the next morning Louise and I had a vastly different experience. There was about an inch or two of heavy, wet snow. This of course made everything on the ground twice as interesting and Louise had a ball. After she tinkles she sometimes likes to kick the dirt up a bit, and this is especially true with snow. Sorry for the posterior shot but well, I felt it was worth it to showcase the flying snow in action.

The snow continued to melt through the day but wasn't completely gone by the time temperatures started to drop again so now it's starting to freeze. It will have an entirely different, and less pleasant character by tomorrow morning.

November Wind Storm

I took this photo on the weekend, when Louise and I went for a longer walk one morning. We went down to the marina in Coal Harbour and despite it being very overcast, we had a pretty good time of it.

Then, last night we were out for a walk and WOW, was it windy! Such a contrast to the quiet mistiness from the weekend, the winds were gusting up as high as 80 kph. It didn't rain very much or very hard while we were out walking (luckily) but the wind blew most of the leaves off the trees. It was kind of fun too, as it was not overly cold. Louise enjoyed having her little ears flapping in the wind and insisted on walking down to English Bay to see the waves crashing in.

Lamb bone and a visit to the Vet

Just look at that face.

Holly picked up some lamb and one of the side benefits is that it usually has a bone suitable for Louise. This is always a highlight for her and she gets quite excited. I get quite excited too, because Holly is an excellent cook and as always, the lamb was very tasty.

I know that last picture is a little out of focus, but I really like the expression on Louise's face, which is why I decided to go with it anyway. She settled in on her pet bed and went to work on it. The bone kept her busy for the rest of the night but there was still most of the bone left over by bed time.

The other thing that happened recently was our annual visit to the vet. I guess it wasn't really the annual one, since we arrived months after the reminder notice was sent out. Still, better to be late than to have never showed up at all. We brought all three pets in for their shots and Louise went first.

It was pretty obvious that she remembered the vet and what that experience involved. She was not interested in being anywhere near him. When we placed her on the examination table she would move to the far edge - away from Dr. Sandhu. She was squirming so much that we had to hold her tight just for him to use the stethoscope on her chest. Louise remembered that this was where needles were involved.

Eventually we got her shots done (she had 3) and then we brought her back into the lobby while we looked after our two cats. Louise was cool as a cucumber and relaxed on one of the chairs while the cats were being dealt with. From there it was home, where all three animals slept off the medications for the night.

Happy Halloween!

Our little pug didn't do much celebrating this year. She had to stay home while we went out to a costume party, but for tonight she managed to cuddle up in Holly's lap and is fast asleep. I figure this is the way she likes to spend the holiday best, so that's ok by us.

BOO!

Welcome to the haunted season

On our lunch break the other day, Louise and I walked over to the Olympic Village to check things out. Well to be honest, I was just curious to see how progress was coming along for the new London Drugs location as it is super convenient in relation to the office. Sadly, they are still painting the walls and such, so it is still a few weeks away from opening.

While there we did discover an overly tall patch of decorative grass, and I managed to persuade Louise into getting a couple good shots. She didn't really mind and we had a pretty good walk before heading back to work.

Fast forward to this morning when we headed out for our morning walk. Louise was raring to go, so we decided to head down to Coal Harbour to see the boats. We did that, but there wasn't much going on. I guess it's not really boating season anymore. On our way back though, Louise found some really nice leaves to rummage around in. The only complication I had was that it made it a little more difficult for me (as dog owners, you know what I am talking about) to pick up after her.

Still, Louise was not perturbed and we carried on our way, encountering more sidewalks covered in leaves. Oddly enough, we didn't stop to chase any chestnuts, although I do recall seeing her searching for some.

Later on we were out for our afternoon walk, and noticed that there was a 'citizen protest' going on against the proposed rental tower to be built in our neighborhood. There were dozens of people gathered, listening to various people take turns to speak. We took a pamphlet and kept going home though as by then it was lightly raining and Louise was pretty much done walking.

Octoberfest includes Chestnuts

Okay, this first photo is of Louise with yet another chestnut in her mouth. What is unusual about this one is that she decided it was the right one to start chewing on, and managed to drive one of her K9 teeth so deep into it that I had to pull it off the tooth for her.

At least there was no risk of her choking on it. Sheesh. Still, she has oodles of fun with this, as evidenced by her furious tail wagging. I took a brief video of her chasing chestnuts, which I will add to the end of this post.

Of course, chestnuts aren't the only thing going on this time of the year - oh no. Last weekend while on our morning walk we got a call from Holly who was wondering what we should have for brunch. We decided that it would be a good idea to go to Starbucks and get some pumpkin spice lattes, along with a few things to eat as well. It was a bit of an indulgence but that was okay because Louise just loves waiting outside a Starbucks coffee shop - I think she assumes that there will be some treats in it for her if she does. She sure likes her Vancouver Island oat bars.

Of course she's right too, when we got home we ate our snacks (and shared a little with Louise) and drank our drinks - but ultimately concluded that the pumpkin spice latte is far too sweet for it to taste good. We have also tried a similar drink at Blendz but had similar results there too. It might be nice to find a pumpkin spiced drink that had the spice like a chai tea and a good pumpkin flavour without being filled with sugar on top.

Not that Louise cared one iota. She got her oat bar.

Autumn Antics

Vancouver is a funny place when the seasons change. Not all of the cherry blossoms come at once and similarly, not all of the trees drop their leaves at the same time. Instead, the season stretches out for weeks, as trees of different types react to the colder weather on their own schedules.

Incidentally, this is quite possibly Louise's favorite season - it's still nice and warm during the day, yet not too hot to be bothersome. Also, she has that habit of chasing after chestnuts and well, they are dropping quite regularly this week. I'm surprised people still park their cars under chestnut trees during fall, since the dropping nuts have been known to dent them.

In a week or so I expect the wind to pick up and when it does, Louise should have some good times chasing after the leaves. As you can see by today's photos though, she isn't much interested in them at the moment.