Uncle Chris!

This weekend we had Louise out to the Richmond Night Market. We were there with Chris, a friend of ours who had never experienced the Market before.

It was a great combination from my perspective, as Chris and I shared the time spent carrying Louise.

Don't get me wrong, Louise was only too happy to walk on her own, but the market can get crowded at times, and some people were starting to trample her. So most of the time she was only too happy to be carried instead. She got a much better view from there as well.

One thing about going to the market with Louise: it is like going someplace public with a celebrity. Complete strangers will stop and ask if they can pet the dog, and offer their own stories. Louise loves the attention from all of these people, so we just have fun with it.

Best part of the night for her was getting Chris to ride in the back seat with her. She wanted her ears to flap in the wind, and he was getting a bit nervous with how far she would hang out of the window.

Fun in the surf

head on
Originally uploaded by iTripped

Last weekend we took Louise to English Bay to play in the surf. Well, it started off as a walk down to the seawall, but when we saw other dogs in the water, little Louise could not resist getting her feet wet.

She had a lot of fun chasing after people, blue herons and even boats. Louise tends to run about 4 or 5 feet into the water and then stop just before getting in too deep. She likes the water, but isn't the most confident swimmer - just playing in it is just fine for her.

After frolicking in the surf, we had to take her to some nearby grass to try to dislodge the sand out of her harness clip.

Happy when wet
Originally uploaded by iTripped

Eventually we had to take her home and use the hose on the harness. I was able to work it free though, so all is good as new.

I posted a few other photos from that day on my flickr account - feel free to check them out as well.

More pictures of the water taxi

For today's post I figured I would show you what these little aquabusses look like. This was a fairly new one, as the paint hadn't yet been scuffed.

Louise is getting pretty used to the boat ride now - some days she looks out the entry way while we are en-route, but usually that is only if there are no other passengers to interact with.

We probably would not take the aquabus at all if I was able to take Louise on the Skytrain - but to do that, I would have to put her in a cage, which would be cumbersome to say the least.

Fun at the river

Louise had to come pick me up at the airport last weekend and since we were there, we decided to visit the Fraser River dog park. I'm not sure if that is exactly what it is called, but man oh man, the dogs sure do have a good time there. Ours was no exception.

The nice thing about this park is that the dogs are allowed to run off-leash along the sandy beaches and play in the water. The beach isn't really suited for sunbathers, and there is a bird sanctuary nearby too, so the dogs just love it. Pictured here is Louise meeting with one of the few dogs that was close to her size. They got along well. As for the other, larger dogs, well Louise got a bit bossy toward one and we had to separate them. But the other dog's owner was pretty good natured about it, so he cut Louise a lot of slack.

Needless to say, we had quite the little mess on our hands when we started to head back to the car. We forgot towels! We made do with lots of grass instead, and got the really muddy parts wiped off our dog before heading home.

Ferry ride home

The ride home last night was quite pleasant. First off, we were just a little bit late in getting to the dock, but the ferry operator noticed me walking down the walkway and turned the boat around. I thought that was nice.

The weather was warm and the walk home was shorter, since we were able to get a ferry all the way to the closest stop (we don't always take that ferry - depends on how long we would have to wait.)

Feeling good today

Vancouver is warming up. Fast. Today on our way in to the office, Louise almost got overheated. This would be normal if it was summertime, but since just last week was rainy and cold, it was pretty noticeable. I even had to take off my jacket, it was getting so warm.

I suppose we can deal with this easily enough, just by bringing some cold water with us when we go on trips like this. At this point though, so far so good.

Also on the way in, we almost got caught on TV. We walk past a local TV station and they had the weather reporter out front giving today's forecast - we had to walk around her to avoid getting on camera and spoiling the shot.

Later still, in the office, I let Louise have a little bit of yogurt. Can you tell by looking at this photo that I took immediately after? Yes, those would be spots of goodness on her lip, nose roll and eyebrows. I'm amazed that I got a shot without her licking her lips, which she has been doing while I type this out.

Out for a walk on a sunny day

Often, we take Louise out for a quick walk, and regret not bringing the camera. Either the scenery is nice, or Louise meets some unusual dog, or she gets into some crazy situation that nobody would believe. In any case, these are times we wish we had brought the camera.

So this day, my wife figured she would bring it, since the sun was shining and it was warm outside. She got some pretty good pictures, mostly of Louise in front of flowers in bloom. This is great because as I mentioned, it's one of the times when we wanted to take pictures. Sorry to report that no crazy situations or interesting dogs were encountered on this walk.

Louise gets raw

We recently decided to switch Louise to a raw food diet, instead of the carb-a-licious cereal like stuff she used to eat. Gone was the doggie kibble, here was fresh beef tripe, raw salmon and pureed vegetables.

Louise has always shown enthusiasm at meal time so it wasn't like her reaction was unusual. We started with beef because that is supposed to be a good flavour to build up the proper enzymes and stuff. (As usual, I only 'mostly' paid attention, so I may be over simplifying things here.) One thing that is different, is now I have to wash her bowl after each meal since well, raw meat left lying around is less than sanitary. That part I know I have right.

There is a bit of adjustment for Louise though - before she was able to eat her dog food pretty much whenever she was hungry. Now, she gets fed twice a day, and she is always ravenous by feeding time. Hopefully, this is a temporary thing as she adjusts to the new diet. If we notice she is losing any weight, at that time we will increase her portion size.

Louise votes for the portion size starting now.