The difference a day makes

Today we woke up to sunshine. Well, not directly into our bedroom since that is quite shaded, but for the rest of Vancouver, it has been a pretty sunny day. Louise and I headed out first to the dog park, where we met some of the usual crowd as well as this large fellow, an English Mastiff. Louise was right at home with this big guy, and they hung out for a bit before we moved around to say hi to some of the other dogs.

Here is another dog, and as you can see, Louise was poking around to see if he did have eyes under that hair. She really liked his owner because he had a bag of treats. After some mild harassment, we moved on because the dog park was close to a mud pit and we needed dryer ground.

That meant a walk down Davie Street to get to the sea wall. You would never know that Vancouver had snow just the day before from here! It was completely gone, unlike our shady street. Louise enjoyed meeting the crows, showing off for various people and generally checking things out.

Making tracks in the snow

Today's weather was a bit unexpected as the rain turned to snow. Louise thought she must be back in Vernon with all this white stuff. Several times today I offered to take her for a walk and she wasn't interested. It was raining pretty hard at the time, to be fair, and one of the times I asked her was when Holly was carving up some turkey. Not many pugs will pass up a show like that, no matter how badly they need to go for a walk. Even after dinner, she was hesitant to head out in case the cats happened to get an extra piece of turkey without her around to 'supervise.'

One of the cool things about walking Louise in snow (pun intended) is that you can see where she has been. This gets interesting when she is about ready to do her business, as the usual behaviour is to start circling around the spot she has chosen.

I'm not sure if this is a small dog behaviour, or a pug-specific, or unique to just Louise. I doubt it is any of the three, actually. Some dogs do this, others don't. I just think it makes for interesting swirly tracks in the snow.

Of course, this also meant that cars were making more noise than usual as they went by. As most of you are already aware, Louise has a fascination with the automobile. Hearing a car drive by in the slush and snow became a big distraction for her but I'm happy to say that she was good today and did not give in to the chase. But it took more than a little encouragement to keep her on task as those nasty SUVs drove by.

Profilin

Profilin
Originally uploaded by iTripped

I took this photo this morning because Louise needed an emergency morning walk. The sun was out and the flowers were in full bloom in the church lot across the street (our usual emergency short walk destination). I wasn't really trying for this specific angle but slipped while holding the camera and was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the picture.

Maybe I should take more pictures this way.

Today seems to be filled with 'emergency releases', be they dog related or work related. It only seems fitting that my day started like this.

Two less Teeth

Louise had her dentist appointment yesterday and as we feared, she had two loose teeth so the vet had to take them out. As you can see here, she now has a visible gap between her front bottom teeth. I suppose it does look better than that one tooth that stuck straight out, but in a way I thought that gave her a silly look that I now miss a little.

Don't get me wrong, I think she looks better now, and is certainly healthier since her gums can now heal and her teeth are clean. I just liked the 'one tooth' grin that we used to get from time to time.

Since Louise was at the vet all day yesterday and at the office today, she really hasn't had much time at the home with Holly and the cats. Right now Louise is sleeping next to my wife and 'dreaming' - she is barking a bit and her little paws are moving. Must be some interesting dreams, Louise! Earlier today while in the office, Greg leaned over her to get a better look at my computer screen. Since Louise was already sleeping, she just assumed his arm was there to be a chin-rest and she immediately used it as such.

 

Something in the water

For today's walk, Louise and I headed back down to Coal Harbour to tour the marina. She likes this area because she can run off-leash, although she abused that privilege today when she ran into Yaletown Sofa.
Fortunately the store owner didn't seem to mind and even offered her a doggie treat! Now I expect that every time we walk along here, Louise is going to try to sneak back into the sofa store to find her new friend.

After that, we headed further down to where the float planes are docked and managed to see one come in for a landing. Louise had fun barking and chasing the planes (from a comfortable distance of course) and I enjoyed taking photos of airplanes. It was a nice day, if a bit on the windy side but neither Louise or I seemed to mind much.

All in all it was a full walk on a nice day. Just the sort of thing to remind me what a great place we already live in, even after just returning from a vacation.

A new smile

Before we left for vacation, Louise had a loose tooth. It was the one in the front, that had moved over beside another tooth. Well as can be seen by today's photo, the tooth has come out and Louise's smile has been changed forever.

I think it looks a lot better, and on Monday it will be official as she will go in for a dental cleaning. We had all three pets into the vet today (a new vet, a much cheaper one - leave a comment if you are interested in the details.) It was a little chaotic at times, but they were friendly and very accommodating. All three pets got their annual vaccinations, which was a little bit overdue.

We used our friend's car to get the animals over to this vet, and that in itself was an adventure since the two cats are almost always indoors. Sophie loved the car ride, but Sassy decided to hide under the seat on the way there. Unfortunately, this was the same car that was used for Bill's bachelor party, so I am sure it was pretty stinky under there. (On the way home from the party Bill got a little sick in the back of his car.) I noticed that Sassy decided to hide under the OTHER seat on the trip home.

Louise on the other hand, was an instant hit at the animal clinic, and managed to swindle three treats out of the receptionist before we left. She really can be shameless at times, although she did look a little worried while Sophie was getting checked out.

Granville Island Market

Since today was our first day back from vacation, we wanted to take Louise someplace different for her walk. We also wanted to get a few things from the market, so it was decided that we would go to Granville Island. It turned out to be a lot busier than we expected, given that it was also a holiday.

While Holly was inside shopping, Louise and I were out looking at boats and listening to street performers. We even saw a man go by in a kayak, and he had a little dog in the cockpit with him.

When we arrived home last night, it was raining pretty hard and we still had to go pick up Louise from Hiram's house. As you can see, the weather cleared up by morning and we had a nice, sunny day. Louise was very interested in all the sights and even tolerated the occasional little girl who would ask to pet her for a bit.

Having said and done all that, I think I am still on the hook for a late night stroll. Someone is looking up at me with that anxious look, which is her way of giving a subtle hint.

Working on Wednesday is rough

Normally Louise is pretty perky on Tuesdays when I bring her into the office. We had to switch days this week so that she could go visit Hiram, so instead she is in on a Wednesday.

What a difference a day makes.

This dog is near-dead. She normally walks a lot of the way to work, only using the stroller for the skytrain ride. This morning she wanted to ride in her stroller the whole way, only getting out once to pee. Even in the office, she is konked out sleeping at her 'desk' and is in no hurry to go for a walk. But since it is lunch time, I should probably coax her out.

Oh yeah - today's photo was taken at the dog park. You can see the shaved patch on her forepaw where the IV needle was inserted.

Change of schedule

Louise has to change her schedule a little bit this week because she will be going to visit Hiram for a bit. She is looking forward to this, as visits with her favorite golden retriever are always eventful.

This is a photo that Greg took a little while ago and it is a fairly common look that Louise will give. You can see the one tooth of hers that sticks out as well. We are probably going to have to do something about that in the near future. It's not bothering her, but because it has moved right next to one of her other teeth, both are starting to suffer.

More fame, wrong reasons

So once again, Louise has made her way onto the ihazahotdog website. While the picture is a good one, I wasn't thrilled with the caption. But meh, I know a lot of people like it, so there it is, linked for everyone to see. Basically, we had yet another person send us the link for the pug screensaver and put Louise next to the monitor so she could look at it. We had to give her other reasons to look at the monitor though, as she is generally not interested in video only.

Now if that little pug was snorting or barking.... well that's a whole different scenario.

The cast is off

Still limping
Originally uploaded by iTripped

I think this photo was actually taken before the last operation, but it's pretty close to how Louise looks now. No more cast but still with a slight limp. We heard back from the lab and as it turns out, the mysterious growth on her paw was nothing more than a wart. Since there isn't really a lot of meat on the paw, everytime she walked on it, the pressure made her paw hurt.

The good news is that they got all of the wart, so at this point, it is a simple matter of her paw healing from the cut. She still limps a bit, but not nearly as bad as before - in no time I expect she will be back to car chasing and policing the dog park like before.

Until that time, she just looks like another overly spoiled West End dog, being carried by it's owner instead of walking on her own. At least with the cast, people sort of clued in.