Stuff to do on Canada Day with your dogs!

There's going to be a dog walk sponsored by they Terry Fox community - this is the 3rd one that's been held so far this summer, and I think there's still a couple more planned for this summer.

The event is being held at Point Pleasant Park from 9am to 11am and people are meeting up at the Tower Road entrance and the first 100 donations will get a free bandana. There will be free doggy treats from Bark & Fitz.

Also at Point Pleasant Park - Shakespeare by the Sea is starting up tomorrow - July 1st, and I don't know how many people know that the productions are dog friendly!! So if you're up to the Bard, the Bard is up for dogs. Go to their website at http://www.shakespearebythesea.ca/ to find out which productions they're doing up this year - you can also go to my Point Pleasant Park page to find out the dog rules for the park and a little more information about the Shakespeare by the Sea productions and dogs.

There are a BUNCH of events listed on the Canada Day events listings at hrmcanadaday.ca - too numerous to mention here - and a lot of them sound like there's no reason why they would not be dog friendly - parades, picnics, and event is even featuring an act called the "Cool Canines" - that's The Great Canadian Family Picnic on the Commons Jul 1, 2009 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM - so go to their website at http://www.hrmcanadaday.ca/events.php to check everything out.

Healing Animal SCARS is having a Car Wash on Canada Day, at the Irving Blue Canoe in Eastern Passage on Cow Bay Road. It will be held from 10am to 4pm so please bring your vehicle to get washed to fundraise for the kitties!

Nathan Winograd is now following me on Twitter

This is one of the neatest things about Twitter - the "tit for tat" aspect of Twitter. I'm one of the kajillion people who subscribes to Nathan Winograd's newsletter, and today's edition said that he's now on Twitter, so I clicked on it to follow him - and minutes later - I get an email back saying that "Nathan Winograd is now following you on Twitter"

Probably by the end of the week he'll be following about 2,000 people - but still, it's pretty neat - today he clicked on and started following "dogkisser".

Something to do Sunday (tomorrow), some photos, a place to walk in Spryfield & a new doggy daycare for Hammonds Plains?

I've been under the weather this week, so I haven't been posting, so I thought I'd post a bunch of stuff at once.

First off is something to do tomorrow (Sunday) if you feel like going out - the Chewed Slipper out in Lower Sackville is having a backyard social if you want to go have some dog on dog fun - in aid of the Animal Rescue Coalition - they're going to have prizes, food (hot dogs & treats), live music (Tom Bedell's Band of Bros)

It's going to be from 1pm to 4pm - Humans get in free and it costs $10 per dog - for the Animal Rescue Coalition - and all the fun you can have - it includes: Barkyard Off Leash Play, Dog Wash & Towel Dry, Hot Dogs, Pop& Treats, plus chance to win Doggone Sweet Prizes from Three Dog Bakery and TCS.

The location is - The Chewed Slipper at 937 Sackville Drive, Lower Sackville - their phone number is 902-252-3294 if you get lost.

I noticed in today's Municipal notices that Hammond's Plains might be getting a new dog kennel/doggy day care, or maybe they already have one that's been operating illegally that's trying to become legal - if anyone knows, maybe they can send in a comment saying which it is so that we can share the love - but at any rate, it appears that a dog kennel is coming to Hammonds Plains. I say we can't have too many dog kennels/doggy day cares locally - so if you're so moved to go to this public information meeting - you should go!


For the last couple years there's been a new development being built on the William's Lake Road in Spryfield. When it was first started there was a much lauded newspaper article about how part of the development was going to include an off-leash dog park as part of the "park" aspect of the development. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen - even though in the last month I've emailed two city councillors and they said that maybe it still might happen.

A couple weeks ago I went and had a walk through the development and the "park" that they've plotted out - and there's no way that it could be used as an "off leash" park - it starts good - in the parking lot, but it doesn't loop around and end back in the parking lot - it has 2 exits - both of which end in streets within the development - which is completely shitty.One thing though is that the development has made this huge soccer field that's completely fenced in on 3 sides - so it might make a good off leash space as a sports field that's given over to dog owners - so we might want to talk to the city about that - but it is a nice little park for an on leash walk if you're interested - it's a great little spot for an on-leash walk actually - and you can also walk through the neighbourhood - the sidewalks are nice and there's hardly anyone around because not all the houses have been built. And the park even has some lady slipper orchids in it! So it's near the corner of Herring Cove Road and Williams Lake Road - and there's a nice parking lot to park in too. You should check it out.

This is a position that I'm finding Bobby in quite often....

Here's some photos of the backyard after I mowed the lawn this week - the dogs like it when I mow the lawn.
At the end is a slide show of other photos I took at the same time - especially nice is a section of Bobby digging a hole
He really likes digging holes

NS SPCA seizes 88 animals in Guysborough Nova Scotia

The NS SPCA were down in the district of the Municipality of Guysborough today seizing almost 90 animals from 2 ladies who said that they started out with 2 animals who just kept mating together and now they've ended up with almost 90.

On the news report the Chief Provincial Cruelty Officer said that they've been to the property before and the family have always refused help - which is very much unlike the case in the Valley where the woman who killed the kittens said that she was refused help for the kittens she drowned - even though on the news report tonight the woman said that "if you drown the cats they say that's illegal too" - like as if "you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't" - like it's illegal to hoard and it's illegal to kill them.

The SPCA at this point are saying that they are not going to lay charges - we all realize that hoarding is a medical illness and needs to be dealt with through the medical profession. I hope these ladies get the help that they need - but I don't know how they're going to get it if they aren't charged with something so that there is some follow-up by some governmental department. Otherwise the SPCA is going to be there again in 2 years seizing another 90 animals. Because hoarding - like any other medical condition - doesn't go away without treatment.

Maybe they can move their hoarding over to something inaminate though - like lighters and newspapers and matches, or dolls clothes. That would be much easier from an animal care point of view. Maybe someone should suggest that to them.

Probably Lloyd Hines is back home in the district of the Municipality of Guysborough - he should go have a visit to his constituents, see how he can help them - I wonder how his enlightened dog bylaws relate to this case - certainly doesn't seem to have had much effect.....

Below is tonights news coverage on CTV and CBC

Me and Bobby are going to be obedient

Tonight I went to my first class that Bobby and I are going to be taken at "Fur my Friends" - run by Amy Slaunwhite - she's one of the best dog trainers in the HRM, and I'm very happy to say - also a friend of mine.

Tonight was a "human only" class where she talked about what we're going to learn, and why it's so great that we're taking classes, and all the great things that we're going to be able to do and benefit from spending this time with our canine life companions.


It was also a great chance for her to give us these great free goodies too - free treats, a clicker, and a thick bunch of handouts that Amy has written herself!

Next week is going to be VERY interesting because not only will Bobby be coming with me, but my (80 year old) Dad has also agreed to come - and he's going to be bringing Jack with him! Now that's going to be neat to see Jack go to an obedience class and be taught by an 80 year old man - 2 crotchety old men learning clicker training! haha!

So Interesting! Do as I say, not as I do!

In my post yesterday about Celtic Pets, I talked about another blog that is apologizing for Zonda and Alice MacIsaac for some unknown reason - and for some other unknown reason attacks me, and Netta Armitage and uses personal emails that we exchanged between Zonda MacIsaac after the raid last year to somehow prove that - either Zonda is not all that bad of a person, or that Netta and I are as bad as Zonda - who knows what the author of this blog is trying to prove.

The funny thing is that the author of this blog is guilty of doing the things that they chide me for of on my own blog - removing and changing things on blog posts - because they've done quite a bit of that on the post where they publish these private emails! But luckily for all of us - I copied the post when it first came out - so we can all share the love of what they originally published - and we can scratch our collective heads as to why they would feel the need to change it up.

So here we go -

The post is at "random email between a convicted animal abuser and two animal advocates in Nova Scotia" in case you want to follow along - I like the title, because at least they got that fact right.

The first hint you get that things may be a bit skewed is when you read the sentence - "About two months later, the shelter put down a handful of dogs that were being rehabilitated at Celtic Pets before they could be adopted." They're talking about after the raid and when Pam Keddy put down 5 dogs for being "aggressive" towards staff and the SPCA had no choice but to do it, supposedly - I find this sentence interesting, because they say that the dogs were being "rehabilitated at Celtic Pets" - just about anyone else on this planet would call those dogs "being tortured", or being "abused" - not "rehabilitated". I think you can get my drift.


It's interesting that the next sentence talks about the dog "Bre" - a big beautiful malamute. It says - "One of them was a big beautiful malamute named Bre. She probably have suffered a lot from being so confined for two months or more - the shelter is not meant for long-term care. The rumor is she became aggressive, but so far it's only rumor."

I say it's interesting - because this blog post doesn't have EVERY email that animal abuser Zonda MacIsaac and myself exchanged - one of those email exchanges was about Bre particularly.

Zonda emailed me a question after Bre was killed - she asked -

Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Please tell me something Joan...was Bre in pain and do you feel they were justified in euthanizing her (they legally weren't)but as an animal lover and not wanting to see a dog in physical pain, what are your thoughts.

My thoughts about this email are - why would Zonda be asking me if Bre was in pain? Maybe - did she know that Bre had been in pain for a long time and should have been put down a lot sooner - but didn't do it herself - and left it to the SPCA to do the dirty work for her? So I would say that she didn't suffer from being confined for 2 months - she suffered from being confined for 2 months - PLUS however long Zonda kept her confined in the living hell of the Celtic Pets kennel.

Now HERE'S something very interesting - a paragraph has been removed from the edition that Ms. Real Pooper originally published of this post - and the post you see today. Here is the paragraph that Ms. Real Pooper removed -

Because Zonda pled guilty to two counts of abuse (or was it neglect?)as part of a deal to get two of her own dogs back, there was no actual trial. But she can't have anything to do with dogs for 20 years.

Why would Ms. Real Pooper feel it necessary to remove that parapraph - I don't know - does anybody out there in readerland have any ideas?

I'm pasting the whole next paragpraph here, because it's full of gold nuggets -

After the raid a few people like Joan Sinden and Annette Armitage tried to support Zonda Macisaac. They soon changed their positions after getting a lot of flak. Joan then became a harsh critic of Zonda and to this day faults her with the ill-health and aggressive behavior of a dog named Jack that she adopted. Here's some examples of her recent opinion, an endorsement of Zonda that Joan posted in 2006, and what she had to say about the SPCA in September 2008. In many posts - some may have been deleted by now - she gives the distinct impression that Zonda was mistreating Jack, a dog that went through about a dozen foster homes that Zonda was actually trying desperately to keep from being put down. There is an email about Jack from one of these foster families.

"After the raid, a few people like Joan Sinden and Annette Armitage tried to support Zonda MacIsaac" - Zonda WISHES! We continued to support Zonda for about 12-18 hours after the raid - like everybody else did - until the animals started arriving back at the Dartmouth shelter, and reality started settling in and we knew that everything that Zonda had been telling everyone was absolute lies. The only support we gave after that was on a humanitarian level - hoping that she received the mental help that she needed - I even went on Global television and said that as a human being I could understand that she was in great pain and needed to get help and I hoped she would get the psychological help that she needed and people would have compassion for her as a human being. Only a person who is evil would want anything other than that - but to define that as support for Zonda as a rescuer, is definitely incorrect.

"They soon changed their positions after getting a lot of flak." See above - "getting a lot of flak" - can you imagine.

"to this day faults her (Zonda) with the ill-health and aggressive behavior of a dog named Jack that she adopted." I don't fault Zonda - I fault her Mother - Alice - with Jack's missing eye, his curled toe-nails, and his food aggression to Alice. How many times do I have to say that Jack went down to Cape Breton with TWO eyes and came back with one? And that he was living in a house with at least 37 other dogs that never went outside and he was living in a house full of shit and piss? There's no doubt that he's always had an attitude problem - he's had a ton of homes and foster homes and he's got some problems - but he's now 13 years old, and he was supposed to be going to a home that was "safe" and "healthy" and where he was going to be treated "well" and have "good healthcare" - and he got none of those things. He's got that now, anyway. So thanks a lot Zonda for placing him in a great home with your Mom - I'm sure Jack really appreciated it.

"an endorsement of Zonda that Joan posted in 2006" - that is a letter that is posted in the comments section of someone else's blog (it's actually a blog post from an American dog blog about the 2006 election when the NDP were saying that "personally I believe in breed specific legislation", and it's fallout) - my support letter of Zonda that she asked me to write - one of 170 other letters that people wrote before the raid - and mine is the only one being singled out? Where are the 169 other people's letters? And it wasn't posted in 2006 - that's when that blog post was written on the dogpolitics.com blog - but the letter was written in 2007 - the same time as the other 169 letters were written by people who were supporting Zonda at the time. That is very disingenuous of Ms. Real Pooper, don't you think? Maybe like the rest of the post?

"what she had to say about the SPCA in September 2008" - the NS SPCA is an organization that continues to grow and get better. They are continuing to work on their problems and are learning from their mistakes on an almost daily basis. The people who are volunteering at the provincial board level currently are sincere and willing to change things for the good of the animals and I think they're moving in the right direction - for a long time I didn't think that, and my blog posts at that time reflected that. I don't go back and change my posts to change my opinions to match my current opinions - unlike maybe Ms. Real Pooper.

The next couple paragraphs are very interesting once again - they are completely changed from Ms. Real Poopers original post - I'll post the original so you can compare the 2 versions -

the original -
In this email you can read other things that Joan wrote to Zonda about Jack, or Jackie, and other matters. Who knows for sure whether what she wrote then is the truth, or what's on her blog now? What is true is that she wrote both. The emails came from people who received copies. They are not responsible for this blog, nor are
any of the emailers. The content is unchanged; names and addresses of most third parties deleted, with some exceptions. Oops. We are not here to explain, accuse, or defend anybody, just to offer raw material. For answers, ask the authors, preferably in person.
The Real Pooper

And here is the current version -
In this email however it's clear that while Joan was bashing Zonda online, for some time she was very friendly with her and asked her for help in saving some of the dogs that were seized. She also shows a very different attitude to the SPCA than she does today. Who knows for sure whether what she wrote then is the truth, or what's on her blog now? What is true is that she wrote both. She claims now that she always writes the truth, but the question of personal integrity remains.

The emails came from people who received copies. They are not responsible for this blog, nor are any of the emailers. The content is unchanged; names and addresses of most third parties deleted, with some exceptions. Oops.

We are not here to explain, accuse, or defend anybody, just to offer raw material. For answers, ask the authors, preferably in person.

The Real Pooper

In the "new" version - Ms. Real Pooper questions my "personal integrity". That's interesting - why she would decide to add that idea into the mix.

In the blog post I'm talking about here, there are 58 private emails - 14 of them are from me to Zonda - and none of them do I regret. They were a means to an end, which I got. I got information, photos, and a dog named Jack. Ms. Real Pooper thinks she got something too - but she got nothing. This blogger thinks that they can have their cake and eat it too - apologizing for the animal abusers, and then titling the post - "animal abuser talks to animal advocates" - you can't have it both ways, Ms. Real Pooper, sorry.

The reason why I am able to write my blog posts is because I have little care for people like the "Real Pooper", or animal abuser Zonda MacIsaac - as long as what I say is the truth - it's writable. And I don't care about my "reputation" - because as far as I'm concerned, I don't have one - good or bad. When people see me on the street - they don't recognize me - I am just one of the masses moving through society - the interweb and the real are 2 very different places and they don't intersect - so there are no worries.

Lastly - I'll quote from an email I received last October - it's from Francesca Rogier when she gave her opinion about me which may give you, the reader, some insight into why I don't worry about such clap-trap when I read it (because I know it's untrue and not worth extra heart beats) -

October 28th, 2008 Francesca Rogier wrote in an email to me -
When you look at them from afar, you can see that behavior of these people - S, O, even the M - is all based on fear. They fear for themselves far more and far more often than they ought to. You don't have that kind of fear, Joan, and it shows, to your credit. It is a different way to be in the world, isn't it? Everybody has fear of some kind, but some people let it shape decisions too much. Anything can be perceived as a threat to their existence/ego/reputation. It's such a challenge to work things out and communicate clearly with people like that, because I can't help responding to the actions their fear manifests, rather than the fear itself.

News report of a pampered kennel from the other side of the world

You Tube is so neat - I stumbled upon this video from Mumbai (I think it's New Delhi Television which would make it in India)? I couldn't really figure out where this kennel is, but it's somewhere very far from Nova Scotia and North America for sure - just watch it - it's pretty neat -

I'm glad people want to keep talking about Celtic Pets

I had this comment left on my blog post - "Animal Abusers - Celtic Pets - Court Decision is online now", and it's a beauty - read, and enjoy -

Joan, you are obviously very emotional about anything to do with Celtic Pets. It's understandable, you are very angry about the dogs you talk about and based on what you say about them, they do seem to have had a hard time. Please remember though that court documents are not necessarily factual in the sense that they are unassailable. OFten these "accounts" are restatements of police reports, or in this case, It seems, reports by the SPCA constables. This is one account, to the best of their abilities but it is written for their purposes, and sorry to say, not necessarily factual. If the judge was not presented with an alternate account (and that could be the case here, since no trial took place - they pled guilty at the arraignment, right?) - then he can use only what he was given. But he will cite the origins as well. It's too bad there was no full trial because I for one think while there were problems for sure, I also think there is a lot more to the story, and it might have been very helpful to bring it all out.

I just wonder who could have written something like that. I don't think it's written by either of the MacIsaac's. They are both quite arrogant, but one of them writes all her correspondence IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME, and the other one is too busy figuring out who she's going to sue to spend any time writing comments on silly little blogs like mine. So I wonder who it could've been. It does sound unbelievably like something from another blog that I've read recently though - check this out -

"In the end, Zonda Macisaac pled guilty to a single count of abuse (a "strict liability charge" because unintentional), as part of a deal to get some her own dogs back - only two of many dogs she had adopted herself, which should not have been seized. Her lawyer filed the guilty plea at the arraignment. This means no trial was ever held and no evidence presented by either side, so the full story has yet to be told.

And the verdict was harsh: Zonda had to pay a fine of a thousand dollars (or two), and is prohibited from having anything to do with dogs for 20 years, and the SPCA can show up at her house at any time to inspect he animals! Compare this outcome to the $5 fine levied on a Halifax woman who drowned cats in a bag (note that she claimed she had to because the SPCA would not take them)."

What a crock of shit, eh? At the beginning of May as part of a post I wrote about the apologists writing stuff on "other blogs" - and this is the vitriole I was talking about - and I posted a couple of these photos as proof in case anybody was starting to forget what actually what went on down at Port Hastings Cape Breton.

Obviously the apologists are counting on our memories starting to fade - so tonight I rewatched the news videos from the time around the raids, and thought I'd post some text from the stories - to give you some lines of what was said - to refresh our memories - and so the apologists will know it's not just me who thinks and knows the abuse and neglect that went on at animal abuser Zonda MacIsaac's building next to the Scharfenburg's house - and at Alice MacIsaac's house where my Jack came from.

So - here we go - with some photos to go along -




(remember Zeus the bulldog kept in a cage for 3 years because Zonda wouldn't accept any help from the rescue community and actually lied to people - telling people he was out in a foster home when he was actually in a cage rotting in Port Hastings?) - before the news piece the news reader says - "just a warning - some of these pictures may be disturbing to some viewers"

Do you remember Sean Kelly - who at the time was the SPCA Special Constable who went into the house and shelter and rescued all the animals? This is what he had to say on the video - (and it's because of his experience at Celtic Pets that he decided to go for Board positions to revolutionize the NS SPCA) - "this is by far the worst case I've ever seen, I've been doing this for 4 years and I haven't even heard of a case that is this horrific" - the smell on the premises was enough to make me physically sick as well as some of the - a dog with puppies that had no food or water, 2 dead dogs - an incredible amount of feces built up in the kennels - it was quite obvious that no one had been there for days - cats with broken limbs that have fused - they've never been to a vet and repaired -

"there was a kitten in the front of a kennel and a kitten in the rear of the kennel and it was discovered that the kitten in the front of the kennel was dead, and the kitten in the rear was staying as far as to the rear as he could".

Do you remember the dog "Chinchilla Charlie" - also known as Scupper? This is him knocked out so he could be shaved down - locked in a cage at Celtic Pets - gone completely cage crazy

Remember seeing this image on the news? This is the above dog - Scupper - living life to the fullest - at Celtic Pets - you can certainly say that this dog is a "victim" of Celtic Pets success!!!!This is the same dog that is in the above 3 photos - Scupper


"Nova Scotia's Premier says he is disgusted at images seen this week of dirty encrusted animals at a Cape Breton animal shelter - and he's not alone in his disgust over what happened - Rodney MacDonald said - "this is a situation which is unacceptable. Be it in a shelter, be it on a farm, bet it in a household - they deserve to be respected, they deserve to ensured that their safety, their health is looked after and maintained - and as province - we'll make sure that happens."

Leah Cross, the reporter in the video says "the conditions are evident in this video taken Saturday at Celtic Pets"

Steve Murphy said on his news piece - "they think of themselves as the best kind of animal lovers" - having a dead dog rotting in a box in your kennel - I would certainly love to hear how Zonda "accounts" for that - what is her "side of the story" about that?


When the SPCA arrived for their seizure - these puppies had no food or water - how does Zonda "account" for that?

In one of the news videos, the news reader says Zonda MacIsaac "has just lost all of her influence and credibility, and all of her animals" - and the story is described as one of the worst cases of animal abuse that officials have ever seen, and some of these pictures reflect that" - a house of inhumane horrors.

I do not buy the garbage this anonymous commenter is giving us. In a guilty plea there is an agreed statement of facts on both sides - the person who is PLEADING GUILTY TO THE CHARGES - agrees with the statements being made by the judge - and that includes the statements that the special constables and the judge is making - if they don't like those statements - they don't have to plead guilty and they can go ahead with the trial.

If you aren't guilty - then don't plead guilty.

And the news footage taken right after the seizure gives pretty irrefutable evidence of the animal abusers guilt I'd say.

Anyone who was at the shelter as the animals were being brought in can also attest to the shape that the animals were in - and I'm sure a couple of them will post comments to this blog post - and they probably will not do it anonymously - because there's no need for them to hide in shame like the rest of the apologists and bullshitters.

And there you have it - so of course I'm emotional about anything to do with Celtic Pets - animal abuse and neglect is very serious - especially when it's done so willfully and with such glea - and the people who do it are so arrogant and feel like they have some sort of entitlement about it - that THEY are the victims.

THEY are victims of their success in rescue so that animals had to suffer a "bit" - it had nothing to do with the animals - it was THEM who were suffering when things started to get out of control - "the numbers involved were greater than she (Alice) could handle and the situation became too difficult to manage."

The only victims here are the animals - especially the dead ones.

Today's SPCA Metro Dog Jog

It was a rainy day, that's for sure - but a lot of people showed up anyway, which was good.

I think I decided today that Buttercup is officially too old to represent the Dogkisser dogs at public functions because I don't think she enjoyed herself for one second - well actually -
she did enjoy herself after we left the function and I put her down on the ground and she walked back to the car - but the whole time we were at the dog jog she was up in my arms shivering and acting like she was a 13 year old dog who felt like she was 91 years old in human years, and really should not have been forced to come out in the rain.

I was originally going to bring Bobby - but Buttercup was squealing really badly to come, and Bobby got to go to Janet's house last night, so I thought it was only fair that she got some one on one time today - but once she got there I think she was regretting the squealing. Bobby also has impacted anal glands - we think, anyway - which is kind of gross, but his asshole is huge and he seems to have liquid brown stuff sort of oozing out of his bum hole. So I am going to let a professional deal with that - and maybe he might appreciate not having strange dogs smell his arsehole if he's got some anal leakage going on....


But anwyay - the dogs who were there - other than Buttercup seemed to be having a good time - I've got a slideshow at the end of this post with the photos I took today - and if you're on Facebook I posted the photos there as well. My friend Lisa was also there and posted the photos she took - You can check them out here

Talking about Facebook - did you know you can use usernames there now? I of course grabbed the "dogkisser" handle - so to find me on Facebook you can search "Joan Sinden" - but you could also search "dogkisser" - my profile can be found at http://www.facebook.com/dogkisser - I don't know why Facebook didn't do that from the very beginning.

Here is Maximo being cute. That's not too hard for him to do, though.
Wasn't this cute? The person selling 50/50 tickets was going around using her dog as the advertisement - I thought that was very inventive.

This great guy was a husky who was at the Dog Jog representing "Nova Scotia Husky Rescue" - which is one that I've never heard about - but I'm glad it exists because Nova Scotia definitely needs it. They have a website at http://nshuskyrescue.com/


Today's event also had some working dog's there - this is a smelling detection dog - and I had some liver in my hand - and him and the dog next to him cued right away that I had something on me - and they very much liked me! But alas, I could give them no treats.

And this is Cody, who I've talked about before, his Dad Don has given great tips on places to go for my Charlie loves Halifax site - Cody is also part of the "Therapeutic Paws of Canada" and has children read to him. Today was the first time I've met him in person, and he's a great dog.

These were treats from 3 Dogs Bakery - I think I was a bit hungry, because I wanted to eat one myself they looked so good - I don't know how they can make all those cookies and treats look so appetizing and still make money - they are amazing!

I had my eye on this irish wolfhound and he (or she) didn't seem to mind the weather one little bit - he had this same smile on their face the whole day - like as if they were pretty used to misty, damp weather - I wonder why? haha!

These 4 photos are of a dog named Rory - he came into the Dartmouth shelter a few months ago - and I met him very briefly a little while after he came in, and he was in unbelieveable shape -
He really should have been dead he was so thin - staff were having to feed him really small bits of food every hour in order to keep him alive and not over-tax his system - I can't remember what his story was, and it's probably better to forget it anyway - because look at him now - he's amazing and beautiful and fully recovered.


He went from the edge of death to being in a loving, forever home - thanks to the gentle care of the Dartmouth SPCA - and he gets to go to great things like the dog jog - and smell other dogs butts and just be a normal dog - isn't that super? I think it is.

He is a beautiful dog - and he's no different than any dog at the dog jog today - even though he was horribly abused - he's just happy to be alive, and he's deeply in love with his Mom. Although he definitely had something to say about the flash on my camera!

I've been going to the Dog Jog's now for 9 years - it was 9 years ago that I went for the 1st time with Charlie - at Shubie park - and it poured rain that year too - I didn't have a blog or website back them, though - so I didn't take any photos back then.

In 2007 I wrote a post where I posted photos starting in 2003 that went up to 2007 - that post is here if you want to check it out - that's the first year it was at Point Pleasant Park in many years - and in 2008 I didn't make it to the dog jog - but Snap Halifax did - and their article about it is still online if you wanted to check that out.

These 2 photos were taken after I left the dog jog - and good news for us dog owners - the canteen keeps dog treats on their counter! So if you want to get an ice cream cone for yourself - grab a dog treat for the dog!

And when I was in the parking lot I saw the intrepid Clicker Leash Queen Adina and her trusty sidekick the owner of Fur My Friends Amy with their retinue of collies George, Gracie, Seven, and - Jesus - I can never remember the name of their 8th dog - is it Muli? I've got a mental block about that puppy I'm sorry to say. Someone's going to have to correct me and I'll edit the post. Sorry about that.