Me and my friend Maureen went to the Hope for Wildlife Society's Open House for a bit on Sunday - and it was packed! Wall to wall people - so much so, that you couldn't really even get in to see the animals. I'd imagine if you had children with you then seeing the animals would have been a big priority, but Maureen and I were more interested in spending money and seeing the facility - there was lots of stuff going on - that's for sure - There were cars lined way up and down the road - it was almost as bad as sand castle day at Clam Harbour Beach - and for anyone who's been to that beach on that day - you know just what I'm talking about! Luckily they had shuttles going up and down the road or else some people would have been in big trouble with the heat... They had displays with some of the resident animals which was good for the people passing through - If you click on this photo you can get an encapsulation of the Sanctuary's story - Here's a shot of the crew from Nimbus publications who were there to talk about the book "Animal People" that I wrote about a couple weeks ago And another shot of the crowd -
And here's a shot of the beach across the street from the facility. This would be very nice to live across the street from. This would be awesome.... sigh....
Just when you think your dogs are too old to get out and have some good old fun - they surprise you and jump and play for a few minutes on a hot afternoon - and I was lucky enough to have the camera around to catch it - so I made a little video to save it for antiquity - here is about 3 minutes of it - (note I have a category for wrestling they've done so much of it over the years)
This is Spencer - who is being fostered by Atlantic Small Dog Rescue - me and Buttercup met him today at the yard sale and barbecue out in Windsor Forks - he's got a racing stripe on his nose just like Buttercup does! These brothers are also being fostered by ASDR - Levi - and my brain has already forgotten the other guys name - but they were seriously cute. Unfortunately my pictures today were as shitty as my memory was too.
But at the point that I was there - they had already raised almost $200 - so that was a good thing - and at least I got a photo of that! haha! The lady who hosted the event, the blonde lady on the left, Sandra - has a beautiful property - so it was a great day for the dogs who came - a huge fenced in yard to fun around and play in - her 4 dogs are very lucky.
This is Buttercup fretting that someone (aka another dog) was going to get too close to me and might be coming home with us - which is a real worry at an event like this!!!! Here is Tara with her newest dog - a chinese crested - Blondie.. AKA Debbie Hairless, and her friend's cane corso Kano - the designated large dog at the event!
When I came home from work this afternoon, this can was sitting out on the counter - my father had thought we'd have spaghetti for supper and had pulled this can out of the cupboard - but it had this protuperbrance sticking out of it - and thank dog he didn't use the can.
Upon further investigation - underneath the label - there had probably been about about a 3 mm slice in the can - but when we bought the can it wasn't noticable - so THIS THING has been growing up in our cupboard for like the last two months.
Can you imagine? GROSS!!! It was LITTLE WORMS!!! And it was eating the spagetti sauce inside!
How many cans do we eat of stuff though that have little pin holes that allow air in - and these things to begin to form and we don't see it because it's underneath the labels, and we open up the can and don't notice?
My tummy is a bit upset this evening.
I found this once before - in a can of cat food - in the kind of can that's a "flip top" can - you can tear off the top - and the top of it was full of little worms. And I figured it was also from a pin hole in the top of the flippy bit.
Canned foods have gone way down on my list of good things to eat today....
Cesar Millan is coming - But thank dog - Cesar Millan's Canada doesn't include the East Coast - his tour of Canada stops at Montreal - we have really dodged a bullet - WHEW!
Here's a little something to take our mind's off the horrible disappointment we must all be feeeling -
I love Conrad's Beach and I was over in the area today so I stopped to have a walk I didn't have the dogs with me - and this was the closest I even got to seeing dogs - there wasn't even anybody at the beach That's why it's such a great spot - when the weather's shitty, nobody goes there - and it's a huge sand beach - and the dogs can just run and run and run And there's nobody there...
So I didn't get to the Vetcetera SPCA/Pick of the Litter Dog Wash that was happening last weekend in Bedford, but my friend Pat did - and she let me use some of the pictures she took to show all the fun everybody had that me and Buttercup didn't have - so I'm posting them here! This is Pat's dog Teddy that she recently adopted from the Lillian Albion shelter in Amherst with Kelly Welsh, Inge Sadler, and Pat's husband - cooing over Teddy - I think Teddy is trying to say that he's the new dog in town and he's ready to take over! This little 4 month old puppy is just the cutest thing! By all accounts the dog wash was a huge success - they had perfect weather - tons of dogs showed up - proceeds went to the SPCA and Pick of the Litter - I don't know what other veterinarian shuts down their clinic for a whole day just so they can raise money for rescue - do you? I think that was just fabulous - and shows great philanthropy on the part of the vets there - they've done that now for several years - I understand they've recently done renovations, so this was also their grand reopening as well. Here's Inge Sadler again from the cat rescue, Pick of the Litter with a great pyrenee This greyhound`s name was Lola - who Pat described as the smallest greyhound she`d ever met The mix of this little dog looks very interesting! Teddy with his Dad again being king of the world This was a little dachshund Pat met named Dexter that Pat fell in love with, and I think we can understand why This is everyone's favourite leonberger Nells getting a bath! And this is the very informative and educating SPCA travelling show that we get to see at lots of local shows being manned her by Kelly Welsh, the Dartmouth SPCA's manager Kathy Thomas and Kathy's daughter!
I got a new book this week - "Animal Talk" by Joyce Grant-Smith - and you'll recognize some names in it.
The byline for the book is "Remarkable connections between animals and the people who love them" - and it's all about people around Nova Scotia interviewed by Joyce who have had special relationships with their companion animals - and they haven't necessarily been dogs or cats.
One of the names a lot of people will recognize is Marni Gent - who Joyce introduces as "the founder of Maritime Animal Rescue" - that gave me a real chuckle - but only a few people who read this blog will understand why, but those who do understand - will also chuckle! But anyway! Her companions that she talked about weren't cats or dogs - they were very typical for Marni - they were chickens! And actually, one chicken in particular - Pearl, "a beautiful hen, who's feathers were a deep blue-black, with a tinge of rust around her eyes and on her breast and her comb was a brilliant red" - not a description that you'd hear very often about something that you typically eat for supper - but something that I can imagine that Marni could wax philosophical about chickens like I could talk about dogs with no problems. And we're all the better for it.
Another person I recognized in the book was Maggie Carruthers - who I've talked about a lot on this blog - she's an animal communicator who I've used a lot with my own dogs - and in the book she talks about her own cat, Flous and her dog Bear - who I actually got to meet once - so that was awesome - I got to have a brush with greatness - I met an animal who was in the book!
Joyce also talks about another animal communicator who I didn't know was an animal communicator - she was at a seminar with Silvia Jay a couple months ago in Mahone Bay and she's an entlebucher breeder - so that's the only way I know her, but now that I know she's also an animal communicator - I'll have to think about her a little differently - Karen Runge - one of her dogs, Sante even has her own category on this blog I love her so much. So it really is a small world. (It's also a good excuse to get some Sante love in too! And who can't use some Sante love on a Tuesday night).
There are a ton of cute little stories in the book, and they're all from local animal owners - from the owners of the Aylesford Zoo, to owners who owned dogs that turned out to be heroes - it's a great little book.
They'll be having special activities, an auction and lots of good stuff - so you should go, and pick up the book - I'm sure it's going to be tons of fun!
Yesterday we had a buddhist ceremony for 8 dogs that have recently died - we had a gathering of people, and lots of dogs and spent the evening remembering our lives together - after having let them go Sukavati's are rituals that include fire - and we burned up photos of the dog's to symbolize Stella's, Ursa's, Peaches', Jackie's, Ruby's, Mitzi's, Trouble's and Saige's release from clinging to this live that they've lived with us - and on to whatever great adventure they're going to go to next. Hopefully the dogs who came to the ceremony and the evening had a good time - I brought Charlie and Buttercup - and I know Charlie wasn't all that thrilled, especially since Janet cut his nails, and he'd rather chew on rocks than have his nails cut - and as the evening progressed, he began to show how he felt - but I wanted them there so they could suck in any auspicious wafts that might be going around - with them both being so old - they need all the good vibes they can get right now, that's for sure!
During the ceremony, Coleen recited a couple of poems - one of which she only said one line of - but I have looked up the whole poem because it's a good one, and I'll put it here, and the 2nd one is more like a little Buddhist song - I don't know if it made it to the tape - I don't think it did, unfortunately - but here they are -
Here's the little buddhist song -
"all you sentient beings i have a good or bad connection with as soon as you have left this confused dimension may you be borns in the western sukavati and once you're born there, complete the boomis and the path"
And here's the poem - by EE Cummings -
i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
Below is a video that I made of the ceremony, which is a distillation of it - I had to cut it down to 10 minutes because You Tube only lets you make videos of 10 minutes or under, so I had to cut out the chit-chat - but you get the meaning of it. I hope you enjoy it -
UPDATE on Monday afternoon August 23rd, 2010 - Sirius has been found! He was found on Quinn Street - it was posted on their facebook group at 2:30pm - so he must have been fo und shortly before then. Yay! Good news is nice on a Monday afternoon.
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Saturday August 21st - I got this email from Christine Greening who owns the pet store Bark and Fitz on Doyle Street in Halifax - a dog has gone lost in the Quinpool Road area Saturday night:
Sirius, the little black poodle who belongs to my groomer Sarah, got spooked and took off from a house last night around Quinpool. Sarah is just beside herself with worry. He is 2 years old, a friendly little dog, hair cut like a schnauzer, and wearing his name tag which includes a phone number as well as his HRM number. She has called HRM and will be calling the radio stations, but if you could help by sending out a general FYI to your emailing list or blog, we'd appreciate it. ANY cross posting you can do would help!
If anyone finds his, they can call the store at 406-3489.
There's stuff to do coming up if you're interested -
Tomorrow join volunteers from the SPCA and others - August 21st - from 10am - 4pm at Vetcetera Animal Hospital in Bedford for their Annual Dog Wash!!!!!! Come with or with out your dog to see the new Vetcetera facility and have a bite to eat at the BBQ. Proceeds Benefiting the SPCA, Pick of the Litter and Bide Awhile!
I mentioned this last weekend, but I'll mention it again - lab rescue is holding a fundraise on August 25th - speed dating at Gulla-bulls on Spring Garden Road - sounds like fun for those who are interested in that type of thing! They have an event page set up if you'd like more information about!
The Atlantic Small Dog Rescue people are having a picnic and Fund Raiser on August 28th at "Sandra's house" on 30 Terry Road - here's what it says on their Facebook event page - "This August ASDR will be having a get together. We will have a yardsale in the morning and hot dogs in the afternoon. Everyone is welcome but please RSVP so Sandra knows how much food to get. If anyone feels like bringing salads or something else that would be lovely!" - so go check out their Facebook page and RSVP!!
There is a new book coming out called "Animal Talk" - from Nimbus Publications, and it's being released next weekend - they're having the launch for the book at the Hope For Wildlife Open house August 29th from 12 to 4pm over in Seaforth - it looks like a really neat book, and a good cause - so you should go check it out!
Everyone's favourite dog physiotherapist is starting her own human physiotherapy business! Yay! Shelly Malcolm-Beazley had the cutest baby in the world and went off on maternity leave a few months ago, and used that time to get things together to start up her own company! So starting on September 7th, 2010 - she'll be taking clients at "Cove Sport Therapy" with her partner Natalie, an Athletic Therapist and Osteopath. Shelly is still doing the dog physiotherapy and will have a room at the clinic for animals - so "Pawsitive Action Physiotherapy" is still going to be helping the aching dogs of the HRM - and hopefully getting bigger and better! Congratulations Shelly on your new ventures (and baby!) - and I'm sure you'll be a huge success!
Ongoing at the Pogue Fado are the charity Wing-ding's - on the last Monday of every month are fundraiser's for the NS SPCA - from 5 to 8 pm. Yummy....
(This is as much dog play as we could come up with today...its too damn hot) There are still a couple spots left for Silvia Jay and Adina MacRae's Seminar on September 18th and 19th about dog communication where they're going to talk about dog communication - it's going to be an absolutely fabulous day where in the morning they're going to talk to us about how dogs actually communicate with each other - what types of scenarios could lead to an acutal dog fight - and what is only dog play, why is it so important to understand how dog's play, managing multiple dog households, daycare and shelter interactions, plus tons of other stuff - and then in the afternoon we're all going to go over to Seaview Park - and watch the dogs playing there - and Adina and Silvia are going to break it down for us as we observe the dogs coming and going and interacting with each other. So exciting! I'm excited because I'm personally going - the same seminar is happening on both Saturday and Sunday and there's a limit of 20 people on each day and there's only a couple spots left for each day - so if you've been thinking about going - and thought it might be all booked up - it still isn't - so email seminarswithsilvia@gmail.com for further info!
When the lady from Nimbus Books was emailing the about the "Animal Talk" book she told me that they have an office dog, and that they'd made a video and posted it to You Tube - and I thought it was so cute, I'm posting it here - please enjoy this short video of "Nala"!!
The weather people are saying that this is the nicest summer that we've ever had on record - and I'd believe it. The weather has been beautiful. It doesn't stop the dogs from going in and attempting to cool off though - Daisy really does pretty much hate the water, so she doesn't venture in too far, but Charlie always tries to at least go in to his shoulders - but even that is becoming impossible. I think I may walk them a bit farther and take them down to Long Lake - at least it won't be quite as muddy for them. There is no way that I will let Buttercup anywhere near the mud holes though - she'd go in if I'd let her - but - man, can you imagine? Oh my, that would be a mess. It's one thing to let a big black dog go in - they get messy up to their elbows that dries off by the time they get home - but a little white dog? She'd go in up to her nose and it'd all stick to her. Gross. A nice photo of all 3 perfect little dogs...
Me and my friend Maureen went to the Hope for Wildlife Society's Open House for a bit on Sunday - and it was packed! Wall to wall people - so much so, that you couldn't really even get in to see the animals. I'd imagine if you had children with you then seeing the animals would have been a big priority, but Maureen and I were more interested in spending money and seeing the facility - there was lots of stuff going on - that's for sure -
There were cars lined way up and down the road - it was almost as bad as sand castle day at Clam Harbour Beach - and for anyone who's been to that beach on that day - you know just what I'm talking about! Luckily they had shuttles going up and down the road or else some people would have been in big trouble with the heat...
They had displays with some of the resident animals which was good for the people passing through -
If you click on this photo you can get an encapsulation of the Sanctuary's story -
Here's a shot of the crew from Nimbus publications who were there to talk about the book "Animal People" that I wrote about a couple weeks ago
And another shot of the crowd -
And here's a shot of the beach across the street from the facility. This would be very nice to live across the street from. This would be awesome.... sigh....
