Happy New Year

I decided to stay home and ring in the new year 2011 with the dogs
With them all getting to be so old, who knows where will all be at New Year 2012, so I wanted to stay home and be with them when all the neighbourhood fireworks and guns started shooting off at about 10pm - and as of 12:26am - have yet to start slowing down.
The dogs have had a good time - except for the fireworks bits - Charlie is terrified of the noise so he tends to go hide in corners - after he's had a pee in them, which means a bit of a clean-up - but Charlie and Daisy have been feeling frisky tonight, which is good
Buttercup has been feeling horribly ignored because the camera hasn't been focused solely in her direction - so this is what she does to me when that happens - she sits there stone faced and refuses to acknowledge me. Later on I made some toast and gave her some - with the crusts removed so it was only the spongy middle bits left - and she forgave me - for the moment.
2010 was an eventful year - and not one I want to live over - with the death of Jackie - and I am very worried about 2011 - I currently constantly have a general sense of forboding - waiting for something to happen - is today going to be the day that the next one goes? A 16, 12, 10 year old dog with diabetes - an 81 year old father -
At some point they're going to start going - and probably in pretty quick succession - it might be in 2011 - but there's nothing I can do about it.

All I can do is enjoy them today, which is what I did. And tomorrow I'll do the same thing.

On another note - I've got a couple projects planned for 2011 - one of course is following up with the HRM with my freedom of information request about the statistics on the Homeward Bound Pound's euthanasia numbers - but I'm also researching breed specific legislation in Nova Scotia - I have gone to every town and municipality's website - there are 55 towns and municipalities across the provincs - and I've downloaded all their dog bylaws - and found every place that currently has bsl - there are 4 counties and 2 towns with bsl.

There is also one town - Stellarton - that has not updated their dog bylaw since 1956!

The town of Mahone Bay also has a pet limit law of 4 dogs - which is interesting for all the border collie people who live in Mahone Bay who have a bazillion dogs. Some other interesting things are the fact that the town of Westville has a cat bylaw.

The BEST bylaw in Nova Scotia - by far - is Springhill, Nova Scotia - whoever has written their dog bylaws has taken the Calgary model to heart - and has done a ton of research as well.

And then we have a place like Shelburne - the town of Shelburne does NOT have BSL - but it's a tiny little dot in the centre of the county of Shelburne - which DOES have bsl - so their not having bsl is kind of meaningless.

So stay tuned for that - I'll be putting up charts listing where's the best place to have a kennel, and where exactly bsl is, and etc., in the near future...