Puppy Tails Part 2

We chose not to crate train our puppy. She’s growing by the day, a crate that size is very expensive and besides, having the second dog around should keep Ciera out of trouble.

So we made our spare bedroom into the dog room. When we’re not home, we put up our puppy gate and they would keep each other occupied. Well, that was the theory.

It worked out very well for the first few weeks. Then we got home one day and found both dogs waiting for us in front of the door. Basically, Ciera moved the gate with her huge nose and walked out with Lola jumping along behind her (or that’s how I imagined it).

A few days later I got home from work and found the spare plant in the bedroom completely torn apart. Dirt and leaves were everywhere! Not even a root or two lying around to replant! And to put an explanation point on her gardening, she took a pee on her pillow.

Puppy Tails

After months of discussion, friendly debate and a few kicks to the shin, we decided to get a dog.

But not just any dog. A big dog. A dog that protects. A dog that makes people quake. A dog that can shower you with one big lick. A dog like an English Mastiff.

So we decided to go to rescue foundations and give a dog in need a good, loving home. But unfortunately, it was a little more difficult that we thought. It seemed like all the mastiff rescue organizations were based in the southern States (I found out later that’s because many mastiff puppy mills are down there). And the one place that did talk to us refused to ship their dog on an airplane to Toronto. Why? Because, according to them, it might harm her. That begs the question… how much in need is the dog?? And sadly the Toronto Humane Society had a huge supply of pit bulls... but no mastiffs.

Next thing you know we’re talking with a woman in Seattle. Turns out she had a puppy mastiff in need of a good home. After a few weeks of getting to know each other, she finally offered us the pup.

Next thing you know an Air Canada jumbo jet is landing and we’ve got a Mastiff in the backseat of the car.

We quickly drove home to introduce her to Lola (our other dog) and after a few minutes of playing, we saw them. Yes, them. Fleas. There were so many we could see the suckers jumping off of her.

We. Weren’t. Happy.

Needless to say George spent a good portion of his Sunday scrubbing down the dogs while I scrubbed down the apartment. After a quick trip to the pet store, we also had some flea medication.

A month has past and it looks like our war on terror was successful. Mission accomplished!

Curling sucks.

I was such a poor sport this past weekend.

We had our annual curling Bon Spiel tournament and it's usually loads of fun. This year was looking up to be the same, until we lost our third game which knocked us out of the competition. We didn't even make it to the playoffs. I can deal with that. It was the team that we lost to. Ugh.

And to top it off, George came to watch us play and he had to witness that? So sad.

Anyway, after the game we had a quick beer and then took off to pick up our espresso maker. Spent the rest of the weekend with a caffeine needle hooked up to my arm. Sigh.

Something is rotten in the state of Thorncliffe

Hypothetically speaking... the love of your life casually says to you on IM "can you bring home large buns and cheese," what would come to your mind?

What kind of cheese would you bring home?

Hmmmm?

Shopping for our new home

We're officially in the market for a house and spent a few hours today with our agent/friend looking at open houses.

The first house was a bungalow in a Toronto neighbourhood called The Bluffs, or Upper Beaches. It was in a great little area with a mixture of smaller sized homes and larger, newer mini-mansions. We quite liked it... the basement is rented out so that'll help with mortgage payments. The upstairs, or our home, includes a fantastic livingroom with a fireplace and two bedrooms. Or, our bedroom and the pet's room. The backyard looked quite nice although the snow was made things difficult to get a true sense of potential. Included a great garage for our motorcycles, ATVs, sailing boat and lawn mower.

The second house was a two story semi. Aside from the wonderful skylights and exposed brick, this place didn't have much to offer. The backyard was very small, the basement was locked so we couldn't see it and the foundation was shifting. Yeah, we didn't stay very long.

The third place was even closer to the beaches but in a high-traffic neighbourhood. The upstairs unit was quite ugly so it immediately turned us off. However, the main floor/basement was nice although the ceiling fan in the main bedroom was a recipe for decapitation. Backyard was cute but not very big. Unfortunately it was close to 100K more than the other houses.

So we ended back at the original bungalow.

Oh, and i quickly realized i'm not the best person to go shopping for big purchase items. I would have bought anything if I had my cheque book with me.