So being that the Bonster is from Mexico, she needs a coat. Ottawa winters can be dangerous, exhausting and downright chilly. Although snow has yet to fall on the ground over here, I don’t doubt for one second that it will soon be among us. While I sit here and fight my intense urge to hang the Christmas lights before the world is white and fluffy, I can’t help but think about what winter will be like for Bonnie.

Bailey (our other dog) loves winter. She runs through over and thru the hills of snow with ease and a drop of comedy (it’s the ears bouncing in the wind that kill me). The beagle in her contributed to the limited dog fur she seems to have, making me one anxious mamma when she’s outside in the cold. Last winter was our first as dog owners, and I was convinced that she was going to freeze her little tushy off being out there in the cold. For those that have the luxury of living somewhere warm or luke warm during the winter months, you should know that Ottawa can be as cold as -40 degrees (Celsius). To put it in perspective, would you want to go outside in freezing weather completely naked? Exactly.

Picture
December in Ottawa- 2011. Yikes!
Smaller dogs have this unwritten rule about being allowed to wear clothing. It’s socially acceptable, and no one bats an eye at that tiny little Yorkie with a pink sequenced coat. Medium sized dogs on the other hand get that “Why is that dog wearing a jacket?” look the second someone sees them in their attire. We really do try to be as stealthy as we can about it. Heck, I went out and picked up the sportiest looking dog coat I could get my hands on. The reaction? Why is that dog wearing a jacket? I must be one of those owners.

So each time this lovely little scenario plays out, I quickly pipe up that she’s from Mexico and isn’t fond of the Canadian weather. Then there’s a pause, immediately followed by “Wow. Mexico! How did she get here?”. And before I can think about how I need to get home and finish my ‘To Do’ list, I’m standing in the middle of the street talking about the story of getting Bonnie here.

Don’t get me wrong- I L.O.V.E. talking about my pets. So much so, I’ve written this blog. But we’ve all had those days where our brain is buzzing with the impending list of things to get finished and we can’t mentally take on the task of long explanations to outside parties. I’m sure there have been moments where these innocent bystanders are taken back by my “She’s Mexican. Came here on a plane. She’s cold. Got a coat” explanation, and instantly regret their decision to comment on my dog. And when I finally hit the couch to relax I look back and feel terrible about being so crude to these random people, I make a mental note to be the friendliest neighbor EVER next time I see them. I make a vow to bake muffins, and carry them with me at the ready to offer to the neighbors I was so rude to. But let’s face it, I bake the muffins, we end up eating them all and I am still in debt to karma. C’est la vie, I suppose.

In the meantime I’ve opted to come up with a few different explanations as to why Bonnie has a coat. All of these reasons are neither true, nor feasible. They are however, hilarious.


Picture
-she is actually part turtle and is considerably sick without a shell. The vet strongly recommended we purchase a dog coat as a substitute, a theory we are currently testing.


Picture
-she’s on loan from Reece Witherspoon and like her owner, is a celebrity. Reece contacted us via email asking if we could provide a home for this A-list dog, which include meeting the star worthy list of demands. As you can imagine, wearing a fleecy coat in this weather is completely understandable for a celebrity dog.


Picture
-Each morning we found her curled up asleep in the closet. At night she would push the kitchen chair over to the closet and quietly pulled up each and every coat. She would cry out while we preparing to leave for work, casually tossing our coats onto ourselves. After consulting with a pet psychic, they informed us that Bonnie wanted nothing more in life than her own coat.


Picture
-She is a part of a dog gang called ‘The Freezing Fidos’. They are easily distinguished by their fleecy gang coats.


 
So as per my dernier post, I mentioned that this week is Bonnie and me time. Turns out this Bonita is hilarious. She had a mad case of the zoomies Tuesday morning, which included looking like a maniac while playing in the sheets. And you know, usually I wouldn’t make a blog post about it. But the thing is, this is the first time she’s played with me. Ever. I’ve seen her play with Bailey and our friends’ dogs, but I’ve never seen her just play. It was fantastic. She was this loopy looking dog with her head completely buried under the duvet, butt wagging like mad and making fart sounding snort noises. She was, without a doubt, just a flat out happy dog. And as you can imagine, this made me the happiest person on earth.

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too”.  -Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

 
Picture
Today was an awesome possum day! Me and the Bonster spent out afternoon at the Pet Expo with Kimmy. With Scott and Bailey spending some quality 'father-daughter' time at the hunting camp, Bonnie and I opted to spend the weekend doing the coolest dog things around town. And this meant the Ottawa Pet Expo!

I couldn't believe how many people brought their dogs. You'd also think that there would be a few tussles here and there between dogs, but I didn't see any! It was probably because every animal in there was occupied with the sweet smell of treats at every turn ;)

Kimmy has a fluffy little bunny at home named Chase (as in you have you chase her to catch a glimpse) which brought us over to the local bunny rescue booth. I was a little worried that Bonnie would react to being so close to those rascally rabbits, but she was SUUUUPER good. Anywho, as Kimmy was asking about some adorable bunny toys, Bonnie took a massive dump right in the middle of their space. Like a really bad poop. As in I fed her wet food for lunch. It was pretty embarrassing, considering I don't even have a rabbit and probably shouldn't have even been at their booth. Thankfully they were very understanding and focused on how cute Bonnie is instead. Phew!

So when we brought Bonnie over to Canada with the intention of fostering, I went out and bought her a standard collar. For me, I felt like I couldn't buy her a fancy one knowing that I wouldn't be able to keep her. After a few weeks of her staying with us, I went out and bought this fancy smancy one and hid it in a drawer. I made a deal with myself that if we were able to keep her, I'd put her tag on it and put it on her. When we decided to adopt her, I immediately pulled out that spanking new collar all pumped and found out that it was too big. Great. So this weekend I made my Pet Expo shopping list and off we went to get Bonnie ready for life with us. 

What does this really mean? It means this dog needs a leopard print collar with a blingy red bone tag!


What what???????

And let me tell you- this dog came home with some major loot. Heck- she even came home with a bag of cat food! You hear that Rascal and Zoe? Bonnie DOES care :)

Today was a lot of firsts for my little Bonita. First at a Pet Expo. First weekend of just us. And first time getting a snowflake cookie :)
Oh ya, I forgot. We pet a possum. A FREAKING possum!!!

THE POSSUM WAS OUT OF THE CAGE!



 
We are SUPER touched to have been given a blogging award (our first) by the amazing Kristen, Zaphod and Hailey over at The Hailey and Zaphod Chronicles! It's called 'Seven Things About Me', where you guessed it- we list 7 things y'all don't know about us!
Picture
1) Within the first 45 minutes of having Rascal at home in our care, he managed to crawl into a hole in the box spring and jumped from bed board to bed board while I screamed my head off. He was this tiny little thing- I can still remember seeing that little white and orange face peering back at me through the mattress. I firmly believe the reason he knows his name so well is because I must have called out for him two thousand times in an effort to get him out of the mattress.


Picture
2) Scott initially thought that Zoe didn’t have a tongue (weird- I know). When we adopted her, she was barely three months old and didn’t know how to properly clean herself. Somehow this all led to Scott coming to the conclusion that she was missing her tongue, a concern I quickly dismissed after explaining how the humane society would have definitely mentioned if she were missing something like that. Ironically, Zoe licks everything, including Scott’s head.


Picture
3) Bailey’s favorite person in the entire world is not me, or Scott, or any of our friends. It’s my dad. She goes crazy with affection when she sees him. It’s almost as though she doesn’t know what to do with herself when he shows up. He even gets the really slow, lovey dovey licks from her!

Picture
4) I have never seen a dog get as excited as Bonnie does when I show her the leash. I mean- ever. She doesn’t care where she’s going- I think she’s just happy that she’s leaving the house WITH us, and not watching us go to work. She does this happy Snoopy dance around the front hall, with some intense ‘hands up’ action.


Picture
5) My pets make me the happiest person. I L O V E waking up each morning and have four furry faces nuzzling against me. These animals make and break my day. I remember once coming home for lunch from an absolutely terrible day at work. I managed to make it to the car before bursting into tears. I pulled myself into the apartment, scooped up Rascal and bawled like a baby all over him. I’m not kidding- he was soaked. But wouldn’t you believe, that little guy didn’t move a muscle. He sat there, purred and let me burry my face into him and muffle my ugly sobs until I gained enough composure to go back to work. That’s our understand, me and my pets. It’s all unconditional love.


Picture
6) I suffer from a condition called anosmia, which basically means I don’t have a sense of smell. Long story short, I fell off my bike while riding without a helmet and severed the nerve (let that be a lesson to all you kidlets!). And before you ask, yes my taste sucks and I haven’t been able to smell for almost 12 years so I don’t overly miss it. It does however make it difficult to find out where the dog has peed…..or pooped…You know the ‘find the poop’ game? Well it’s like triple harder for me. It’s more like “find the mysterious poop that is purposely hiding from you’. Dark rooms with hiding poop are my nemesis.


Picture
7) I love animal blogs, food blogs, craft blogs, blogs blogs blogs! I have a few that I read each morning but would love to add to my list. If you have some recommendations for places for a good read, send ‘em my way! This blog has become an outlet where I can get my need to write out of my system, while still avoiding boring friends, family and co workers about pet stories. I love the different perspectives you can get from reading others blogs- you should always keep your mind open to the idea of looking from a different angle!


 
Have no fear- Batman and Robin are here!