Oh Ottawa. The only place you can find a humidex warning, thunderstorms and a chance of flurries in the same 5 day forecast!
This weekend we couldn't resist the beautiful weather that was Ottawa! We brought the Bailster out on Saturday to enjoy the many many smells that only a beagle mix could appreciate.

This past winter, we discovered Bailey's intense desire to bury things around the apartment (there's still a dog bone under the armchair cushion). She didn't develop this fun new little habit in time for last summer,  so when we got outside and she realized she could bury her face in leaves and grass instead of bedsheets, it was like a light when off in her head.

I can see it now. When I close my eyes and dream about our future home with the cute little fence, driveway with two cars, beautiful decor.......oh ya....and a backyard that will be demolished by this

Let me know when you get to China ok puppy?

Sunday was equally as beautiful .Thank goodness. Some of us needed the fresh air after St. Patrick's day.....

Who drank all that beer on the balcony? Rascal..........................is there something you want to tell me?

You're still drunk, aren't you cat?

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend

We bought Bailey a nice, big pillow a few weeks ago. Since she travels with us quite frequently, we opted to move her dog bed into the car (it's all about comfort), and so because of this we had to get a replacement for the apartment.

When we first brought Bailey home, it was *decided* that she would sleep in her dog bed on the floor. You know, like this

But let's face it. That beautiful little scene up there was never going to happen. Why? Because my nights usually look a little something like this...

That would be me. Awake. In the middle of the night, on the edge of the bed. It's not uncommon to wake up with a dog paw in my face, or pushing into my back. I know it looks like Bailey doubled in size in this picture. It's because somehow when she's sleeping, she manages to expand her body to the size of a full grown lab. But as if by magic, when I wake up she's back to being Bailey sized.
Now that I think about it, something is missing from the picture above..

Nope still something missing....

Yup! That looks about right! At some point EACH night I'd got all three pets on my side of the bed.
Dogs to the left of me.
Cat to the right.
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Bailey, my lovely little dog has been slightly driving me crazy. Okay...maybe a little bit more than slightly....ALRIGHT! She's in her terrible twos and is driving me nuts! It seems as though our house breaking conquest has taken five million steps back (and our feet have taken far too many steps into something else).
And so, as we go back to Square One, I thought I'd share some funny photos sent to me this morning.
Enjoy!

I guess Bailey's bad habits aren't so bad.....at least she doesn't poop in the car!

I don't know about you, but I have one million pet names for my pets. Funny how that works out...pet names for your pets......

We learned last night that Bailey, who has been called everything from Bailster to Biddle has begun to respond to the name 'Dogis'. I don't mean she'll casually look your way when you say it, I mean she will come running from another room at the mere mention of the word 'Dogis'. Apparently Scott calls her that fairly often, and she's started to turn her head when either Bailey or Dogis is said.

This got me thinking about other pet pet names we use. Zoe has been called Zoe Bear, Panda Bear and Zoester from the toaster (a personal favorite!). But Rascal, other than being called names that aren't suitable for a child friendly blog, never really had one. That is, until Mexico.

When pet owners travel, we tend to find characteristics in our pets in the foreign animals around us. We're able to link our domesticated pets with any tropical animal within view. Don't lie- I know you've done it. I'm sure we've all had our "Do you see that parrot? He looks JUST like my dog back home!" moments. The non-pet owners around you roll their eyes and go along with your statement, probably saying something like "yes, the resemblance is unbelievable...."

And so when we arrived in beautiful Mexico last Spring (has it been a year already?), we met this creature. I was fairly certain that he was either 1) something I was imagining as a result of heat stroke or 2) an animal some mad scientist had assembled in a Frankenstein fashion.

It has the nose of a pig, the body of a monkey and the tail and hands of a racoon. They were ALL over the resort, trying to get into garbage and walking right up to tourists. For some reason, I immediately assumed that this creature's personality would match it's adorable appearance. You'd think I'd consider that neither a pig, monkey or racoon are the friendliest of animals.

We (my parents, brother, brother in law and Scott) decided that this crazy looking thing needed a name. Rather than consulting Google, we chose to name it the Rascoon. Why? We unanimously (this is where people go along to indulge me) felt that it deeply resembled our Rascal back home.

I know what you're thinking. It's like they came from the same litter.

Six days into our seven day stay in paradise I chose to shed my tourist mindset and did some research on my furry little friends. Here's what I found out.

Name: Coati Mundi
Behaviour: Unlike racoons, the Coati Mundi are active during the day. They use vocal signals to communicate, and their pig like snouts can be rotated at an angle of 60° in any direction!

Sure, I knew the name of this weird little animal. And yes, I could have educated my family about the interesting little tid bits I found out. But my entire family spent the entire vacation calling them Rascoons. One German couple sitting beside us one day thought that was what they were called! So I chose to give my Rascal his 15 minutes of fame.

The Rascoon encounter led Rascal to being solely called 'Rascoon' for an entire month after our trip. This was then shortened to Scoon. Which turned into Scooner. Then Scoon Dog. And this my friends, is the pet name for Rascoon. I mean Rascal.