Hi Everyone!

Glacias is still missing. Please take a moment to read this information, and pass it along to your friends. To all my fabulous dog blogging buddies- if you could post something to your blog, it would be greatly appreciated. The quicker we spread this information, the faster we can get this pooch home to her family!!

Glacias Update: Have received numerous reports of Glacias sightings on the side of both Merivale and Prince of Wales in between Huntclub and Fallowfield. She was also seen traversing the driveway in between the two roads on Black Rapids farm. However, despite an evening spent calling her and searching the farm and surrounding fields we've still failed to locate our wayward girl. Please, if you or anyone you know drives in this area keep your eyes peeled and call us immediately! 613-552-1873 or 613-355-5764. We are getting closer, but we need more eyes!

lOST DOG

Please help find Glacias, our 4 year old, female, German Shepherd /Husky/Saluki mix. Glacias is black and tan with distinctive tan eyebrows and markings on her face, chest and legs. She has been spayed, and weighs approximately 60 lbs. She is microchipped and wears a blue collar with a bone shaped tag with her name and our contact info.

Glacias ran away from doggy daycare at 21 Capital Drive in the Merivale/Huntclub area July 18th at 2:30pm.

She is very sweet natured but may be timid and run away if you approach her.

Please contact: 613-552-1873 or 613-355-5764 with any information!

I literally have three drafts saved for blog posts. For some reason, the second I’ve finished one, something else with these furry butts happens. I’ve opted to try and round it alllll up into one big post.

Rizzo has been staying with us for the past two weeks while my brother is in lovely London for a wedding. Rizzo and I have had a weird relationship…..mostly because you can never really know if she’s going to lick your face, or bite it off. She’s just not a cuddly dog, which is perfectly fine. We all know what to do with those dogs- you give them their space and in time, they will approach you if they want to. Well, until they have no choice. I have a theory that Rizzo thinks her owners gave her up (she’s never been this long without them), and has come to the conclusion that she must open herself up to these two new people and that annoying little black dog that follows her around at the cottage. I was SHOCKED when Rizzo crept right up to me and cuddled in for some lovin’. Turns out, she’s a huuuugggeee suck. All she wants to be around humans, which we figured out VERY quickly based on how closely she stands near her ‘people’. I was fully anticipating Rizzo to pee everywhere, chew things up and be a pain in my you know what. But she was the complete opposite. She was this sweet, well mannered dog who never left the bed during the night. We even let her have ‘full rein’ of the house during the night, and woke up to everything being exactly how we left them. The only downside to Rizzo living with us is the incredible amounts of dog hair she loses on a daily basis. At times I felt like I was living in this weird, dog inspired Western, with tumble weeds consisting of purely dog hair go rolling on by. I’m feeling the need to go and purchase some cowboy boots…….hmmm…..

The dogs get along REALLY well, and Rizzo has ignited some sort of fire inside of Bailey. They.Are.Wired.Every.Moment.Of.The.Day. Thank GOODNESS we now have a backyard where they can have the zoomies till the cows come home. And then, they can run around the cows.

Last night, Scott went to change our cat litter. To all the cat owners out there, I’m curious as to whether your pet does this. When we go to change the cat litter, they both suddenly realize that, not only do they have to pee, but they have to pee RIGHT NOW. So while I’m running to the garage to dispose of the heavy, pooped filled bag, my cats are in the cat box, sans litter, peeing. So yesterday, when Scott went to throw out the litter, we weren’t surprised to see pee in the box. Unfortunately, unlike other times, the pee found was red. That’s right. It was FULL of blood.

I spent the better part of the next few minutes running around whipping my cats butts hoping to figure out which one it was. After a much closer than I care to admit inspection, I found out it was Zoe. We had cleaned up the pee before thinking about bringing it in as a sample, which meant I had to somehow get my hands on another one.

We all know we’re willing to go to any extreme to help out pet. If I have to move the cat litter into my room, beside my bed with a cup at the ready to catch my cat’s pee, then that’s what I will do. Of course, I woke up at the slightest sound that could be interpreted at cat litter being brushed aside. Turns out, Rascal thinks it’s HILARIOUS to go into the cat litter and roll around. In his own poop. Which, by the way, is disgusting. But I can’t focus on his weird, middle of the night habits now! In the end, Zoe didn’t pee at all during the night. When she finally got into the cat box, nothing came out. I slept beside the box (YES, I know how gross this is) hoping I’d catch her peeing, but she wasn’t able to with any success.

We’ve got a vet appointment to get this sorted out. I’m fairly confident it’s a Urinary Tract Infection. But hey, an infection is an infection and should be taken seriously. But you know what shouldn’t be taken seriously? A cat rolling around in his cat litter. That’s like you splashing around in a toilet. I mean…honestly!

Yay for Canada. And yay for long weekends!
Last weekend was officially the last calm one before our wedding. Naturally, we took every opportunity to be lazy and relax on the dock with a caesar in hand. Best part? Fireworks!

I love me some fireworks!
Anyhow, here's a few shots of the dogs enjoying the summer breeze and refreshing water. Rizzo has been our house guest for the past week while the brother is in London- but more on that later ;)

We hope you guys had a chance to relax on the long weekend. How many more days until the next one?

Sheesh. What a bunch of slackers!

A few months back, I received the most random, but insanely exciting email.

A couple in Baltimore were looking for the sister to their dog, Bailey. Much like our Bailey, theirs is a beagle lab mix, all black with a little bit of white on the chest. When they adopted her, her papers mentioned a sister. I suppose after some discussion, they decided to try and see if the sister was out there. If she was for adoption, they would bring her home and reunite her with their Bailey.

Last fall we had our photo shoot with the lovely and talented Liz Bradley. Our Bailey was featured on her blog with some shots from our day in the park. The couple mentioned above stumbled upon our Bailey’s pictures on Liz’s site and couldn’t believe the resemblance. They emailed Liz, who in turn forwarded me their information.

Now, I have to say that at first I was a little skeptical. The odds that the two Baileys are sisters seem unlikely. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that maybe, just maybe, it was true. We don’t know where our Bailey is from. We bought her off a couple in Quebec, which makes me think that she is from a puppy mill. That being said, she could be from ANYWHERE.

I was blown away at the description of their Bailey. She sounded like our Bailey’s double!

“She usually is pretty quiet, but if she hears strange noises, or there's someone new in our home she barks, and becomes very protective, until she investigates the new person.  She's got a big heart, and is really smart, she sometimes tricks us into playing with her, or taking her on walks, ect..  and when we walk her, her nose is pretty much glued to the ground!’

Now I know what you're all thinking. There are tons of dogs out there who look alike and have similar personalities. And I agree with you, completely. Or I did. Until I saw these pictures.

Here's our Bailey at Christmas.

And here is their Bailey at Christmas

Not convinced yet? Okay. Here's another one of our Bailey

And their Bailey

Still need more?
Here's our Bailey

Baltimore Bailey

They are about the same weight, same height and have the same personality. Their birthdays are  Both Baileys are timid pooches. They also both have an incredibly deep bark for such a little dog. Both are great running partners, have huge amounts of energy and LOVE to chew fuzz off of tennis balls.

The big thing for me is the similarities in their appearance. They both look like mini labs. I have looked ALL over the internet for other lab/beagle mixes that look like Bailey with no luck. Any pictures I found showed dogs that were the size of a lab with beagle years. I had never come across any that were as small as Bailey.

CLEARLY this whole story is dying to be a movie! Can you see it? Two sisters. No wait. Two TWIN dogs, BOTH named Bailey, reunite after being seperated at birth. I bet you Disney would be all over this. I'll contact Jennifer Love Hewitt immediately to play my part ;)

I have noticed over the past few months that a lot of people are putting their pets up for adoption because ‘they are moving and cannot take their pet with them’. Having just moved, I can appreciate the predicament people can find themselves in when trying to find a rental property that allows pets. There’s nothing more frustrating than finding the perfect place, scrolling down the webpage and seeing ‘No Pets Allowed’ printed in bold letters. I understand that for some people, having to move into a dwelling that does not allow pets may be the only option. BUT, I do have a problem with people simply putting their pets up for adoption because they’re moving and the new place doesn’t allow pets. These past six weeks, we have been going out of our way to make sure our pets had a place to stay while we moved. Our two friends graciously offered to house Rascal and Zoe for FIVE AND A HALF WEEKS! Trust me, this is no easy feat! They took care of feeding, cleaning and loving those furry monster- something I will always be incredibly grateful for. It was incredibly important that we found a place for them to stay where they were with someone familiar (Kimmy used to live with both R and Z). And even after we brought them over to Kimmy’s, we had TWO other places as a backup in case we needed to do a little switch-a-roo. Leaving them at a shelter or anything along those lines never even entered my mind. It was absolute hell not being able to live with my cats for so long. I was determined to find a place that we, and when I say we I mean ALL of us could live together. The minute I saw a place that said ‘No pets’, I immediately stopped looking.

We ended up finding the perfect place- one that allowed pets. I found that most places were okay with the cats, but had huge issues with dogs. It didn’t matter that Bailey doesn’t bark, weighs one pound over the ‘small dog’ weight class and is completely house trained. The second I mentioned the word ‘dog’, people practically hung up on me. When we found our current place, I wanted to do cartwheels all over the place (and I would have…..if…you know…I could actually do cartwheels). We signed our lease and started to make arrangements to reunite our furry family.

I strongly believe that anything worth your while isn’t easy. This new place is gorgeous- we REALLY lucked out with it. So when we were told that we couldn’t move in (after signing a lease) because of the cats, I wasn’t surprised another obstacle had been thrown in our path. The rental has a basement, and the basement tenants were deathly allergic to cats. As all of you renters know, you cannot be evicted for having pets. Because we had signed our lease, there was little that could be done to prevent our move in date. In the end, the basement tenants decide to look for somewhere else to live.

Within all of this, we were asked if we could get rid of our cats. And I can understand why to outside parties, that would be considered the easiest solution to the problem. But there’s no way on God’s green earth I could give up my cats like that, and here’s why. I took on the responsibility of caring for those two lives years ago. I take great pride on my ability to be a responsible individual. Simply ‘giving my cats away’ would be considerably irresponsible of me. Why would I ‘get rid’ of the pets that I have been caring for nearly four years, simply because my new place didn’t accept cats? Yes, this new place is beyond beautiful. But you know what I love more? My animals. They are a part of our family, and there’s was no way we were going to simply give them up. I had barely made it through the five and a half weeks of being without them. And that was with me going to snuggle their butts off every third day during my lunch hour.

The whole point of this story is, if it came down to my house or my pets, I would do whatever I need to do for those furry monsters. It was a choice I made years ago to give them the best possible life. It’s the same reason I spend money on good food for them, on annual vet checkups to make sure they’re okay. It is my job to care for them to the best of my ability. So yes, I understand that there are people out there who need to ‘get rid’ of their pets because they’re moving. And yes, I know that there are circumstances out of people’s control that force them to give up their pets. But to all those people out there who simply drop their cat or dog off at a shelter because ‘they are moving and can’t take the pet with them’, you clearly didn’t put enough thought into either a) getting your pet in the first place or b) thinking about where you were going to live. I was willing to move out into the country if it meant that I could live with them. Why? Because I made a promise to those furry little faces, and I will do whatever is needed to keep it. THAT is what it means to be a pet owner.

I hope you all had a chance to get outside and enjoy the fabulous weather that was the long weekend in Ottawa! I may be burnt, and have a sunglasses shaped 'tan' on my face, but I strongly believe I am a much happier person because was able to swim in the lake at my cottage in May.
Bailey sort of swam this weekend. She walked into the water all on her own, and was able to swim back to shore when we brought her out with us. I think that she'll be a water dog by the end of the summer.

I apologize for the low picture quality. The charger for my camera is in my apartment with the mold :( (I had to take these with my phone). Of course a cottage weekend wouldn't be complete with Sophie and Rizzo.

If you're wondering why they look so exhausted in these pictures, it's because it didn't dawn on me to take some pictures until Monday afternoon. This was after  an entire weekend of fetching sticks and frisbees out of the water!

In other news, Rascal and Zoe seem to have finally found some common ground with Chase the rabbit......turns out it doesn't matter whether you're a cat or a bunny. Everybody likes treats!

This looks like a budding friendship to me.......

I imagine the conversation went something like this.
*Sniff* What are you?
*Sniff sniff* I'm a cat man....what the hell are you?

I've always felt that Zoe was part cat and part bunny. Her fur is so soft, and she's almost shaped the same as Chase. This moment confirms my suspicions.
Hope you all had a great weekend, and met somebunny new!
 Haha. Get it? SomeBUNNY new? I kill myself, seriously!

Remember how upset Rascal was? Turns out he's over it. I'm assuming he and the bunny Chase had a heart to heart and talked things out.

Our lives this week are DRASTICALLY better than the ones we were living last week. We found a new apartment that has a backyard for the Bailster! Hopefully by mid June I will be reunited with my furry family.
As I mentioned above, Rascal seems to be perfectly fine with bunking up with Chase.

 Wow Rascal. You look stressed out.
How about you Zoe, are you okay with all of this?

Remind me why I was freaking out again.......

Well. Let me tell you a story.......
Last week our kitchen suffered not one, but TWO floods. After spending the bulk of our Monday with buckets, mops and every towel we own, we called in a plumber. Apparently our pipes had leaked, which caused the water anyone above us used to empty onto our floor. And so, when said plumber was called and came over for a visit we learned that a leaky pipe was the least of our problems. After cutting a hole in the wall (you know. The only red accent wall in the entire place) they discovered that there are vast amounts of mold growing.
On Monday morning we were dealing with a leak, and by Tuesday afternoon we were packing up our clothes to vacate the premises for at least two weeks!
Because of all of this, we had to figure out an immediate game plan for the furry family. Sadly, our cats cannot come with us to my parents house, as their cat is somewhat CRAZY and wouldn't be able to deal with others in his house. Thankfully my bestest friend in the entire world graciously offered up her apartment for the cats.

This is Rascal and Zoe on their way to Auntie Kimmy's. Bailey, Scott and myself are camping out at my parents place. While I know this is temporary, the idea of being seperated from my cats is killing me. Yes, I'm aware this might make me a crazy lady, but I don't care.
Zoe and Bailey are great- barely even notice they're not at their home right now. Rascal however is NOT doing well. Usually he's pretty laid back, social and lovey. I thought that Zoe would have been more upset about the move before Rascal. But he's not eating, drinking or socializing at all. He crept into the farthest point of a closet and wouldn't come out. I arrived at my friends last night to sleep over and try to coax Rascal out of his depression. I managed to get him to come out, but he refuses to eat :( I've put some of my clothes around the apartment for some familiar smells....but I don't think my Scooner is going to last long in such a different environment.

So if anyone out there knows of a short term, pet friendly, furnished rental space....please let me know. I'm on the hunt for a place where WE (and I mean pets) can stay together.

I hate mold........