Corgi Jailbreak

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When Hanna came home, one of the first things I did was to borrow a mastiff sized crate to keep her in overnight. Thankfully, Hanna was housebroken in a record fast period of time, which is good, because she greatly prefers to sleep on the leather sofa, with her head hanging off the side.

This left the crate free for us to move Billie into, along with her litter box and her collection of stuffed toys and stolen work socks (she likes to grab them out of the laundry room, and bury them underneath her bed).

Every night, I would kiss Billie on the nose, and tuck her into bed with a few cookies for snacks, or maybe a small dish of food (babies need a nosh in the middle of the night, is my reasoning). I’d  lock the crate door, of course – a living room holds an entire world of trouble for puppies to get into.

The trouble came to Billie anyways, because almost every morning I was getting up and finding her either wandering around the living room, or sleeping curled up next to her mother, Bunny, in the big dog bed in front of the bookcase.  After a week of this, I was starting to think I was either senile, losing my mind or that I had a dog who was some sort of canine prodigy escape artist.

Turns out, it was that last one.

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A Montreal family was devastated when their adopted black Labrador retriever, Pollux, ran away from home last spring.

Microchip Brings Dog Home from BC to Montreal

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Pollux the dog somehow traveled from Montreal, Quebec to Kamloops, BC – a journey of almost 4,245 kilometres or 2,637 miles

I never cease to be amazed at some of the journeys our pets can make, all on their own. I also never cease to be amazed at how effective microchips can be at bringing back our lost or stolen pets. 

This story definitely falls into the ‘amazing’ category.

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Where do brokered puppies come from?

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A common marketing ploy of the people who broker puppies has been to claim that they import puppies because “European bred dogs are healthier”. They’ll usually then toss out some blather about dog wardens and breed inspections and dogs which are somehow magically healthy simply by virtue of the country they were born in.

None of this is true, of course. Dogs become healthier through a combination of things – a breeding program which puts health above everything else, use of up to date screening and DNA tests, an insistence on breeding from or to health tested dogs who don’t have any apparent health issues. None of this is predicated on the country your puppy is born in.

Another thing that helps to ensure your puppy turns out healthy, happy and well adjusted is to be sure he has been raised in a stimulating, safe, clean environment, where he, his siblings and his mother were fed quality food and given top knotch veterinary care.

Now, let me add my standard caveat – there are lots of breeders in Europe who exemplify everything I’ve just mentioned, and they are producing some spectacular dogs. What these stellar breeders are NOT doing is handing their four week old puppies over to any broker willing to pay them $200 per puppy.

For that, you need scumbags like these guys.
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Happy Birthday, Nicole (and Happy 4th of July too)

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Hard to believe, but my little girl is 27 today – and that also means that this photo was taken 21 years ago, which explains the blurriness. The bad lighting is all on me.

Happy Birthday, Nicole – thanks for putting up with me as your mom, and with my dog craziness, for almost your entire life! Love you!

 

Happy Canada Day!

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It’s a little known fact, but by law, all Canadians must choose a favorite Tragically Hip song at age fourteen, or their citizenship is revoked.

This one happens to be mine.

We won’t be spending Canada Day in Bobcaygeon – we’ll be in Collingwood, instead, but this song evokes a true sense of Canadian summer for me.

If you ever come to visit us here, at the lower end of the Bruce Peninsula, in an area I sometimes (only half jokingly) refer to as “Two Miles east of the middle of nowhere”, you truly will get a chance to see the constellations reveal themselves, one star at a time.

Video after the cut.

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