Delicat.ca » Family and Friends

Welcome to the family Tika!

amyt — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:50:00 +0000

We’re suckers for animals. That’s how you end up with three cats and now TWO dogs.

Rob had Bailey at the vet last week, and during the course of conversation they mentioned that just that morning someone called trying to find a home for their German Shepherd Dog. They were a nice old couple who just got her six months ago, but the man was very sick and they didn’t have the time for her. Rob called me right away. I said we’d have to meet her and see. Duh, she’s have to be some kind of frothing she-devil for us not to take her. So our new family member, Tika, came home with us last week and is here to stay. She’s gorgeous, smart, energetic, and clumsy as all hell. I love her to pieces.

Tika is completely enamoured with Bailey.

Sometimes love feels like drowning.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

amyt — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:37:54 +0000

Monday is Thanksgiving Day here in Canada, so that means it’s a LONG WEEKEND!

Things I am thankful for:

Long weekends
A family that constantly makes me laugh
A job that’s challenging without being too stressful
Arizona pomegranate iced tea (I’m seriously addicted)
Gorgeous fall weather so I can go out and enjoy the picturesque natural beauty that abounds in my province

I’m also thankful for my stylin’ new sweater from Full Tilt Poker (thanks Rob):

Bailey Update! Today at Odell Park

amyt — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:22:56 +0000

It’s been a long time since I did a puppy update. Bailey is about six months old now and we can’t imagine life without him. He’s gotten so big, so fast; he’s about fifty pounds now. People say that German Shepherds are “velcro dogs” because they always want to with with their “pack”, and it’s so true! If he hears Rob and I talking upstairs he’ll break down our impromptu barricade, run up the stairs full speed, and lunge up into the bed with us. We call it the Bailey torpedo!

Here’s some shots from our walk in Odell Park today:

Good walk Bailey!

Sitz!

Stay...

I can has weenie?

I guess it’s that time of year again…

amyt — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:14:50 +0000

…hunting season.

I got to follow this delectable-looking carcass on my way into work this morning.

Quick story: My coworker and buddy, Don, is currently on two weeks of vacation so he can enjoy the New Brunswick hunting season. Among other beasts he intends to slay, he’s going to go after a bear this year. That wouldn’t be very unusual in itself, except he intends to hunt this bear with a black-powder musket. You know the civil war movies where they have to pack powder into the rifle with a long stick, and when it fires it makes a big cloud of smoke? Yeah, that’s what he wants to go hunt a bear with. He says it takes about a minute and a half just to load the gun. I asked him what would happen if he shot a bear with this thing, but didn’t kill it and instead just managed to make it angry? He replied “I’m just going to make damn sure I have a kill shot!” Uhuh, good luck with that!

12 year old political pawns – not my daughter!

amyt — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:22:45 +0000

Right now I’m somewhere that is angrier than “annoyed”, but not quite “enraged”. Here is an excerpt from a note that Jasmin brought home this week regarding a “field trip”:

On Thursday, September 25, students will have the opportunity to represent -name of school omitted- at the “I walked with my Premier and MLAs” event organized by the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission.
Approximately 2000 students from schools in Districts 17 and 18 (within the capitcal region) are to meet at the Legistlative Assembly, and walk from there with the government officials across the Old Train Bridge, and return to the starting point. Once there, students will be given a light snack and a commemorative button.
The walk will provide the students with the unique opportunity of meeting with the Premier and other elected officials of our government.

Isn’t it funny that in all the years Jasmin has been in school I never remember anything like this being run, but now that there’s an election happening my kid suddenly has this “opportunity”. Like I’m stupid enough to see this as an opportunity for anyone other than the politicians. How exactly is every child of the 2000 supposed to “meet” with the elected officials at all? It’s a blatant photo opportunity, which they make a very brief mention of later in the note:

Students will need permission to have their pictures taken as this will be a media event.

(emphasis mine)

This whole event is supposed to take from 9AM to 1PM – practically the whole school day. We sat down as a family yesterday and explained what “photo op” meant to Jasmin, and expressed our opinion that this “field trip” was exactly that. We gave her the choice to stay home today, and she is.

Puppy Update – a new friend

amyt — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:54:01 +0000

My coworker Don is always offering to let us swim in his pool. On top of that, he has a great big and gentle golden retriever named Sam who I really wanted to introduce Bailey to. It was 32 degrees yesterday, so the perfect time for a swim. Bailey and Sam got along great. We even coaxed Bailey to jump in the pool! I was in the pool at the time, so no pictures of that – maybe next time.

Puppy Update: 10 Weeks

amyt — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:20:02 +0000

Both ears are up-ish. Last night he did a “down” for the first time with just a verbal command; for weeks we’ve been doing the down command and using a treat to lure him down to the floor.

He’s almost sleeping through the night already, last night he had a quick pee at midnight and didn’t need out again until 5:30.

Puppy Update: 9 Weeks

amyt — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:00:02 +0000

Bailey is doing great. He’s playful, energetic, and affectionate. We’re all working at teaching him commands – “come”, “sitz”, and “down” for now. Just this week his ears have started to stand, well one more than the other, take a look!

Smartest and cutest puppy ever!

amyt — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:06:46 +0000

So yesterday the family is sitting around discussing something and Bailey is romping around playing. All of a sudden we hear him whimpering from the kitchen and go to investigate. There he is at the back porch door, that’s the door we take him through to “do his business”. We open the door, and that clever, perfect dog trots on down to the grass and has a nice big poop! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see dog shit in my life.

If he keeps this up, that means that he’s figured out where he needs to poop, and all we have to work on is the pee. He’s really good about peeing outside, but his bladder is so tiny right now he needs to go a lot. In fact, he’s up and outside about every 90 minutes – all day and all night. If anyone doesn’t notice that he’s up or waits just a minute too long he’ll make a little piddle puddle on the floor.

I guess he got to meet a whole gaggle of kids today on the green and was super-good while they swarmed him and petted him.

Puppy report: Day 3

amyt — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:58:09 +0000

Wow, were we tired this morning. Bailey is still in “baby” stage, so will sleep for an hour or more and then want to be let out or eat. Jasmin was up at least three times with him throughout the night, and then finally at 5:30 she was just like “please, can you take the puppy out?”. He wolfed down his breakfast, did some puppy business in the yard, and then was all high-strung and ready to play. We did the most logical thing on a Saturday morning and had a walk to the market.

After a few more cycles of eat-poop-play-sleep we went out to Nannie Stewart’s homestead in the country. He got to run around some more in the fresh air and just generally tuckered himself out. As I type this he’s zonked out next to me doing that funny twitchy-dreaming thing that dogs do.

Oh, he learned a lesson from Phillip today too. That lesson was: “Sniffing the tail is fine, biting is not”.

Here’s Bailey with his Papa, Rex, at the farm the day we brought him home:

Here’s Bailey with Mama, Missy, saying “so long”. He has beautiful parents!