Posts

Showing posts from September, 2018

September 19, 2018 – Horses, a lot of them

Image
Joyce had to talk to a friend of hers about an event that’s coming up. That friend, Caroline, owns a farm where they bread racing horses. Not the racing horses with jockeys on their backs but the ones that pull a sulky. I think you humans call it trotting race. The farm is called “Oak Knoll Stables” (http://oakknollstables.com/index.php). My mistress was very exited about this because she loves horses and it’s a long time ago she was near a horse. She grew up with horses and the first time she sat on a horse she was 6 month old. Yes, she told me everything about her childhood. When she was 11 years old she was finally allowed to take horseback riding lessons. But long before that she was allowed to sit on the horses while they were cooling off after being ridden. Her grandfather was the CEO of the Hessen Horses (https://www.petmd.com/horse/breeds/c_hr_hessen) in his leisure time and when my mistress was a little older she even was allowed to ride a stud from a stud farm for Hessen Ho

September 16, 2018 – Salmon, hundreds of them looking for the fish ladder

Image
My humans had to do some groceries in town. Unluckily our van did not start, something is wrong with it. My master has to check that. Joyce offered us to take her car to go into town. That’s very friendly – Thank you Joyce! After they did the groceries my mistress wanted to show that dam and all the salmons to my master and me. There were a lot of people there but we found a good spot to see the fish. In front of the dam were hundreds of salmons swimming around. They have to find the fish ladder on the far left side of the dam to continue their journey. They can’t see it in the water and many of them jump where there is no fish ladder. This must hurt them and I am sure they are insured too. A couple of them found the ladder and I was so happy they made it. Can’t humans do something about this and make it easier for the fish to migrate? They could just build a detour or something for the fish, there must be something they could do. These dams are men build and salmons or other

September 15, 2018 – Hermi and her dream

Image
Joyce told my humans and me a lot about Hermi, a friend of hers. Hermi’s right name is Hermine and she originally is from Austria. Finally we were about to visit Hermi in her little house. When we arrived at Hermi’s house she came out to greet us. She talked in German to my humans and me. Her German is just perfect, even after living in Canada for more than 60 years. She is such a nice and gentle person. I liked her from the moment I saw her. She told the story about her house, you have to hear that, it’s amazing. After Hermi migrated to Canada with her late husband they lived in an apartment in Toronto (as far as I remember). They wanted to have a cottage in the country to spend the weekends and holidays. So they contacted a realtor to show them some nice cottages. Meanwhile Hermi had a dream for three nights. In her dream she saw an old cottage, greyish with a crooked driveway, red and white checked curtains and some more details. Her dream was very detailed. So one day her hus

September 13, 2018 – my mistress had a crazy walk through Port Hope

Image
This morning my mistress decided to experience Port Hope and do some groceries. I could not go with my mistress because she wanted to do groceries and I was very tired and preferred to take a long nap. When she came back she told me everything that happened. As Joyce had to go into town anyways she took my mistress and dropped her off at the mall. She wanted to pick up my mistress about an hour later. My mistress went to Bulk Barn for the first time and was amazed of what you could get there. After that she wanted to do groceries. At the mall was “Independent” but she remembered they had some interesting offers at “Metro”. She couldn’t remember where exactly Metro was so she asked someone on the parking lot. That very nice lady told her how to go there and said it’s about a 20 minutes walk. My mistress had plenty of time left till Joyce wanted to pick her up. Her plan was to go to Metro and send Joyce a text message that she would be at Metro and not at the mall. She started walking

September 9, 2018 – Salmon fishers, US flags in Canada and Fire truck

Image
Today Joyce took us to Port Hope and Cobourg to show us the surrounding. We drove through Port Hope and went on to Cobourg where she parked the car. Joyce found out a couple of days earlier that there would be a “Community Appreciation Day” on this day and she wanted to go there and thought it might be a good idea for my humans to meet some people that might be good to know for their balloon business. But first we went to the river where the salmons were on their way upriver and fishermen tried to catch them. When we got out of the car I could smell old dead fish and in the sky you could see the vultures circle. When we were closer to the river we could see the salmon swim upriver and jump the steps. That must be hard for this fish as the river is strong. Joyce told us that further uphill there is a dam and in that dam is just one little hole on the side where the salmon can pass. Some fishermen caught a salmon and killed it and let it go again or let it go right away. What is this

September 8, 2018 – Port Hope, that’s where the cats are

Image
After my humans got up and had a shower and felt like civilized people again (that’s what they said) my mistress took me for a walk to the beach. I could at least try to catch the ducks but of course I did not get them. It was fun running on the beach and just sniff around and enjoy the sun. My mistress was in a very good mood and she enjoyed being at the beach too. The lake is called Lake Nipissing and it is quite big. When we got back to Dwight’s house he and Marie were preparing breakfast. That smelled so good and I would have loved to get something. They talked and talked and talked. I tried to get their attention by annoying them but it did not work. After they finished my humans packed the stuff they took out of the van for the night. Dwight gave me some tuna as Marie opened a can the other day to feed that little skinny cat that was coming to their house a couple of times. Oh that was so good. My mistress needs to feed me that once in a while. We took off in our van a li

September 7, 2018 – On the road to Port Hope

Image
The last couple of days my humans were busy finishing some work for their business and yesterday they started packing our stuff. They told me that we would leave Tim and go to Joyce’s place to stay there for a while. I don’t know where Port Hope is. All I know is that it takes about 9 hours to go there with a normal car and a little longer with our van. My humans packed almost everything in the van yesterday and I made sure they would not leave without me. How did I do that? I simply sat in the car and did not move. In the evening they went into the camper and shut the van for the night and I finally had to leave the van. But as they were outside the van and went into the camper I thought it would be save. Tim was on the beach until after it got dark and they did not really have a chance to talk to him. He showed up at the camper for a couple of minutes to ask something and went off to his house. In the morning my humans got up early and packed up the rest of our things and loade

August 26, 2018 – It’s getting quiet

Image
This morning all the paddlers but Joyce left and went back home. That’s so sad, because now it is very quiet here again. I like having humans around me. Joyce stays another day so I can try to get in contact with these cats. Tim and Holli went to Timmins again to be at the Great Canadian Kayak Challenge and my humans stayed home with me. All they wanted was to rest and they needed to take care of their own business. I chilled and later that day Jeff and Rhonda showed up and the humans talked while I had the chance to get to know Shelby better. At first she was a little shy but after a while we ran together and had fun. It was a quiet day after a couple of very stressful days. We met some nice people and my humans had some good talks. They made new friends and were even invited to sit a house of one of the paddlers in March. They have dogs and cats too – wow I am really looking forward to that.

August 25, 2018 – Moose, buffalo and deer

Image
The next morning the paddlers had to get up very early as they had to leave at 7 am to paddle. Everybody went to bed early. My humans were told they could sleep in the next morning and were not needed to haul cars or canoes. Instead my humans packed everything for the Kayak Challenge and dinner later that day and we left to Timmins early. On our way my mistress had to get some more groceries for the brigade for breakfast next morning. When we arrived at the Kayak Challenge my humans helped David to set up the baker tent and my humans took care of all the display. As soon as they were finished they started making balloons for the people. There weren’t many kids and most of the people were in the trapper’s tents with all the fur for display. My mistress told me they had all kinds of furs: bear, coyote, beaver, polar fox and way more. My mistress told me that there are people out there in the world that are against killing animals and wearing furs. Hmmm, I am against killing animals t

August 24, 2018 – Delivering a wearable balloon washing machine

Image
My humans had to get up early again because they had to deliver the wearable balloon washing machine. After they had breakfast they tried to leave to deliver that balloon thing but people kept asking questions and tried to talk to my humans. Finally they made it and could leave and of course they took me with them. When we arrived at the Laundromat my humans left me in the van because they had to finish the balloon thing and they had to adjust it to the size of owner. It took a while until they were finished and meanwhile their laundry was done too. The owner of the Laundromat and her friend tried the wearable balloon washing machine and they loved it. Even just standing outside the shop made people stop with their car and look at it. That was exactly what the owner wanted, make people stop and look and get aware that there is a Laundromat. The paddlers had a day off today. Some of them went to the Polar Bear Habitat in Cochrane in the morning because they missed this the other