Traveling The World with my humans

My mistress told my master today that she read an article in a newspaper that they have a problem with wolves in Austria and Germany. The officials want to allow shooting wolves in Austria that come too close to humans. The wolves are back in Europe, I know that much. And it looks like they kill sheep and other farm animals. Hey, they are wolves and this is the easiest way to get food. That is easier to hunt a deer or a boar. But this does not mean they would attach humans. I just don’t get it. Humans are responsible that the wolves disappeared in Western Europe. Now the wolves come back and the humans want to kill them. This is just not right. They are part of the nature, part of the original habitat. Why shouldn’t they live there among the other animals and the humans? The wolf is good for the environment, that’s a fact. Ever heard about that project in Yellowstone National Park, what happened after the wolves came back? The biological balance came back into the park. The same thin...

It’s almost Christmas they keep telling me. By They I mean my humans and everybody else. All that music with the bells ringing and my mistress baked cookies, what’s all that hassle about? My mistress tried to explain that to me, but to be honest, I don’t quite get it. Santa Clause, Christkind, reindeers, elves, what is all that? I hope you know what Christmas means, because I can’t explain that to you, I just don’t have a clue. How about you try to explain that to me – what is Christmas, why is everybody so crazy about it and what’s that thing with these decorated trees everywhere? The good thing about that Christmas is the food. I don’t know about you but I love good food. Today we were invited to Hermy’s house for supper. Early Christmas Supper they called it. I don’t care what it is called as long as it is good. And this one definitely was very delicious. Hermy made a nice ham with vegetables and potatoes. Forget about that vegetable stuff, I am not a rabbit. All I am interested...

My humans woke up early this day. When I went outside with my mistress for my morning pee the sun just showed up. Look at these pictures, isn’t that beautiful. I just had to check for the wolves or coyotes, whatever they were yesterday night. Of course they were gone but they marked the territory. You can bet I tried to lift my leg even higher today to mark as much as I can. It might take a couple of days to finish that marking. That means I have to make my humans take me outside more often and to different areas of the property. There are so many trees here that will take me busy the next couple of weeks I think. I know my humans don’t like it when I show them I have to go outside every half an hour but I can be very convincing.

Wow, you can’t imagine what happened tonight. It was scary for my master but not so much for me. It was already dark outside and I had to go outside for a pee. Little Bird and Calypso, the cats, the use the cat toilet. That’s a box with some stuff in it that sucks off the pee and covers the poop. No, I use the big bathroom outside. To make that clear, I don’t poop or pee just everywhere. For peeing I prefer a nice little bush or a tree. The best thing is when I can lean on the tree while I lift my behind leg to pee. You know that I don’t JUST pee, do you? Us dogs can read a lot from the smell of the pee, like the health, gender, stress level and social status. By lifting my leg when I pee I can aim higher. The higher I pee the higher is my social status and I wanting my pee to stay as long as possible so I try to pee on a vertical object. Oh I am so sorry, I got sidetracked. Well, while I was peeing my master used his flashlight, a really bright LED light, to look around. When he po...

We got snow again over night. Did I mention I love snow? My mistress knows that and she took me for a walk on the property again. While we were on our way to the power line, which crosses the property, I had to stay close to my mistress to make sure I don’t destroy any tracks. And believe it or not, she found tracks of either coyotes or wolves. Coyotes and wolves walk in a line, one stepping in the tracks of the one in front and they walk straight. You know, when I run around in the backyard I go from here to there and there and back again, whereas the coyotes and wolves walk straight. The reason for that is that they need to save energy, as they do not know when they will find food again. I know for sure that I get food every day from my humans. These coyotes and wolves don’t have humans that take care of them. Well, we found the tracks and as you can see in the picture it really looks like tracks of a wolf or coyote. And I could smell them. I get really excited when I smell them ...

My humans and I went to Cobourg today. The snow is gone but it is still cold. After they did some groceries they went to the beach. It was a nice and sunny day. Dogs are not allowed at the beach and so I had to stay in the car. The car was parked at the marina. Of course they were no boats in the marina, the water was partially frozen. I watched my humans walking on the beach of Lake Ontario. They went right to the water, the sand was frozen but the water was not. To keep them warm they had a Tim Hortons coffee with them. In case you didn’t know, Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. On the north, west and southwest it is surrounded by the Canadian Province Ontario and on the south and east by the State New York of the United States of America. The border between Canada and the USA is crossing the lake. Surface wise Lake Ontario is smaller than Lake Erie but the 14th largest lake in the world. The name Ontario is based on the word Ontarí’io from the Huron...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Do you know that song? It’s from one of my mistress’ favorite movies. Last night it snowed! I love snow, it’s so much fun running in the snow, bath in the snow by rolling in it, lick it while I run. My mistress went for a longer walk on the property with me. We went all the way to the power line and my mistress looked for footprints. On the way back we went through the woods and passed the big old nut tree. I just ran back and forth and enjoyed the snow. It’s not as cold as at Tim’s place last year so I can enjoy it even more. Can I stay outside all day today? Or maybe not, I prefer a nap in the warm house. Do you like snow? I am not sure if I prefer sun or snow, maybe both.

There are a LOT OF TREES on this property. Some of the trees loose a lot of leaves. Joyce asked my humans to take care of the leaves and as the weather was good they decided to take care of the leaves today. There were still a lot of leaves on the trees but way more on the ground. For me that meant I can run around outside for quite a while and have fun. Little Bird and Calypso, the cats, were outside too. Watching my humans work is boring because for me that means I have to have fun without them. Distracting them while they are outside with me is easy. All I have to do is start catching my tail, bark at them and jump around. This does not work all the time – but most of the time. The leaves had to go into the compost box. That compost box was not big enough to hold all the leaves so my mistress had to climb in the box and jump and the leaves to compress them. I would have loved to jump with her but I was not allowed to do so. Instead I inspected the backyard and the trees, tried ...

A couple of days ago I was running around the house. You need to know that there are very many trees around the house; it’s almost a little forest. Some of the trees are cut down and just lying there. As I was running around I must have hurt myself. The skin was scratched but it didn’t seem to be a big wound, just as big as a penny on my shoulder and my head. It didn’t hurt and so I didn’t show it to my mistress. A couple of days later it started to hurt and it was getting worse every day. My mistress had already noticed that something wasn’t right and she looked at the wounds. They were triple the size now and full with pus. My mistress has seen the wounds before as she looked for ticks every day but over night it got really bad as I was scratching the wounds with my paws. The last days my mistress put some essential oils on the wound and gave me some medicine. One afternoon my mistress went to Oak Knoll Stables to help feeding the horses and Caroline put some medicine on my wounds. ...

It’s the big day! Joyce is leaving for her vacation. She will be traveling Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Bali and New Zealand for the next 2.5 months. My mistress helped her book all the flights and listened while they were doing this. All these countries must be far away. The flight from Canada to Australia takes almost 36 hours. My humans took Joyce to the bus station in Port Hope. She takes the Express Bus to Toronto Pearson Airport. Now my humans have to take care of the big house and the cats. Well, the cats – they don’t love me but they do accept me and even Little Bird with her three legs is getting curious to get to know me. They don’t have a problem with my mistress and to be honest no animal has problems with my mistress. Both of them like my master too but Calypso takes every opportunity to cuddle with him. Have fun Joyce!

It’s election time they say. I don’t have a clue what that means so my mistress tried to explain it to me. Looks like they are looking for some kind of leader and they do this by something called voting. To decide which leader you vote people go to meetings where the candidates present themselves. One of these meetings was held at the Port Hope High School and Joyce volunteered to help. Ken Morden (Caroline’s husband, that Caroline from Oak Knoll Stables where we visited the horses) runs for council. My humans were asked to make a balloon arch to welcome the visitors for that meeting. So my humans ordered balloons, prepared the arch and we took it to the High School with our van. After that meeting was over they decided that the arch was way to beautiful to waste it by popping. They left the arch at the school as there was another meeting the following weeks and they wanted to give the arch to the organizers of that meeting. It turned out that the organizers of that other meeting ...

There was a Fall Market in Cobourg today and Joyce and my humans picked up Donna on the way and went to Cobourg. Part of King St. was closed for vehicles and people could walk on the street. My mistress and my master saw a lot of nice things and they stopped every few meters to look at something. Right when we arrived there a couple, strangers, started talking to my humans about me and they asked if they could take a picture of me. That’s weird, isn’t it? There were a lot of dogs with their humans but we couldn’t talk, the humans were just too busy. My mistress’ glasses were broken, well the frame was and she had been looking for a new frame for a couple of months now, as she didn’t want to get new glasses. There was that optician on King Street and my humans walked in to see if the would have a replacement frame. Luckily they did have one and they put it aside for my mistress. The shop was called InSight, very friendly people. Further down the street was a shop called RAW 101. Th...

This was a busy day. Joyce was a volunteer at the Water Day at Alderville First Nation. There were some booths to show how important the water is and how humans should take care of that. Also there was someone showing how wild rice is treated after it is harvested. People sold crafts and food and the kids had the opportunity to get face paint and to attend a show. My humans brought their balloon equipment and asked the organizers if it was ok with them to twist balloons for the kids. After a positive response they started twisting. I had a nice and comfy place right next to my mistress so I could see and hear everything that was going on. It was sunny and not too hot so I could enjoy the day. My humans had fun and chatted with the people. When my mistress took a short break and looked at the tipi that was set up she started laughing. The same company, HomeSewn.com that made the tipis for the Native People in Timmins and the tents for Tim and the True North Voyageur Brigade, made th...