Fundy National Park

The next morning we drove into the town of Alma, on the edge of Fundy National Park. We picked up some sticky buns, about which we had heard rave reviews, and enjoyed our morning coffee at a small tourist pull-out stop just south of town. This was another opportunity to experience the tides in the bay. We arrived near high tide, and the water was lapping the beach not far off the viewing area, as the river flowed into the bay at little more than a metre under the bridge.


We explored the seashore, the kids wandered down to the river edge, and we checked out the small store across the bridge and picked up some wieners and marshmallows for our anticipated evening campfire. In the store Mustang spotted a fishing rod - $48 plus tax. She desperately wanted to buy it, and she’s begged all spring and summer to get fishing equipment. As I’d planned to pick some up once home and this wasn’t too expensive, I agreed to the purchase as long as Mustang and Button each contributed their saved up allowance money – some $18 – to it. They readily agreed.

After lunch we explored the bay some more. By now the tides were visibly receding, about a metre’s land width every minute, and we were able to walk out and out and out, farther and farther. We discovered little crabs and small shellfish as we walked out. After an hour or so we headed back in – Mustang first with MoMo, then Button and I sneaked towards the bridge, under it - as the river was now a mere trickle and the water level a good 10m below the bridge deck – and up to the bus from the land side.







Mustang and Button joined some people out along the river flats, discovering that they were doing research on eels – fishing them out of the water and banding them. Finally I called the kids in. As we walked to the bus, two motorcyclists drove past. We called MoMo to us, and as we approached the bus the motorcyclists walked up to the bus and knocked – it was Laolao and Laoye’s friends from their home out west, who were travelling cross-country and had stayed at our house over the Canada Day weekend while we were gone!



After a brief visit we climbed aboard the bus and headed into the Park for our second night at a real campground. The first campground right at the cross-roads did not allow fires, so that one was out as one of the reasons to stay at a campground was precisely to have a campfire. So we headed a short ways south into the park where a fire-friendly campground was to be found. After selecting our spot, we walked down to the pathway to the river into the Bay. A boardwalk along the upper cliff took us past a viewing point for peregrine falcons that nest along the cliffs on the opposite bank of the river – unfortunately the view from the telescope was obstructed by a tree! Then down a set of stairs to the river. It was, however, quite windy so despite the sun we were shivering and did not stay long.




Everyone got to bed quite late after the evening campfire feast of hot dogs and s’mores.

Magical Monday

Hopewell Rocks

The next morning we said good-bye to Burke (Lane had left the day before to help her daughter move) and began our onward journey. I had thought we could stay in PEI one more day to see some more of the eastern reaches of the Island, but Laolao wanted to head down along the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, and after reviewing the map and assessing our timeline, I agreed it was a good plan.

So east we went towards the world’s longest bridge – 12km across the Northumberland Strait from PEI to NB. Along the way we stopped in Victoria-by-the-Sea, a small town filled with artisans (mostly people “from away” who have settled on the Island). I had hoped to find there some craft to purchase as my personal memento from the trip, but we had insufficient time to spend looking about and so I just picked up a few chocolates from a chocolaterie – in which we also had morning coffee break and spent some time watching the chocolate makers at their work through the viewing window. There we also found the largest tree on the Island, which the kids attempted to scale without much success as there were no lower branches to give them purchase.


The town is the setting of a novel we had read earlier in the year called Tango, which chronicles the adventures of a small ship-wrecked dog and the girl who finds him. Told primarily from the dog’s perspective, it is an interesting and heart-warming tale filled with treacherous cats, sneaky rats, and a mysterious fox. (I recommend it for ages 6 to 110.)

The drive over the bridge was an uneventful adventure, in the sense that one is conscious of being “alone” on this narrow ribbon of bridge surrounded by water on all sides. It was somewhat foggy so the view was limited, but being high up in the bus we did at least have a view over the side barriers, which would not have been the case in a car.


After a quick lunch on the NB side, we continued our route south. In mid-afternoon we arrived at the Hopewell Rocks, also known as the Flowerpot Rocks – a grouping of large columns of rock and earth near the coast topped by trees and grasses (hence the name “Flowerpot”) which become islands when the Bay of Fundy’s prodigious tides come in but around which one can walk when the tides go out. We arrived at mid-point between low and high tides, giving us about two hours in which to walk along the ocean floor.


A long metal and wooden staircase takes one down the cliff edge towards the ocean floor. As soon as one reaches the bottom one is greeted by the view of these huge looming columns, some small and round, some long and skinny, reaching skywards. I had expected to see more sealife on the bottom – starfish, mussels, crabs, clams, kelp, and so on – so was surprised when not much was in view. Perhaps the tides are too vigorous for them to take hold in that area, or perhaps they are swept out with the retreating tides.


The ground was mostly gravelly and sand, with some muddy areas and a few spots where seaweed grew. The kids had grand fun slipping and sliding in the muddy spots, getting almost totally covered in mud! We walked along investigating the rock formations, searching for ocean life, and generally enjoying the afternoon. MoMo was allowed to come down with us along as she was kept on a short leash.


Certain spots along the cliff edge were blocked off owing to danger from falling rocks or cave-ins, and ocean floor monitors patrolled the area to ensure everyone vacated the area in advance of the incoming tides. We made it back up in plenty of time, washed off at the tap & spray nozzle on the cliff-top, and browsed the gift store and museum displays for a short time before supper. (The kids each bought a lovely necklace with a small vial of some precious or semi-precious stone: Turquoise for Mustang and Obsidian for Button. We decided we’ll have to name two of the puppies with those names in honour of their coastal paternal heritage.)

We might have spent the night in the parking lot there but the management shooed us off the lot so we headed down the highway another half-hour before finding a pull-off at which to spend the night.

Anne & John

The next day was sunny and warm. Our destination was Anne of Green Gables land. But first we visited a potter’s studio, a llama sanctuary (nobody home, so we just said hi to one of the llamas over the fence), and stopped to tour Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birthplace that we happened upon along the way.


By the time we reached Cavendish it was mid-afternoon. I wasn’t sure exactly which spots were the best to visit, so spent a bit of time in the Visitor’s Centre checking things out. The old post office where LMM had worked was across the road, as was the Green Gables house of the story, so we stopped in there first and spent some time reading the displays. Then I figured we’d head over the Anne of Green Gables theme park, down the road a ways. But by the time the kids and walked over it was 4:30 and the park was to close in half an hour, so we just visited the gift store as I wasn’t about to spend $50 in entrance fees for just a half-hour visit.. (Instead I spent about $80 on gifts!!)

As it turns out, the Anne of Green Gables National Park was the place we should have visited. At the end of the day I was rather disappointed by having missed out on any of the main Anne attractions, after having read the book to the kids and having built up some expectations. But they didn’t seem to mind so much, and we enjoyed a Cow’s Ice Cream (best on the Island!) and they each bought an Anne-themed t-shirt with their allowance, so the day was not all lost. And the fish chowder we enjoyed for supper was superb!

Our final day we spent exploring Charlottetown. We started with a visit to the provincial legislature, moved on to the Confederation Centre outside which we enjoyed a performance by the Young Players, paused for lunch on Victoria Row, came back along the shore boardwalk, and ended the day with my visiting the Founders Hall for a multimedia presentation about the making of Canada (which brought me a few realizations I hadn’t fully understood before!) – in which John A. MacDonald played a part - while the kids and Laolao & Laoye played along the shore.

Food Friday: Easy Crispy Cornbread

Easy Crispy Cornbread

Ingredients

• 3 T butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 375ml milk (1½ cups)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Put the butter in an ovenproof cast iron pan and put it into the oven to melt.
3. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl, add the oil, milk and sugar, and mix well.
4. Add the cornmeal and baking powder and stir a bit. Do not stir too much or the cornbread will come out tough.
5. Using oven mitts, take the pan out of the oven and shake the melted butter around to coat the pan evenly.
6. Spoon the cornbread batter into the hot pan, return to the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Happy birthday-and-a-quarter, Button!

This post is only three months out of date, as Button celebrated his birthday at the end of May. But we were travelling on a birthday surprise trip at the time, and I hadn’t gotten the post ready in advance. Then once we got back, end-of-school-year busyness took over, and holiday preparations… so there you go.

In the past two years Button has grown (now over 4’2”/125cm tall!), developed, matured (still a ways to go…) and been lots of fun.



The birthday surprise went like this: I walked the kids to school in the morning. I had already written a note for their teacher that someone would pick them up to come home. That someone was me!!! The note to the teachers had specified that we were heading off for a trip to Stratford to see Peter Pan and Kiss Me Kate, so the children would miss two days of school, but that it was a SURPRISE so not to say a word to either of them about it.

When I showed up at 2:30 the kids were both very surprised to see me. Button’s teacher wished them a “good weekend” which they found surprising as it was only the middle of the week, but she covered it up by saying “Well, I won’t be seeing your Mom before the weekend.” Once we got into the car I told them we were heading off on a trip!! We stopped at home just long enough to drop off their backpacks and load some food from the fridge and then we hit the road!!

It’s a long drive, and after a mere 200km I was tired and getting sleepy, as I’d gone to bed late the night before. But a bite of supper, a cup of tea, and an iced cap from Timmy’s revived me and off we set again. We stopped for the night in Toronto and stayed with a family we’d met last November when they spent a few nights with us. The next morning we took off by nine and made the rest of the journey without stopping. Our Stratford accommodation was provided by a family on an acreage outside the town – their property was lovely, complete with pond, forest, lawns, dog, cat and rabbits.

Our friend Chuckles met us there and we traveled together to see Peter Pan that afternoon. The impetus for the trip was that the Festival was offering free tickets to Peter Pan on a child’s birthday – so Button benefitted from that (as did my pocketbook). The production was excellent and we all enjoyed the acting, staging, and story. After the play we headed off to a local pizza joint for a birthday supper, complete with cake and singing.

Friday was a free day – we spent most of the day just enjoying the acreage, but headed into town in the late afternoon to do some shopping, watch the swans and geese (we saw goslings and a mama swan sitting on her next), and have a bite of supper – which mostly consisted of a huge ice cream cone for each of us!

Saturday morning we went to the neighbouring town for the Mennonite Relief Sale. This is a huge event where quilts and other items are auctioned off to help raise funds for relief and development work overseas. There are also numerous food booths, which were the main beneficiary of my funds. I gave the kids their allowances to spend there: Mustang found a nice necklace while Button purchased a lovely small pouch from Nepal. We met Chuckles there and took off after lunch for our second show, Kiss Me Kate. This one was more complex and I’m sure the kids had a bit of trouble following the storyline, but it was still fun.

On Sunday we took of fairly early for the long drive home. Chuckles was with us so she took a spell driving. We stopped twice – once for a stretch and once for lunch – and arrived home a bit before 5pm. It was a good trip all around!

Deep-sea fishing & Lobster dinner

We spent the next three days exploring PEI. Saturday morning dawned somewhat cloudy and cool, but not too bad. After a joint breakfast with Burke & Lane, we laid our plans for the day – I’d promised the kids we’d go fishing in PEI and I had always wanted to go deep-sea fishing myself, so it was time to fulfill that desire on all fronts. Lane & Burke pointed us to some outfits in North Rustico and I called one up and made arrangements to go out on their afternoon expedition. Burke and Lane would join us for a lobster supper at a restaurant close to the fishing wharf.

As the Island is so small, the north shore where North Rustico is situated is only a half-hour’s drive from Charlottetown, on the south shore. So even with our leisurely breakfast and plan-making, we had time for a trip to the nearby Saturday farmers’ market before we headed across the Island.

Indeed, we made it to North Rustico by noon, found a spot to park, ate a bite of lunch, and still had time to explore the docks before sailing time. A small Fishing Museum was located right next door but the kids weren’t interested in going in.



Some seven other people joined us on the vessel, which was fairly small but equipped with sonar to assist in locating the fish. As we headed out to sea, the captain told us we would be catching cod, herring, and mackerel. Our first destination was about a kilometre off shore. We took our fishing rods and bait – supplied by the captain – and let down our lines. Within minutes Laolao caught the first fish – a good-sized herring!

Herring travel in schools, so it did not take long and everyone was pulling in herring and a few mackerel. The kids were excited as the fish piled up in the fish locker in the middle of the boat – a large tub filled with water to keep the fish fresh. Laolao caught more, then Mustang, then all of us.



After about half an hour we pulled in our lines and moved to a second location a bit further off=shore where the water was 80m deep. There we fished for cod. The cod, however, weren’t very hungry so the fishing was slower. I caught a couple, Laolao caught a couple, Mustang caught one – but there were long pauses between each catch. To provide some entertainment, the captain pulled some of the mackerel out of the fish locker and began cutting them up and tossing them into the air, to be caught by the gulls circling the boat – no doubt awaiting just such a treat. Within moments more gulls arrived, and a flock of some 20-30 birds competed for the scraps of fish, diving and circling, calling their raucous cries. After about 15 minutes without a bite I put away my rod and took out camera, snapping shot after shot of the birds. (This is where a digital camera is so nice – you can shoot a hundred pictures without worrying about wasting film and just keep the best handful!) A few gannets joined the gulls, showing off their superior flying ability and even diving into the water to catch a wayward morsel.




Soon enough our expedition was over and we headed in to shore. Laolao was the fishing champ of the day – she who has hardly ever fished before in her life! – with 11 fish in the bin. I caught 9; Mustang 7; Laoye about 5, and Button, for some reason, just 1, despite the mass of herring at our first location. (He may not have been letting his line down far enough – or spending as much time watching others as fishing himself…) Most of the fishers left with just one small bag of fish, leaving plenty extra, so we took three bags to have for breakfast next day and to make into a nice fish chowder.

Burke and Lane were waiting for us on the dock and the kids regaled them with tales of their fishing prowess. The kids, Burke and I walked with MoMo along the boardwalk that followed the shore to the lobster restaurant a kilometre away.

It was some meal! Each person received one lobster and could fill up with whatever else they desired from the buffet lines. We feasted on mussels – a large plate each – salads, fries, veggies, and more, even before the lobster came. Lobster is not something that can be eaten daintily, so we all got messy sucking the meat out of the legs and body, cracking open the claws, and slurping away. It was most delicious – and somehow we all found a bit of space for one of the yummy desserts on display.


By the time we got home it was late and we fell into bed.

Ferry rides, and Charlottetown fantastic

After Mo’s final breeding, early on July 2nd, we got back in the bus, ate a quick breakfast, and headed north again towards Northumberland Strait, to catch the ferry to PEI. By early afternoon we had made it to Caribou, the ferry terminal on the Nova Scotia shore, and got into the line-up with the motorhomes. The ticket man told us they took 4 big trucks and as many motorhomes as they could fit onto the lower decks, along with all the cars on the top deck. We didn’t make it on to the next ferry so we had about an hour’s wait, during which time the kids and I wandered along the docks and observed the fishing boats tied alongside piles and piles of lobster traps, and watched the ferry as it left and the next one approached.




We made it onto the 3:30pm ferry. The day was sunny but a bit windy over the water. Still it was nice enough that we spent the bulk of the crossing above-deck, watching the land slip away, the gulls fly past, and the waves as they rolled off the boat’s keel.



After an hour’s sailing we reached the PEI shore. Then into the bus for the drive to Charlottetown where we met up with friend Burke and his new wife Lane. We’d gotten to know Burke and his first wife out west, back when I was a teen. We arrived at their house around 6pm and ate a hearty barbecue supper, with the fare provided by both house/busholds.

After supper we were in for a treat! We’d missed the Canada Day celebrations in Charlottetown (we’d taken in the fireworks in Liverpool the previous night, which weren’t bad for a small community), but festivities were continuing all weekend so we had the chance to enjoy a special performance that night by none other than the Cirque du Soleil. Tickets were a lot less expensive than for a regular Cirque show, but the performance was no less thrilling. As usual, the costumes were extravagant and wild, the acrobatics amazing, and the novelty stunning. The show ended with a “water performance” – somehow they used lights and (I think) fabric to create a sense of rippling, running water through which the circus performers danced, jumped, twirled, and spun. It was pretty awesome!

Weight loss

Since the middle of March, I’ve been making a concerted effort to lose a bit of weight. Not too many people would say I look overweight, and by technical definitions I’m not, but for a while now I’ve verged on the upper edge of what is considered the “normal” range of the Body Mass Index.

In mid-winter I started feeling a few twinges in my artificial hip, and although my regular visit to the surgeon for monitoring revealed all was fine, I figured that if I managed to take off some weight it could only be good for the hip (and my knees). Previous efforts to take off weight have not been very successful, but they’ve also been rather lackadaisical and not at all methodical. So this time I vowed I would DO IT!!

The main components missing from previous weight-loss attempts were more exercise and really paying attention to what I ate. I’d try to eat a bit less and drink more water and maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but it never amounted to much. So this time, while those two factors were also a part of the plan, I determined I WOULD get more exercise – and I would track how much I ate and pay more attention to calories.

Exercise had to be something easy. Not necessarily in terms of doing it, but easy in terms of convenience. It couldn’t be anything that would require special equipment or that I go any place special or take much, if any, of my morning or evening hours. My days are full enough already. So, my exercise component of choice was something that I could do easily, every day, right in my office building: climb stairs.

I set myself a three-part goal:
every day to beat or match my previous stair-climbing record;
if I coulnd’t manage that, then to match or exceed what I’d done the previous day (assuming it wasn’t my record); or
if I coulnd’t manage that, then to climb at least 20 flights a day.

I started on a Thursday. The first two days I surprised myself with how easily I managed to climb 24 flights both days. The following week I surprised myself yet again by climbing 42 flights on the Monday and 44 on Tuesday! Wednesday I had taken the day off, and it was likely a good thing, because on Tuesday evening I could feel my leg muscles and I was tired. But the one day rest was plenty, and the Thursday and Friday that week I did 45 and 48 flights, and started off the following Monday with … you’ll never believe it: not 50, not 60, but SEVENTY FLIGHTS!!! At that point I decided I should revise goal #3 to at least 30 flights, rather than 20.

In less than four weeks I reached 82 flights in one day, at which point I suffered a bit of a set-back. I’d been using my hands & arms to help “jerk” me up a little bit when stepping up with my right leg, which doesn’t bend as much as the left and so makes climbing a bit awkward. As a result my wrist and arm/shoulder were very sore. So for the rest of the week I gave myself a break – so to speak – by climbing “just” 60 flights each day. (At that point I revised goal #3 to 50 flights.)

By the following week I’d recovered enough that I managed to climb 100 flights on two of the five working days!! After that I revised my goal to a weekly one – to climb more stairs each week than I had the previous week, even if on any given day I didn’t exceed my previous record.

Up until we went on holidays I was keeping up an average of around 70 flights a day (and managed 100 flights on 7 occasions). When we got back – it was hot, muggy, and even inside our air-conditioned work buildings you can still feel the mugginess. So for a while the climbing slowed down significantly, but by the eight day back on the job I was feeling the lack of exercise – my leg muscles were aching from lack of use, the way they did when I first went back to work after adopting Button and spending my days on my butt instead of up and about with an active kid. That was the impetus to get going again, and since then I’ve been keeping it up, though not as intensely – I’ve averaged just 44 flights a day instead of 70, but that’s still pretty good!

On the eating front, my main strategy has been to limit what I eat at work, having just a very small lunch/snack in the middle of the day. Also, limit portions and avoid second helpings and snacks outside of meals.

So, what about the weight loss? It’s been coming along okay, although from mid-May to late June I was kind of stalled. But I’m now down to just over 110 lbs (a loss of almost 20 lbs and one pants size) and I’m aiming to lose another 5-10 by Hallowe’en if not sooner. That will give me room to gain a bit back and still be at a good, healthy weight. I don’t think I’ve seen those numbers on the scale since I was in my 20s!

Magical Monday

Food Friday: Mud Cake with Worms

Mud Cake with Worms

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
• 1 package instant chocolate pudding
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 10 chocolate cookies (Oreo or other)
• gummy worms

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325°. Grease and flour an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Beat the vanilla and sugar into the chocolate mixture. Whisk in eggs, one at a time.
4. In a small bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. Add the chopped nuts and mix well.
6. Spoon into the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
7. While brownies are baking, prepare the instant chocolate pudding according to package directions, using the milk.
8. Once brownies are cool, cut them into squares and put one square into a dish – one dish per person. Add a generous dollop of chocolate pudding. Sprinkle with mini marshmallows (for rocks or gravel), crushed chocolate cookies (for dirt), and put 2 – 3 gummy worms on top.

Sunsethills Ranger and Labradoodles by Design

So why the need to go to Liverpool? For there was a purpose behind this extended side trip… That purpose was to introduce MoMo to a new boyfriend, Sunsethills Ranger! She had come into heat some ten days previously and we wanted to breed her again.

I had initially been scouting out breeders in Maine as potential mates for a summer breeding, expecting her to come into heat anytime between mid-June and mid-July – and hoping it would be more the latter. But when Laolao phoned me before the kids and I even left home to say that Mo had started spotting, I knew first, that my desire had not been granted and, second, that I had to rethink.

While Maine is about halfway between the east coast and home, the timing of this occurrence meant that the breeding would have to occur right around the beginning of July, before we planned to visit PEI. Heading to Maine would have required us to spend a huge amount of time on the road – first to get there, then to backtrack to PEI, then to head west again. It would have effectively hijacked our holiday plans.

But then, as I was browsing through some old e-mails in my doodle breeder site, I came across a breeder in Nova Scotia that I’d forgotten about. She isn’t a member of the same association as me, so I hadn’t come across her in my search of their breeding stock listing. But that e-mail jogged my memory, and upon visiting her website I realized she had a beautiful lavender-coloured stud, miniature size, direct from Australia, who had the potential to be a good match. So I checked in with her, got Ranger’s pedigree, determined they were a good match (inbreeding is always a concern, so one has to check blood-lines as far back as possible), and we made arrangements.

So, once we arrived in Liverpool, after eating, dumping sewage, and picking up a few groceries, we headed out of town to Labradoodles by Design. We arrived at Ranger’s home in the early evening and made introductions all around. LBD had two litters of puppies – 15 left in all! – that were about to head to new homes. We all met them – a bunch of chocolate lovelies! – and the kids got to spend some time playing with them.


Besides their four females, LBD has one medium-sized young male, not ready yet for breeding, plus Ranger, who turned out to be even a bit smaller than MoMo. His colouring is beautiful – he started out chocolate when born, but has faded into a lovely “lavender” colour. Personally I’d call it more café-au-lait, but the term café is reserved for a slightly different shade, so lavender it is.

We attempted a mating that evening but, while Ranger was interested, Mo wasn’t willing, so we arranged to meet again in the morning for another attempt, and headed to a campground for the night.

At the campground we made a fire and roasted marshmallows for the first time this trip. As we were roasting, Mustang suddenly looked up and cried out “Deer!” Indeed, there was a deer not more than 10m from us, plain as day, watching us from the bushes. Mustang said MoMo alerted her to the deer – she looked at MoMo and saw that she was staring into the bushes with ears perked, so Mustang looked to see what Mo was looking at and voilà!

The next day’s attempted morning mating was equally unsuccessful. We figured maybe MoMo just wasn’t quite at the peak of her heat and once she reached it she’d become receptive. I’d had her progesterone levels tested in Halifax and we finally got results later that afternoon, indicating that yes, she would be at optimal breeding levels from Wednesday to Friday. This was Wednesday.

So we made plans to meet up again in the evening and then headed up the coast to a beach LBD had recommended to us. The kids played, found jellyfish, we sunbathed, and generally had lots of fun.


That evening, back at the ranch, the third attempted breeding again was unsuccessful. Mo started out snappish, not wanting Ranger’s attentions at all. He did mount her and breed, though they didn’t “tie.”

Then, lo and behold, once Ranger was off and spent with the effort (!) Mo suddently got interested! She sniffed at him playfully, “flagged” (presented her backside with tail averted) and tried to get him engaged. But he had had it – he wasn’t up to another attempt! So we took MoMo back to the bus for the night, which we spent in the country driveway – but with lifted spirits as now it looked as though Mo would accept Ranger’s advances the next time.

And indeed she did! Thursday morning – which happened to be Canada Day – the two romped together playfully before getting down to business and a successful tie.


During the day, LBD took the kids and me down the coast to one of her favourite beaches, with two of her dogs and Ranger. We left MoMo with Laolao and Laoye, to give the two lovers a chance to pine. The dogs played in the water and so kid the kids, and we feasted on fish & chips & ice cream.







We achieved a second successful tie that evening, and resolved to give it one more go early the next morning – I usually have to pee around 5:30 so I’d get up then and take MoMo down to the house, and then we’d hit the road.

That we did, and crossed our fingers that the successful matings would, indeed, produce a litter of beautiful chocolate, black, gold and red puppies!! (Stay tuned…)