[There are cat pics in here. ...I have an online friend who does not care for the lovies.]
So Harvey is my brother's friend, and I'd never met her til this animal-sititude. But we got along great when she brought me to her place to meet her mini-peeps. In this town there are a lot of these wee houses that look like they were built around WWII. Harvey lives in one and it's lovely.
Here are the residents. This is Sweetums and (she thinks) Lilyrose. They're her daughters, who's off jetsetting. I just call them Chickies. I let them out once or twice a day for an hour so they can pick off the bugs in the yard. I sit under a lovely shade tree and read while my chickies roam about. ...When they're not stealing my breakfast that is. Last time I eat peanut butter & rice cakes in front of them. (I didn't think I should eat it after so I put it in the fridge and I bring them pieces.) L'il monkeys.
This is Ella. I used to call her Ella Enchanted. And then Ella Bella. And now I call her Elly Belly. When Harvey was showing me around every time I asked a question about what Ella's allowed to do or not, the answer was: Ella does whatever she wants.
She's an enigma, cause she's very independent, and also very biddable. She let me pick her up and give her a cuddle as soon as we met. She'll sit on my lap as long as I'm willing to pet her. And then she goes off into the night and terrorizes the coyotes.
I try to keep her inside at night cause I don't know the coyote situation here, but I actually suspect they fear her and do her bidding. Also, she has some secret entryway in the house, I don't know where. First night I went to bed at 7 AM so I let her out, and when I awoke in the afternoon she was sitting in my room staring at me.
Look at that face! When baby lovers say "I just wanna eat that face" I don't get it, but I do feel that way about cats.
Now here's our movie star, the fabulous Zoe. (Lately Zoe Bowie.) Apparently when you combine this...
with this...
you get this!
She's a guard dog, a huntress, and a cuddle muffin. What could be better? Here she's modeling her "gentle leader" which goes over her muzzle.
Because when Zoe spots one of these...
...she TAKES OFF. And like the Giant House Spider, this dog can move. The first time we saw a small mammal I understood what Harvey had warned me about--I was almost yanked off my feet (and I'm tall, that's not easy.) The next day it was a squirrel and she jumped so fast she startled me and my parents.
She chases Ella but Ella appears to enjoy it.
Now I walked my mum's dogs for 30 minutes--they could go longer, but they're oldies so it's ok. But I try to walk Zoe at least an hour. Being that I am out of shape and we're in a heat wave, I do my best, and we go in the evenings.
FIRST WALK
Some local poetry.
Local rope.
Local housing (in spots.)
And all three of my nemesi together: English Ivy, Morning Glory, and Blackberry.
Boardwalk.
My yacht's out for repairs.
Canada Geeses.
Zoe got a 2 hour walk that day cause I got lost on the way home. We past our street twice but did Zoe tell me? Well not in language I understood.
Day two my folks came by for the walk. In my mail carrier bag I have the camera, a terrible map, water and a fold out water bowl for the Queen.
Day Three
"Auntie? You remember this? My leash?"
(I called myself Auntie Mabel the first day I met everyone, and now all the notes Harvey left me are addressed to Auntie Mabel. Hey, I take my petsitting duties personally.)
Actually, I took down her leash and was putting on my shoes, and she started running all over the livingroom with it.
We went to a Snuneymuxw reserve. There was a warning sign about trespassers! So I saw a woman watering her lawn and asked if it was ok to walk my dog (yes) and we got into a chat. And a little kid, along my walk, showed me the Iron Man on his pop can.
No condos! Amazing. A lot of Canada's nature gets preserved by reserves. (Well maybe they'll put up a condo one day! But now it's just some houses, beach, grass, dirt.) It was quite peaceful.
In another neighborhood...
people often make flower beds at sidewalk level.
One of the Aboriginal Centre's buildings. I thought it was interesting to see a repurposed church (though it looks like a castle in this picture.)
6 comments:
Thanks for sharing your temporary charges and your travelogue. Great pictures! Glad you are having an interesting time in a positive way!
Zoe didn't tell you. About being about to walk right past her street: She noticed, and noticed that you didn't, and she made certain to just walk right past, giving away nothing. Dogs do that as often as they can.
It all looks so nice, like such a lovely neighborhood to be spending some time walking around and hanging out in every day. The critters all look lovely, both the ones you're living with and the locals.
Have a lovely and restorative time. You earned it after all the work you did at your mother's [I'm still super impressed with you that you did the pipes-soldering and the dry wall and all that stuff.]
I love all this pictures, but I confess, the ones of the lovely Ella just made me all gooey inside. What a beauty!
I'm quite taken with Ella too ... she has the best stare!
Three things:
1- thank you for the warning, whew! I blewrightpast the non-dogs and got to see all of the other sights peacefully.
B: wondeful photos, and what a glorious place you get to walk around!
Last, I much appreciate the clarity message in that last post's comment section, there was still some honey at home. I feel better now.
@Skye - I'm glad you like. I like it when other people talk about their daily stuff, or their kids, or animals.
@Nancy - I didn't realize dogs were trouble makers like that! That sounds like cat behavior.
[My brother said my drywall looked good when he saw it this weekend! Then he got stung in the eye by a wasp.]
@Deborah - I know you are a fellow Worshipper of the Cat. Ella is truly goo-making.
@widders - She is smarter than the average cat, as Yogi would say.
@Julie - I'm touched that everyone cared about my honey. It does make my mint tea perfecto.
Post a Comment