One Week Later

Earl and I managed to avoid another torturous hike this weekend and instead walked partially around Boulevard Lake, a lake in the city here with a 5km (3 miles) walking path around it.

Earlier this week I took Earl to a nearby dog park where he frolicked with the other pups for a short while. When Earl put on his speed show everyone's jaws dropped and there were many comments like "Wow. That is a fast dog." A couple days later we went back and it was fun watching Earl run the perimeter of the dog park, with another dog trying to keep up. Eventually the slower dog tried to "head-em off at the pass" and take a short cut across the dog park... but as the other dog drew near, Earl simply went into overdrive and put on a burst of speed. It was amazing to see.

There has been a new development at work... the boss has introduced another dog into the dog-at-work mix! Apollo, a rescue pup, part husky part ??? started coming to the shop last week. Fortunately Earl thinks having a playmate at work is great! Inclement weather has meant no going to the dog park recently but next time the weather is nice we will take the two dogs for a romp.

Life Insurance

I swear that since it was Mother's Day, my wife was trying to cash in on my life insurance policy today, which would have made for a sizeable gift. After our breakafast of pancakes and strawberries it was off for our hike. OMG what a hike. The hike lasted more than an hour and a half I am sure and had its fair sure of huge hills to climb. Earl was a trooper and chugged along and also enjoyed whenever we would come across some other canine friends on the trail.

My daughter Brianne has returned from school in Toronto and Brianne and Earl are also enjoying each other's company.

Earl was put to work more than once this week (three times actually) when customers came into the workplace and after conducting business wanted to meet Earl. The highlight of the week was when our company had to place an advertisement in the program for the local production of the Shrine Circus. The other graphic designer decided to do a cartoon of Earl... when the Shriners came to our office to look at a proof copy of the the program the wondered who Earl was... "Earl... the Shriners want to meet you!" And off Earl galloped into the front office to meet his latest fans.

It's Been Too Long

Wow, has it been a long time since I last posted anything! I guess that's because nothing exciting has been happening! Life with Earl is wonderfully routine with no surprises, just lots of love and fun.

It was interesting to be approached by someone at an area where everyone likes to walk their dogs... "Excuse me... do you have a blog?" It turns out someone who follows one of the blogs I follow (Hi Trang!) is from Thunder Bay and had checked out this blog. The power (or lack of anonymity) of the internet.

In January we were away for 9 days and took Earl to the "Hilton" of kennels here in Thunder Bay. I gave them instructions on Earl's feeding, which is 2 cups of kibble in the morning and 2 cups of kibble in the evening... but I hadn't factored in that Earl would be having so much fun chasing the other dogs around the fenced-in area. After a few days the staff noticed that Earl was dropping weight drastically and started doubling his food intake. When we got back to town and went to pick Earl up, my first reaction was... "OMG... you shrunk my dog!!!" Earl did not look emaciated or anything that drastic... but he did look like he had dropped several pounds (as it turns out... he had dropped about 6 lbs).

Over the course of the next few weeks we managed to get Earl back up to his retirement weight and he eventually seemed to forgive us for leaving him at the kennel. Seriously. I am sure for the first week he was snubbing us.

In February I went to Toronto for a couple days and while away my wife had a photographer-friend take some nice black and white pix of Earl. (Thanks Joe!)

Earl accompanies me to work every day at a local print-shop. The other grahpic designer decided to use Earl as his muse in laying out an ad to go in the Shrine Circus program... the image appearing in the program will be black and white, but I have included a colour version here.