Volunteer Dog Walkin-By BDT

Well, I thought I need a little boost in happiness, energize, and I needed to give back to the community. So I booked in two hours at the SPA Sherbrooke, where I would walk dogs. All sorts of dogs, sick, young, old, sad, energetic, big and strong, small and barky. I really enjoyed my time and was so incredibly tried by the end of it. Obvisouly the dogs know when a volunteer is coming to walk them with dog leash in hand, because as soon as you enter the kennel they are either wild and crazy or calm and quite. But do not ever be fooled, because as soon as their out the door they need to run up the hill and full speed with every bit of energy they have. They all enjoy every minute you take them out the door, although they are incredibly sad and horrified when you bring them back in the door. The rules at this center are simple, you walk one dog at a time, for fifteen to twenty minutes, and you must avoid all contacts with other animals. Some other rules apply to certain dogs, for example do not let them bite you and eat garbage.

But all in all, as soon as they got out the door I gave them freedom they wanted. If they wanted to run for twenty minutes we ran, if they wanted to chase tails, or squirrels ( well we would never get to close) that is what they would be given. From my point of view, these are the unhappiest dogs, that might get to go out once a day from their kennel to go to the washroom. So for the twenty minutes they are with me, I am not going to try to train them or fix their bad habits, as it is not my responsibility. I came to have fun, and enjoy the beautiful fresh air with them. And we did very much, you can see the following slide show.

p.s. Detective and I created a song, themed to the Donkey Shrek song that goes lie so:

“I like to run and I can not lie,

You other dogs can’t denie,

With these itty bitty legs,

And ears past your face,

You Get SNOWED !”

By BDT

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Charlie-Léo DT- By BDT

His favorite face that he calls "Lion"

Charlie-Léo, a beautiful blue beta fish or Chinese Fighter Fish has been added to the DT’s family. He currently lives with BDT, in her boardroom in residences at the Université de Sherbrooke. Charlie became BDT fish when she needed someone to talk to and spend time with while she studied in her lonely little room. As she missed her pets in Victoria.

Charlie's Cup

Some of Charlie’s hobbies are to look at his reflection, dance to the music BDT puts on, swim in the sunlight, play freeze tag, and swim through his castle. Every now and then Charlie gets to jump, when he house gets cleaned.

Grande Fish Bowl he's pretty spoiled like most pet in the DTs

He currently moved into a Grande Fish Bowl from his plastic appartement. His most recently added some heating as of the snow storms made it a little nippy in his house. And the best of Québécois company some Petit Escargots.

Fish appartement

New home with the Chauffage and Escargots

-BDT

 

How to enjoy your first winter-BDT

Icicles!

So after spending my very first winter in Sherbrooke, I think I have some advice on how to have a good time. The first step is every time it snows you need to be super happy and excited that it’s snowing. Even if it’s soft and fluffy flakes, or huge clumped flakes, or wet cold flakes or hard-blown-in-your-face-by-wind flakes.  Just be happy and tell everyone it’s snowing! The joy of making them disapointed that it’s snowing or happy it extremely good for your health (my personal point of view). Especially if your friends come from countries where it is around 25˚C as an average everyday and they hate being cold or reminded sometimes makes me laugh, and eventually will make them laugh.

The second tool, I have devised is that you need to go and play or walk or explore in the snow at least once or twice a day. This includes throwing snowballs at friends, giving them snow slushies, making snowmen, and breaking of icicles, making huge letter messages in the snow, finding iced waterfalls and most important snow angels. But be very cautious, you absolutely need to zip up you pockets and close everything. Otherwise you will have lovely incidents as mine, where you lose identity cards, and cells phones in the snow. And when you go and get a replacement, the representative asks “How did you lose this item? I need to keep it for record.” , and I respond ” I lost it in the snow doing a snow angel. It’s  my first winter”. Usually they laugh and answer “That’s so cute!” or “That’s so adorable!”. I mean really, it’s not all that cute and not all that funny. Here I am paying this $20 replacement fee for a card and about $60 for the phone. Anyways conclusion be VERY VERY CAUTIOUS. In addition it is extremely fun to try to spell gigantic words in the snow and read them from the third floor and listen to your neighbours wonder who committed the crime.

The third tool, is to always dress for colder weather, because as soon as the sun sets or goes away, everything becomes extremely cold. This means have in your pockets or in your purse, backpack a pair of mitts, a scarf, a toque and a pair of leg warmers, these items are small and make the mos significant difference in how warm you body temperature is. They are also easy to remove and put on when needed. I have noticed that if your double up on mitts and wear a hood and toque it makes you much warmer too. From one of my Ontario friends, I have also learned that if you are walking, or you’re in the mall, or your outside and your warm in your coat. But when you open it you get to cold if you leave it for too long. He said the trick is to unzip your coat in intervals, for example closed for 10min and then open for 10min. That way your never to hot or to cold. This works really well, I find when you are in a mall or when your walking. I suggest that you never do it when it’s windy though because it just gets too cold.

Finally the best tip of all, is if the sidewalk, or pavement is to icy the best and ultimate way to get across, is to walk like a penguin by taking little steps. And don’t ever put too much weight on either of your feet because it could cause you to slip and fall on your bum.

-BDT

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Joining Doggy Heaven Is Our Beloved Cooper-BDT

I am sad to say that the most wonderful four-legged brother, Cooper Delorey has passed away. The best cuddly, adoring, loving, charming, calming, and reassuring dog of all times. Some of his favorite times that I recall might have been that he loved chasing his kids around the merry-go-round, and going to the dog park to swim in the ocean. But most of all playing with his dear doggy friends Annie, he will be joining her, in the doggy heaven, where you eat pigs ears for snacks, and wrestle with your friends, and chase squirrels for amusement. Cooper also enjoyed his times being dressed up for Halloween to visit our neighbor Isabel, and sunning himself in the back yard until he was so warm he need to nap in the shade instead. Among his favorite doggy snacks was also human food, like watermelon rinds, potatoes, carrots, rice, eggs, tuna, salmon and many more.

Cooper has many talents from eating the bread loafs of the counter, to cuddling his kids when they were little and sick in bed. I am not quite sure what the record was of home many things he ate of the counter or how many loaves. But I do remember one Easter when he had eaten two of 1.5lb  chocolate bunnies, and the evidence was a huge chocolate lake of vomit the very next morning. He did survive, but came very close to the dangerous zone of amount of chocolate eaten. Another time he felt a little snackish and decided to eat through a couple can of cat food. I mean he really opened the can with his teeth and ate the food. He never found the way to snack and clean up the evidence because every time we walked in the door, you would find the bread bag or an empty chewed up can or just a wrapper of something.  Cooper is a very cuddly and loving dog, he was known to take up the whole bed by using his four legs to push you off if you were unaware. Although he can be so patient and sleep so calmly, he was an excellent pillow as a kid. You could listen to each of his heart beats and his breaths and you put your head and his stomach. Cooper could also attempt to squeeze himself into small spots to nap, for example the couch.

Cooper enjoyed being the center of attention. During parties Cooper was known to lie in the one spot that everyone had to walk, so that each person had to step around him. Although he loved it when our dinner guests decided to sneek some food to him. Even though later his lovely owners would find out due to stinky doggy farts. Horrible stench that he never thought was him. Cooper was known just to approach people for some pets and kisses and loving becauese he loved the attention. Cooper was also a very active and sportive dog. He ran with his mommy and his sister Bow. He could run long distances paced very well, although ever now and then he would put out four paws to sniff a scent he found. Cooper was also a swimmer, and swam in the ocean at Dallas Road and Thetis Lake. Some other sports Cooper practiced wrestling, bite face, ball chase, sunning , napping, squirrel chase.

Here are some lovely photos of a dog that will be greatly missed.

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Going East

Bow left early in the morning to head back east to visit family then on to school. Here is a picture she took of the sunrise from the plane. How come my pictures through a plane window never look like that!?

 

Santa was good to Anne-Marie

On our trip around the world we saw stand-up paddle boards for the first time in Vietnam.  Tourists were out on the South China Sea paddling along in water the temperature of a warm bath.   This Christmas Santa brought Anne-Marie her very own stand-up paddle board.  Here are a few snaps of her out on the Straight of Georgia (temperature approximately 0 degrees) on boxing day.   You can see the Oak Bay Marina and the Olympic Mountains in the background of some of the pictures.

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Christmas at the DTs

Merry Christmas everyone. 

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Bow is home for Christmas and we had friends and family over for breakfast.  I’ve attached a short slide show of Bow, Hesquiat, Anne-Marie, Fran and her boyfriend Eric and our friends Chantal and Christine.  We had the usual eggs florentine, freshly squeezed orange juice  and Christmas cookies for breakfast.  We’re working on the tofu turkey now.   Hesquiat tortured us by making us watch his new Transformers 3 movie.  Ouchy.  My turn next (Christmas Vacation – Chevy Chase).   We’re so happy to be together for Christmas – maybe snow next year?  Hope you all had a great day.

 

Pause for a visit to Ottawa :) by BDADT

Heading back to my home in Sherbrooke again, after passing a wonderful, relaxing, regeneration of energy, fun time in Ottawa with my relatives. Now that I live so much closer than Victoria (4610km) to Ottawa, I can travel very often to visit family. Although it still is a 5 hour trip from on place to the next, including the horrible 1 hour layover in Montreal bus depot. I personally think it’s horrible, maybe it’s just my bad experiences with the homeless that love to approach me as I’m waiting.

Although, for a first I think I slept almost all five-hour bus ride. Yes it’s an hour more this time, because with my lovely planning skills. I managed to get the milk run bus route. Otherwise known as the semi-express. Funny, yet not because they stop at almost every little towns gas station.

Over the past few times I have enjoyed all the different weather changes. My favourite, and first time experience this fall; was the changing of the leaves of all of the trees. I found it completely amazing, looks like a quilt, patched, striped, scratched with yellows, oranges, reds,greens, browns. Yet the question is in which was do the leaves change? From green to yellow, orange, red, then to brown? Or is the order different? Maybe I will find out over time. You have obviously seen the snow photos of that new season.

Well here are some trip to Ottawa photos.

This one is kinda a fun. A guy kite surfing in the parking lot on my way to Montreal.

cool eh?

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By BDADT

 

More snow!!!- BDADT

Well, it is snowing again! Yay! Cept it’s dark so to late to go and play. Here are the rest of the snow fun photos after the first “real winter” snow

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p.s. a typical Tully to write in the snow Did a heart with a snow angel and the word “neige”(snow in french)

Ohh right I guess everyone might need to practice their french a little bit as I speak it 100% here. As soon as I leave my room it french everything. Challenging but wonderful at the very same time. It’s like I’m in a different country sometimes, yet I am always home in Canada.

 

by BDADT

 

BDADT Back in dah HOUSE!! To get this party started :)

That’s right, you’re going to be receiving some blog posts, by BDADT. (Sounds cool eh? Sorta like a rapper artist name.) Here are some upcoming adventures that ehm ehm might be posted:

• Once a week, a FOOD blog. How I am working out cooking in residences, trying out recipes and family favorites. Feel free to make requests for recipes.
• Once a week (til I run out), of Recap adventures, “Bow as Newbie University Student”
• Once a week  of simple adventures titled “Sherbrooke adventures, this will include, bike rides, runs, snow anything that doesn’t fall in the category of university and food.

Now the main question is why? Well I as a student cannot take the time to write each and every one of you a letter in snail mail.Considering that I spend a lot of time studying on the computer I thought this might be a wonderful solution. Lately I have been posting my photos on my Facebook page, but nobody there appreciates them as much as my fellow blog stalker friends. And the best reason of them all would be because I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL! And need to KEEP CONNECTION.

So let’s go back to the fun blog part I most recently,yesterday spent my day playing in this wonderful thing called SNOW!!! That’s right Bow’s first “real winter” is coming. Some of you are probably thinking uuh oohh, “How is she going to survive?”. My answer is somehow and better than my lovely friends from Congo, Togo, Morocco, Kenya, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Mexico, Ghana,Algeria because they are not accustom to cold at all. But I at least have some experiences from last trip in Montreal (When I dropped my gloves in a puddle in a snowstorm and got frostbite…:( )

So here are some photos of the first Sherbrooke adventure.

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Signing out BDADT <3