A New YEAR 2023

Good Morning ALL! My first actual day of vacation. The sky is overcast and it is windy. We were up and down a few times last night and slept in this morning. Alvin would not eat his food. I just gave him his wet food with nothing else hoping that he would eat but he did not. Last night he ate his biscuits and a few small pieces of carrots so I know that it is not his teeth that are bothering him. If I gave him chicken he would eat it. I am thankful that we have an appointment with his Doctor this afternoon and hopefully we can get this sorted out. If I am able to collect a stool sample, I will take it with me. You cannot take it too much in advance so if he does not have one closer to this afternoon, I will collect one tomorrow morning and whisk it over to the vet. Better day but can tomorrow. My daughter reminded me how much her pups do not like their new food. I guess he will eat when he is hungry provided there is nothing else stopping him from doing so. I suppose if he ate carrots (not on his food list but I had to see if he would easily eat them) and biscuits which are the okay for him to have, they are a hypoallergenic treat. He ate the bits of chicken I gave him with his pills tucked inside. The tramadol must have a strong odour as it took a few tries because he kept eating the chicken and spitting out the pill. Thankfully it stayed intact until he consumed it. What a last few days! I was so sure that things were on the upswing. His poop is getting better but unfortunately at the end of the last one there was blood again. That is our update.

Considering he has not eaten much in the last couple of days, yesterday we went for a walk, he kept on walking and before we knew it were had walked our old usual route. The air was warm and the sun was shining so maybe he felt energized. As we approached his BF Teddy’s house his gait quickened and then we were there and he started to walk up their driveway. I had to stop him as they are not at home. He has not forgot his old friend. I sure wished that they would come home so that the pups could get together. Not that I think that Alvin is going anywhere at the moment but I think that seeing Teddy would do him the world of good. He has not seen him in months and I am sure that he misses him. This is the second time that he has walked to Teddy’s house in recent times. The last time he did not even go into the park he just walked straight down our street to his house.

Later this afternoon, our girl is coming over after her dental appointment (that is a good reminder that I have to get my appointment made soon, I just find it hard to think of anything but Alvin and work at this moment, which is not good I suppose). Amanda plans to sleep over tonight, I believe which will be nice.

Well I should go and have a quick shower. Alvin sounds like he is sneezing / coughing. My poor little guy. I wished that he was all better.

Have a wonderful Monday. Fingers crossed for Mr. Alvin’s appointment, please. Positive thoughts.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. so grateful that I am on vacation for this week and next. Dreaming that retirement will be close.

A New YEAR 2023

Good Morning ALL! We are doing well. Alvin has an appointment this morning at 10:00 a.m. to get to the bottom of things. Okay perhaps that is a bit of a pun! I am working on bringing back my old positive self. She has been gone for awhile. I will continue to put out my gratitude to the Universe and keep my thoughts positive as much as possible. There are some things that you cannot change so why bother! You can only change yourself not others. So that is what I am going to do. I am grateful for our good health (good poop this morning). I am grateful for our beautiful home which is cradled inside a wonderful loving and support neighbourhood. I am grateful to be surrounded by amazing people, some family and some friends that are like family. I am grateful to have Mr. Alvin in my life, he is good company. I am grateful to be employed at a time when so many others are struggling. I am grateful for the sunrise each and every morning and the sunrise each night. I am grateful for the blue sky, the wind, the snow, the trees and all of nature. I am grateful for the continued warm beautiful weather.

I booked the morning off to take Alvin to the vet for his appointment.

We had a great Sunday. Quiet but wonderful. We had a nice walk. Did some laundry, cleaning and made a big pasta supper.

Time to head downstairs and make some coffee. I want to have a mug or so before we have to leave. I wish you a wonderful Monday.

Continuing to life this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilites and coffee.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Last Half 2022 – November

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? I am happy to be working from home today. Alvin had a good vet appointment yesterday. No ear infection. Same weight as last visit. Anal glands not full. Had his nails trimmed. YAY. We are done for another 5 weeks. While I was at the clinic, I asked if they could put in an order for Alvin’s food and Michelle, the Vet Tech said “I already ordered it and it is here for you.” WOW, that was great. They ordered two cases of the wet and one bag of the dry food which is exactly what I wanted. So I paid for the food and his visit which was almost $500.00 but he will have food for awhile. He still has lots at home but I do not wish to run the risk of him running out. You never know these days. It would not matter so much but he is on a special diet and needs this special food. We walked to his appointment yesterday. I realized partway through the day that it was icy outside. A few minutes before leaving I went outside and cleared some of the snow from the lawn making a path to the public sidewalk where I tossed some snow which gave me some traction to the street. We walked on the edge of the street until we reached dry sidewalk. Unfortunately our whole side of the sidewalk until we arrived at the walkway was icy but thankfully once we were past our street it was good. I am grateful that Gillian and I picked up those ice picks for your boots at Costco. They worked like a charm. I left them on my boots. Guess I will need to take shoes to work from now on.

Looks like this morning we will have some cuddling time before I start work. Glancing about my office I see that my African Violet is a covered with rich purple flowers. So very beautiful. I love my home office space as it is filled with all of the things that I love and that help me feel creative. I have books, photos of family and friends, cards, cool window coverings and more books and more trinkets and ornaments. It is my happy space. I guess you could say that my whole house is my happy place, happy space. I love my house, each room for different reasons and am over the moon grateful to be living here.

Well it is almost time to head downstairs and plug in the coffee. I already prepared the coffee so just needs to be plugged in to perk. YAY, me. Alvin is resting just outside the office door.

Tonight I am going to sit down and make a list of all the people and events that I require baking/sweet treats for and calculate how many of each item is “needed.” I know that I am baking Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Fudge for three items. Likely not much as I need to make massive amounts of the cookies for sure. Then I will pull out my recipes and ensure that I have all of the ingredients to bake as the first weekend of December is one week away from this Friday. OMG, where has the time gone. I also need on this weekend to hit the grocery store and pick up some final items and go to the Bone & Biscuit to pick up gifts for Alvin, Aspen, Milo and Cookie.

Have an awesome Tuesday.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.

Always, Carol & Alvin

PS: always be prepared! Grateful for this weather. Thanks to our friend Gillian who is going to pick up Alvin’s food today. I could not live my life without such great friends such as her 🙂

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! Happy Friday. I trust you are well. The sky was totally overcast with a light rain when we were outside about 15 minutes ago. Now the horizon beginning to clear so perhaps we may have sunshine at some point. Yesterday was gorgeous bordering on too warm for us. In fact, Alvin was warm and woke up so we went downstairs and outside for another pee about 12:30 or was it 11:30 and then settled down on the sofa with the windows open and the fan on. We slept until 6:00. This afternoon my friend Pauline’s grand pup Georgie is coming to spend the weekend with us as his family is going to Jasper for the weekend. Pauline’s grand- daughter works there. I am excited for Mr. Alvin to have company for the weekend, it will be good for him. We know Georgie quite well and the pups get along which is great.

Yesterday we enjoyed a walk at lunchtime. I had the afternoon off as Mr. Alvin had his 5 week vet appointment. We bumped into Cookie and her Dad out for a walk. We walked together to the park and then they had to go back home as her Dad had to leave for work. Nice to catch up. Alvin had a good appointment. Nice to have his nails trimmed, his anal glands expressed, his ears healing and paws checked.

Quite breezy out there this morning.

Well folks I don’t have much more to say which is strange, I suppose. So this will be short. I hope that life is treating you well and that you have an awesome Friday.

I am grateful for my life, for Alvin, for Georgie coming for the weekend, for warmed up pizza, for nice walks, for fresh air, for clean water ……..

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. have to get working on prepping for the garage sale. Whoops almost forgot “60” days until my 65th Birthday……

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! Happy Friday and I hope that you are doing great! The sun is shining here FINALLY and the sky is a beautiful BLUE, not grey. YAY. The long weekend is off to a great start. Oh, I am working but as far as I am concerned we are almost there. It has been one of those weeks, right! But we made it. The weather here in Edmonton is supposed to be quite nice so perhaps I will be able to plant my flowers, oregano and tomatoes that are taking up real estate on my kitchen table, window sills in the kitchen and with nestled in between my other plants.

Okay, so the vet visit yesterday. We were able to walk there are it had stopped raining. We had a nice walk there. While I was waiting in one of the exam rooms for Alvin, I could hear him crying. I wondered what was happening as he was just supposed to be getting his ears rechecked and checking his paws as I thought perhaps something else going on besides the arthritis and sure enough there was. I am not sure why I did not notice it but this is what Dr. Karen told me afterward. He had some matts in his front paws and they were in between his toes so creating some problems walking and otherwise for the poor boy. No wonder. Anyway it was tricky cutting them out and they started to bleed. The bleeding stopped. I have salve to put on every twelve hours for the next 7-10 days. I forgot to ask about walking. Then of course, he has an ear infection. I was truly mortified by how much gunk came out of his ears as I had cleaned them on Sunday. I guess I did not go deep enough. Cleaning his ears is not an easy job for one person. Anyway, he is on medicine for another yeast infection. I swear it must be a all time record for number of yeast infections in one’s life time. Poor guy. Now this sounds like I do not look after Mr. Alvin which could not be further from the truth. I started to cry when the vet was telling me about his paws. I cannot believe I had not noticed. Now his paws are dark and he does not like them being touched. Now he has no choice. I have to call back because I forgot to ask if we can go for walks during this time. The salve won’t likely help if he continually gets his paws dirty. I had to put his paws in a dish of lukewarm water after the vet visit and remove any dirt he got on them after we left the vet and then pat them dry. Well we had more water on the floor than in the bowl. I managed to clean them but wasn’t easy. Then I put on the salve which was hard to see if I was even getting on the right area. Anyway, the ear medicine prevents any cleaning for the next month so I guess that helps. So just have to concentrate on his paws. I will have to watch more carefully when I am giving him a haircut. I know that I usually have pulled hair out of his paws as he would step in some was I was cutting his hair even though I cleaned it up continually. It was raining when we were about to leave the vet so I called my friend and she came to pick us up. So grateful. Then he would not get all the extra grime on his paws from that back walkway. Which I cleaned up a couple of weeks ago and it is filled with garbage again, maybe not as much but still enough.

We did not have a great sleep but I am going to keep the faith. We have medicine.

The coffee is on and I can sort of smell it. I am very congested. The leaves on the trees.

We had a quiet evening after supper and cleanup. I am very grateful to Dr. Karen and staff for helping Alvin. We are adding to the list of his regular 5 week appointments having his paws checked for matts. How lovely!

Sorry.

I am happy that the sun is shining.

Life is good. Better for Alvin now, thank goodness.

My daughter is popping by after work to pick up something that was delivered for her. I cannot wait to see her.

Have an awesome Friday. Be well. Check your dog’s paws for matts.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

The NEW Year 2022

Good Morning ALL! Welcome to a Rainy Thursday here in Edmonton,Alberta, Canada. The sky is filled with puffy dark gray rain clouds and it is windy. Wind is beginning to be typical of daily life here in Edmonton. At least it sure seems to be. When it is calm, we surely appreciate it.

How are you this morning? Alvin was up a few times during the night but that is okay, I am okay. He has an appointment with his Doctor this afternoon. Fingers crossed that the sky clears for us to walk over so that I do not have to bother a friend to drive us there. Thankfully Alvin’s Doctor is less than a 10 minute walk. Sometimes if he is sniffing a lot it can take 15 or so minutes, lol. I walked over after work yesterday and picked up some pain pills and his food and toothpaste for him. Now we are stocked and will not run out. We were not close to running out but I like to ensure that he has more than enough food just in case. Looking ahead, I suppose.

One more day and it is the long weekend. Three days off in a row, how lovely. I have decided that I am going to plant my flower pots as I do not wish my plants to become root bound. I heard that the weather is supposed to be better and warming up on the weekend. Most of the trees are at least partially full of buds and leaves. So pretty. So there is lots of green. I could cut the grass in the back but it looks so nice and green. But anyway no cuts for the next couple of days anyway as it has to dry out.

It is one month till the garage sale that I am hosting. Have to start getting the garage in order. I have some large items to post on the social media so that they do not take up room in the garage. Boxes to break down and some items that belong to my neighbour that I have to chat to her about. I am quite certain that this next month will fly by and I want to have the garage almost empty. I also have to secure a way to the ECO Station as I have lots of things or a fair amount to take there. Will be so nice to have the garage where it should be …. stuff wise. Isn’t it funny how we end up collecting stuff even in the garage.

Alvin and I enjoyed a wonderful walk at noon yesterday. It was a bit cool but most enjoyable. Just as we were on the homestretch there were a few drops of rain so we did not get wet. I have yet to see any goslings and have been keeping an eye out for them. The only ones I saw were going down the street with their parents a few days ago. They are so cute.

Well time to head downstairs. I am only working for the morning so have lots of things to get done. I hope that you have an awesome day. Keep warm and dry and stay safe.

Continuing to life this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. I am nervous to listen to the weather channel as they were forecasting snow for most of the country east of us and even including the city of Calgary which is just south of us.

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? I well, er slept in and am running late. So this will be a short post. I apologize. I was up in time but the sofa and the warm blanket sang out to me and I kept clicking on the “SNOOZE” button. Shame on me. On the upside, I am up and had a beautiful warm shower and am feeling comfy at the moment. I guess it was too early to turn the heat off. It is in the mid 60’s F in the house this morning. The sun is shining outside which is a good thing. There is a breeze. It is Wednesday. Half way through the work week.

Last night Mr. Alvin was not having much fun. He started to shake his head and lick his paws even more than as of late. I gave him his last pain pill with the hopes that he could settle down and get some rest which would trickle down and give me some as well. He slept okay. So today I need to make him a vet appointment. Double check his ears and get him some pain pills for the arthritis. I hope that I am able to get him in today.

We are supposed to get some moisture today. If it is raining I cannot walk him to the vet. I guess time will tell.

Well I had better get going. Sorry for the rush.

I hope that you have an awesome Wednesday. We will certainly try.

Better get to the affirmations right away. They certainly do help.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! I hope this finds you doing great. It is raining here in my neighbourhood in Edmonton. The sky is overcast. A pretty gray colour. There is no sound other than the click clack click of my fingers touching the keys as I write this post. Alvin is napping on the hallway carpet. He threw up out of the blue last night. Not sure if he managed to eat something off the ground that I did not see on one of our two walks yesterday or if it was the cauliflower, not agreeing with him. I gave him a bit of cauliflower after his supper last night and during mine as he was “asking” for some. Perhaps it is time to keep him on his own food diet. I actually have been giving him his food as a treat during the day instead of “human things” and as a result need to remeasure and ensure that he is not overeating. He always is eager for more but in all reality he is no different than we humans, we sometimes will eat until we are sick. Overeat. Not the first time. He was shaking and I helped him outside and then carried him upstairs to bed as I figured that would be long way to climb on a sick tummy. He, thank goodness settled down pretty good. I made sure that he had a good drink of water before going upstairs and outside. My poor little guy. Yesterday I made an appointment for him at the vet for his regular 6 week stuff. I have noticed that he is starting to become more and more anxious about walking across the floor. Time to pick up more yoga mats or rubber backed long mats so that he can cross the length of the kitchen without freaking out. I am slightly worried that because he runs across that he is going to hurt himself. Have to keep a close eye on him these days. I am so happy that he was able to take in a full walk at noon yesterday. We kept it slow and easy and he clearly loved it. After work we just walked as far as he wanted to which is usually how we walk and that was almost to our friend Pauline’s house and then home which is about half of our usual walk.

Well friends it is getting late and I was bad with the snooze button this morning, I pressed it countless times.

I hope that you have a wonderful day.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are okay now. Last night as we were on our way to bed, I noticed that after Mr. Alvin climbed the stairs, he was favouring his right front leg. My mind flashed to last summer. My heart sank. I picked him up and carried him to the bed. He just sat there. No whining or crying. Just sat. I quickly brushed my teeth, washed and got changed into my pj’s. Then I took his toothbrush and toothpaste and a wet cloth to wipe his paws as I usually do before bed. He did not move from his spot but he did not wince when I gently wiped his paws. He laid down right in my spot and as I had no idea where this was going, I just laid down across the bed beside him. After several minutes I managed to coax him into moving over and he laid down. Finally at one point not too long after we went to bed, I took a chance that he would not follow me and took off downstairs to grab him a pain pill which thankfully I had just refilled yesterday. Grabbing him a bit of his wet food to hid the pill in, I returned upstairs. He gobbled down the food with the pill and I was grateful. I really could not sleep. He would doze off and then sit up and this carried on all night. At 2:30, we wanted to get up but I managed to get him to stay in bed a bit longer. I think it was about 3:00 or just after when we got up and went downstairs. I helped him off the bed and was going to carry him down the stairs but he went down on his own. He has not favoured the leg since last night. Perhaps he just stepped on it the wrong way. He was still up and down until I got up at 7:00. I am so tired. But I will carry on. Coffee will help.

I did some moving about of snow from the grass area of our backyard yesterday after we got home from Alvin’s vet appointment. I was pleasantly surprised that a good portion of the sidewalks for our walk to the vet were clear. The rest of the sidewalks were crappy but what can you do. I just happened to look out of the office window and saw a large cat crossing the backyard of the neighbours to the south. They are on the corner and their backyard faces ours. Another cat out and about. Anyway I also managed to get some of the water to make its’ way to the storm drain. Most of the storm drain is covered by the ice and snow chunks but I cleared the snow beside the sidewalk and the water actually started running down to the drain. Hard to explain but the water is draining. Especially when you are running on no sleep, the words are not coming easily. Water is a powerful thing.

Well time to go and grab my coffee.

I hope that you have a great day. The sunrise is beautiful. Perfect blue sky. The moon is slowly fading from sight.

Happy Thursday morning.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

The NEW Year 2022

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? Alvin and I are doing great. We were in bed last night before 9:30 and I read for a bit, Alvin woke up at 4:00, we went downstairs for the usual and then to sofa until, wait for it ……. wait for it ……. 6:30 a.m. …… Can you believe it? I could not believe the clock. Of course, I did not add the 2:00 a.m. up for me to run to the bathroom. But all in all we had a great sleep. So grateful.

The wind is howling madly. I can see the orange horizon to the east, which is to my left, and darkness to my right. It won’t take long and the sky will clear of the dark. Even as I type these words the sky is becoming more light. So beautiful. I love the contrast between sunrise and night. I noticed that the water outside did not freeze overnight as I can see the puddles rippling with the wind. I guess this will help melt the snow once the sun begins to shine.

Mr. Alvin is making an odd whining sound as he looks to his water dish from his bed. Is he thirsty? Likely. Not sure why he does not just get up. Now he has stopped.

Most of the snow has melted on the deck and it is so dirty (not sure why) and I will be able to shovel the remaining snow from the grassy area so that he can do his business down there. That is Saturday chore.

I am off from work this afternoon as I am taking Mr. Alvin to the Vet for his appointment. Thankfully I can borrow Sonja’s car so we do not have to walk in these conditions.

I guess he wants his water and of course, he needs me to be right beside him.

Okay, back now.

Last night we played with one of his favourite toys. I threw it and he ran like the wind and grabbed it and brought it back to me so that we could play tug of war. So cute. It was funny after we had been playing for several minutes, I decided to grab my phone and take a video. He immediately stopped and then played a bit so I was able to grab a bit of video and it was not until I put down my phone and stopped recording that he was right back into the action. He knows that he does not get 100% attention when I have that thing in my hand. Smart cookie.

Well time to go. I hope that you have a wonderful day. Almost light now.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Oh, one more quick story. Yesterday near the end of my work day, I called the client who had sent me the most thoughtful Thank You card to thank her. Well actually I called her earlier and had to leave a message, she called me back and then I returned her call. YIKES. Anyway, we had a lovely chat. She said that her son helped her pick out the card for me. I loved that she thought that I should be getting a raise for all the hard work that I do and that she was grateful to be living in our housing and have affordable rent. She was so sweet. We had the nicest chat and then it was well past my stopping time.

Always, Carol & Alvin