Home again

Becca and I are back home after a lovely trip where Becca met up with her handsome suitor TJ. We were made very welcome by TJ's Mom and I really enjoyed spending time with Carol's other dogs as well.

Now the waiting begins with the hope that signs of a pregnancy will be visible in a couple of weeks. If the breeding was successful we will be welcoming babies in late April.

And I need to get the house in order!!

And so it begins . . .

I'm embarking on a bit of a new journey starting with a drive to Fall City, Washington tomorrow morning.

Becca, my almost 4-year old girlie whippet, came into season 3 months early and as per plans made last year, will be bred to a versatile boy who has accomplishments in showing, lure coursing and agility. And he has an awesome temperament.

Becca and I will make the trek down as it appears the optimum time for making babies is upon us.

When I got my first whippet I never had any intention of being a "breeder". I always felt that was best left to those who had amazing dogs and who really were the experts involved in the breed. Even when I got my second whippet and again when I got Becca I still never planned on being a "breeder". And then Becca developed into a very talented runner, with decent conformation and an amazingly effervescent personality. Just so not like a lot of the whippet girls I had met.

After much discussion last year my whippet mentor agreed that perhaps it was a good idea to figure out a boy for my girl. And after a bit of deliberation on which boy would be the best match for Becca the plans were set in motion.

Becca's co-breeder and I will be the official co-breeders of this litter and so far, if all goes well, I actually will be whelping the babies at my house and Cara may take Mom and babies to her house for the final four to five weeks before they all head off to their new homes.

Stress?? You betcha! And lots of it. But so exciting too!!

Yes - it's the "New Year"

And not much change yet from the old one. I head home this week to see my man and doggies who I have missed very much over the past 3 weeks. Also a very dear friend will arrive late Thursday evening and on Friday I'll have both of my lovely work colleagues staying at the house. I'm anticipating a weekend of much red wine!

It will definitely be great to get home. While in Ontario I've only been able to get out a couple of times for a walk - braving ugly cold winds both times. Everytime I've seen someone out walking their dog(s) I've thought about my two whippets at home and how happy they will be once I'm back and we can get back on track with our daily walkies. Also hope to reconnect with my doggy friends and head out with others to some new walking locations in the Fraser Valley area. All good!!

The NFL pool ended yesterday for another year - I ended up tied for 8th this year - a much better result than in other years. Still not sure if I'll enter the playoff pool - one wrong choice and you're pretty well out of the competition.

And I'm hoping to get down to Washington State to see the potential hubby for my girl Becca. I know I've seen this boy in the past - probably when he was being shown for his Canadian championship but I need to see him again, in the flesh and in his home environment. And once the decision is finally made the hand-wringing and worrying will really ramp up - will there be anyone interested in a puppy from the litter besides me? will the puppies live up to the potential that is hoped to result from the parental genes?

Too much stress - I'd better just get back to work!

Happy New Year to all - hope the year is full of good health, good fun and good friends!!

(and a pre-New Year's photo of Becca making a new friend . . .)

MERRY CHRISTMAS (and all that!)

This year I made the decision to spend Christmas and New Year's with my mother rather than at home. It was about time for me to spend a Christmas with Mom as I have not spent a Christmas with my parents since 1982 when we all travelled to my brother and sister-in-law's home in the Vancouver area - my parents flying out from Ontario and me travelling by bus from Jasper. Since then I spent Christmases either with my ex-husband's family or post-divorce with friends close to wherever I was living. With my Mom now living alone as Dad is in a home, I felt it was time for me to spend the holiday season with her.

We've had a nice visit and I have been able to reconnect with some good friends who still live in the area. Last week my friends Helen and Pat and I took in "Unsilent Night" where one walked through a portion of town where several installations were set up and various sonic themes were played through whatever personal music players people brought along with them. Quite an interesting experience and one I would definitely do again.


Yesterday Mom and I had a quiet but very lovely Christmas. I'd cooked a boneless turkey the evening before (the turkey turned out great after much hand wringing but I finally dove in - good thing I'd just rewatched "Julie and Julia" and had Mrs. Child's instructions of "no fear" wringing in my ears!) and the home was gorgeous thanks to my Mom's holiday decorating. And as usual, she set a lovely table for Christmas dinner too!

One of Mom's younger sisters spent a good part of the day with us and I must say some of the conversation was quite entertaining. (Who knew a Christmas with one's 80-something Mom and Aunt would involve a conversation including sex toys!! I'm still trying to pick myself up off the floor!)


Being away from home over the holiday season means I am missing Marc, his girls, our friends and especially my two whippets. It didn't help that yesterday I received a best holiday wishes e-mail from an amazing canine artist whose e-mail included a photo of her with her lovely blue brindle girlie. Her little whippet so reminds me of my Becca. Once I get home I don't think I'll leave the dogs alone for about a week solid!

At least I have another Christmas to look forward to as I travel home on Ukrainian Christmas Eve and perhaps can persuade Marc to stay home from work the next day!

Decorating the Nest

I've previously mentioned that I've been working on getting a few spaces in the house finished up in an effort to really make me feel that my house is more me rather than still looking like the previous owners live there. Gradually over the past few years I've come up with more ideas of how I'd like the place to look and so far 3 spaces in the house have been substantially changed from when I first moved in.

The ensuite bathroom is lovely thanks to Marc's hard work gutting the entire space and starting over. A few little touches are still needed but we're getting there.

The kitchen/family room/office is now looking really great. Still more to do, especially in the family room/office but at least the walls are painted and everything else that is still to be done seems relatively insignificant to me. Sure the fireplace needs "something" done to it, a light of sorts needs to be installed to highlight the fireplace area, and the tv currently in the living room needs to be moved back into the family room and mounted on the wall, but at least all of those jobs can be done without total disruption to Becca and Tazio. Of course their needs are the most important in the house!!

Next week will see additional painting done in the bedrooms and I've been trying and trying to get enough time to check out carpeting possibilities for the areas where a certain awful green carpeting needs to be obliterated! (If I didn't like the idea of toxic smoke I'd do a primitive dance around the burning green rug!)

I originally thought everything might be done by Christmas but since I won't be here for Christmas perhaps the end of January is a more likey completion date.

Then there's the main bathroom and small powder room that will need to be redone. Oh, yes and the landscaping at the front of the house just has to go.

And in the midst of all this I'm trying to finalize the choice of a husband for Becca (yes, puppies in 2010!). And I really need to keep up with my work!

A Lovely Sunday Walk

Yes, we should have gone lure coursing today but I have so much work to get organized before Tuesday that late last night I decided I just had to stay home and get more work done.

That said it was a lovely day and I wanted to make it up to the dogs so we headed off for a nice walk at a local park with two friends. Tazio stayed up front with Philip and Becca walked behind with Susan and I.

Gorgeous day out and I'm so glad I took my camera. Autumn is definitely here and while we don't have the gorgeous maples of my native Ontario the local trees still provide some lovely yellows, pinks and oranges.

The start












Fast moving walkers and whippets
















The bridge













Back to the parking lot











And now back to work!!

A week and weekend with human and whippet visitors!

This past week I was able to spend some time with two good friends - one that I haven't seen in years and another that I see several times a year, always during dog events.

A good friend who I was able to get back in touch with via Facebook is Maria. Maria was on her way to a new adventure in a more eastern area in Canada whose name strikes a chord of fear in many a Canadian's heart but which shall remain nameless. I don't want to offend anyone and frankly I see the attractions of the place, never mind the cold!

Maria came through town, spent the first night of her adventure here in our humble abode and set off early the next morning driving east.

Then, this past weekend saw a first in our household - whippet visitors that numbered more than one! (And of course my good friend Jenn who accompanied said whippet visitors)

Jenn came up to Canada to show our mutual friend Beth's girl Lark in this past weekend's dog shows held in Cloverdale. Lark is one of my favourite whippets and just needed one more Winner's Bitch award to earn her Canadian championship. Jenn also brought along her girl Tara who we puppysat last December and who fit in quite well with my two dogs.

Now the only proviso for any additional whippets staying here is that they all be girls as my boy Tazio gets a bit put out when he's around boys. I think it was due to the time he spent as number 2 boy to my first whippet Senna, Tazio's half brother.

We had a lovely weekend, visiting, going to the dog shows (Lark took Winner's Bitch on Sunday and is now Can CH Serendipity Skylark FCH, FCH, SR, OTR, TRPX, DPC!!), talking a lot about life, relationships, dreams, dogs, travel and just generally enjoying each other's company.

Love being able to host good friends!!

Dispensation Of The Cheese!