The dogs

Meet my new kids Fanny and Charlie, I know they have nothing to do with painting and drawing, but I need to talk about my dogs because they take a lot of time and space in my life. First came Fanny the terrier (terror), I fell for her after stopping at Pet Shop to look at the animals, we had lost our dog a few months prior and we were still mourning her. So, every time we went to the hardware store I would stop at the Pet Shop while waiting for my husband, and Fanny became a familiar face, patiently waiting her adoption, after a month I wondered why no one had picked her, after two months of watching her I just could not leave her there anymore, I had to take her home.

The Pet Shop must have been a traumatic experience for her because she was terrified of children. I can just imagine having to put up with kids coming to knock on the glass and making all kinds of faces and noises, from the stand point of the animal in the glass case, after two months of that treatment I can understand her dislike of the munchkins.


At the time we were in the process of moving, and my husband had agreed to put her on a lay away until after the move, but when I put down the deposit for her, I could not leave her there like I would a dress as far as I was concerned she had been in that glass box long enough, so I took her that day and she behaved really well in the car, almost like she felt she belonged. Sure, Michel and I had a bit of an argument but it did not take him long to see it my way.

Charlie came a year later through a friend of my daughter who was living with us for a couple of months one night he bought Charlie from a homeless kid, he brought it to our house without consulting us, Charlie was 6 weeks old, he was so cute and looked like a Jack Russel at least he did for a few weeks before it became obvious that he wasn’t, and we still don’t know what he is, we can only guess that he may have some Akita, German Sheppard, Colley and whatever else. Anyhow, we said that he could not keep him so he tried to give it away, but kids have no clues about puppies beside the fact that they are cute and lovable, so every couple of days Charlie would be returned. After the third return, we decided to keep him. We lived in the city at the time and my daughter and my brother were both living with us, so we never really had to think about the dogs, there was always someone there to take care of their needs.

Because of the dogs, we met some wonderful people that became good friends, and we organized all kinds of theme meetings at the park, we had Halloween night in the park and everyone dressed up, I wish we had taken pictures! We had Friday night’s wine and dine in the park, than we started to get together for a birthday, the elections and between Canada, Quebec and USA there was a lot of elections going on in 2009. We got together to try different restaurants in the area. All and all, the dogs really enhanced our social life.


However, all this changed when we moved to the country because there was just my husband and I with full time jobs in the city. We had to come up with a plan, and we posted an ad to find someone to come mid day and spend an hour with them. Fortunately we did find someone and she is great with them and it helps us feel better about leaving them all day long.

Well, they are fun, they provide us with unconditional acceptance, the perfect welcoming committee, always happy to see us arrive even if we’ve only been gone for 5 minutes, time doesn’t seem to matter to them. We spend a lot of time with Fanny and Charlie they both have very distinctive personalities and their own ways to interact with us and with each other. My favourite time with them is when we go on excursions in the woods behind the house, we can be gone for hours and they just love it, Charlie zigzags the forest while Fanny just sniffs everything imaginable. Watching Charlie run and jump in nature is just pure joy, and if we come across any body of water you can bet Charlie will be jumping right in.

It is not always good times, sometimes they get sick and that is no fun for anyone, we end up doing a lot of cleaning up. Other times I wish I did not have to rush home after work but I know I must because the dogs have been alone for too long.

Overall, when the kids leave the nest, pets are the next best thing, it allows you to still be a caregiver and watch beings that have mastered the secret of being in the moment! They can be real delightful to watch.