While the humans are away . . .

. . . the pup will play!
Cassius enjoyed the Easter weekend with a *treat hunt* at Parker Pet Care, our go-to boarder in Toronto. The staff treat Cash like royalty and he returns the love through wet doggy kisses and peeing on their floor every time we drop him off.

Read more...

The grass is greener

As we prepared to leave our beloved Brooklyn for our new home in Toronto, E and I often talked about how great it was going to be to have lots of open space for Cassius and Indio to run and play.

In Brooklyn, we spent many hours in Fort Greene Park, just steps from our apartment. We used to walk Cassius in the park a few times a day, I would meet up with my mommy group, and E still runs his Boot Camp classes there. It was a great place to meet friends for a picnic or a walk. I even went running there...once.

Our only complaint was that it was crowded. Being the only large-ish green space in our 'hood, we weren't the only ones who wanted to take advantage of it, especially when the weather was nice.

Now that we are in Toronto, we live close to a large park where we take Cassius for his daily walks. It's not technically an off-leash park, so we are very mindful of the other patrons in the park, though compared to Brooklyn, there are only a handful of people out at any given time. This weekend while at my parents house in the 'burbs, I took Cassius out to play in the school park nearby. It was kind of eery because I was the only person out in this vast open space in the middle of a beautiful August day. No one else was around! All I could think of was, "These people don't know what a jewel they have in their neighbourhood: a clean, safe, well-maintained park with 2 playgrounds, a soccer field, 2 baseball diamonds and enough blacktop to enjoy a game of 3-on-3, handball, or hopscotch."

Wonder what they would think if they lived in NYC where we used to clamour over everyone else for a patch of grass.

Read more...

Why I don't use public fountains

As witnessed in our park this morning: Fido getting a sip of water.

Read more...

How much crap does one woman have to take?

In the last week I have dealt with more *pooplosions* [baby and dog poo explosions] than any woman should have to. I don't know how much more I can handle! From Indio's infamous every-other-day-I'm-eating-solid-food non-solid explosions to Cassius taking a initiatory *loose* dump in my childhood bedroom less than an hour after we arrived at my folks' place last Monday.

On top of these *surprises,* being the sole-caregiver for Cassius during the Toronto garbage strike has made for necessary detours on our walks to find appropriate receptacles to dispose of his waste.

Lucky for me, the germaphobe that I am, E was out of town this week, leaving me to deal with the messes on my own.

I can still manage the stench of a baby poo since Indio's eating repertoire is pretty bland. Doggy doo-doo, not so much.

E's flight lands at 12:30pm today. I'm ready to hand over the rubber gloves!

Read more...

The Good Stuff: Chuckit

In an effort to show E and Cassius that I really do enjoy having a dog, I offered to take Cassius out today for a run in the park while E busily prepared his presentation for his workshop in NYC next week. This job usually falls on E, though we manage to take one *family walk* each day.

In the 17 months we've had Cassius I have never taken him off leash when walking him on my own, but I decided that today would be the day. I brought along with me the most invaluable tool for any dog owner, especially those with a high-energy dog like Cassius: the Chuckit. It's a long-handled ball launcher that allowed me to throw the ball much farther than I can naturally and I didn't have to touch one drop of dog slobber. Fantastic! After only a few throws across the field, Cassius plopped down in the shade of a tree. Mission accomplished.

Read more...