curl up around the dancing flames

It’s been a grey, dreary day with drizzle threatening. It wasn’t super cold (12C) but it certainly wasn’t shirtsleeves weather, especially with the biting wind. But later this afternoon, as I was walking down the laneway to open the gate for Carm (who was going out for a few more containers), I lifted my eyes from the reverie to see that the sun had broken through the murk and rays of energy were streaming to the earth. Is there any more beautiful sight?

We were out for a while today, a trip to the city to get heaps of food for the dogs and a visit to PetSmart for Adia.

Our first stop was to pick up 5kg of chicken hearts (unfrozen). When we were paying the lady asked us if we’d be interested in a case of chicken backs $1/lb - YES! And it was unfrozen so perfect for packaging up in meal sized servings. Once home we packaged up 18 containers of chicken hearts and 33 bags of backs - 3 per package - a perfect kibble topper.

After we picked up the giant boxes of meat, Carm dropped me off at PetSmart. It took a few minutes outside the doors to focus her attention for even a brief moment, but we were able to move forward in a fairly controlled way. Up and down the aisles, lots of leave its and a few stops for petting got her mostly paying attention to me. Feeling emboldened, I spied a big crate of kittens playing…

So, we walked slowly over. Anytime Adia’s attention focused on the kittens, I’d ask her to leave it and give me eye contact. Soon we were within 6 feet with Adia lying on the floor on one hip and laser focus on me. I felt she had done really well. As we were walking away we passed a window with a bigger cat which batted the glass. Adia nearly jumped out of her skin and wanted to skidaddle out of there. 

A bit more walking around to calm her down then we picked up a muzzle for introductions to Kirstens cats, cashed out, and there was Carm, ready to pick us up. All in all, I would call it a success, however, once we are back from Europe I want to do some regular visits.

Yesterday I got the clippers out and in record time had Spike fully shaved. My blades are way overdue for a sharpening and weren’t working that great so he ended up looking a bit like a Mexican Hairless… so we’ll have to keep him warm. It took about 50 minutes from setup to cleanup - is this the first full haircut since Bella passed away - it used to take 2 ½ to 3 hours to wrestle the hair off both of them.

Tuesday night Pat came for supper. We hadn’t seen her since camping and I think the dogs were missing her. I attacked her with a barrage of information - less than two weeks until we leave!

Monday Carm planted 20 more garlic for a total of 130 little cloves ready to magically morph into huge bulbs. Then we dashed into the city to look at backpacks for our trip - I’ve been using one as my personal item but it is seriously insecure. Since we will be in pickpocket territory I wanted something with a few security features. Loaded with some of the stuff that I’ll need to carry, the sales person got out a plethora of packs from which to pick. He laid them out on a big table so I was able to play with the zippers and load my stuff into them. One was the clear winner - I can’t wait to try it out and toyed with the thought of wearing it around the house (then sanity returned, at least for a moment).

Then, to make this post circular, we visited Dollarama to get containers for the hearts that we got today.

“October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around the dancing flames and sink into a good book. “

~John Sinor