Tomorrow, Ollie   will be home celebrating his fourth birthday so we decided to treat him to an early Birthday Party with his pals in Seaforth, today. His little brother, Ozzy, couldn't be with him today as he is recuperating from his 'tutouring' surgery on Friday and he's on limited frolicking for the next couple of weeks. 

Desi was here to get our breakfast ready and Stephanie was feeling a little better, so she joined the fun after lunch. Fun was in full force after Scout (aka Ebony)    arrived and she enjoyed racing around in the East Pasture with her best friend, Sadie (aka Ivory) . 

The wind was ripping across the top of our hill and creating a a wind-chill that made us seek the warmth of the Cabana often throughout the day.We also had a visit from Milo   today so that he could get a good run before his 'tutouring' procedure tomorrow. We're sure that he and Ozzy will have lots of stuff to talk about when they get back here in a couple of weeks and start comparing their surgical experiences.   

       

    

Friday , January 9th 

Most of the regular Friday visitors were here for the day except dear Sula who wasn't feeling well enough to join us today. 

Harrington and Emo                                         Maggie                                                       Sunny Day 

   

The Grimes Gang brought their usual level of excess fun and frolic. 

Opal                                                                     Oak                                                            Fern 

   

Friday wouldn't be the same without Marlie, Ollie and Mylea. 

     

The afternoon arrival of our sweet gal, Ciocia, made everyone smile as she went from one to another saying hello to old friends and introducing herself to new ones. 

   

Saturday and Sunday, January 10 and 11 ...

High winds and rain and another cold snap on Sunday , kept us inside except for short walks in the East pasture with Desi while Mary and Stephanie tried to rest as they deal with one of the nasty flu bugs.   

Wednesday, Janaury 7th 

Truth be told , this DogBlog entry was done yesterday, the 9th, but Mary forgot to save it so it didn't get published and now she has to do it all over again today, Saturday. She's bummed to say the least.  

Scaling the heights of the old Compost Pile ...  what a great view.   

    

Watch your step ... Doodles are everywhere today. 

   

   

   

Four new arrivals , Sunny Day, Harrington, Ruger and Remi ..

    

Thursday, January 8th 

More climbing the Compost Peak under the sunny, blue skies. 

   

Tag-Team-Toller time 

   

   

Fritz never stops .... it's play, play, play all day. 

   

Sunny Day wanted everyone to admire her eye lashes. The longest we've ever seen and they're not fakes.  

 

This hunting party spent a lot of time looking for something but didn't find it. 

   

Due to recurring problem with her right hand and arm, which returned with the New Year, Mary hasn't been able to key the details of our activities without aggravating the problem. Learning how to use a mouse with the left hand has not been a raging success and the availability of someone to take dictation, even less so. 

Mary will be seeing the Specialist at the Clinic this week in the hopes of getting a more effective treatment. In the interim, we will get the photos of the critters posted so you can, at least, see what they are doing. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get the words out of Mary's brain and into some kind of digital format, please let us know. 

So, here are the Photos and we'll try to return to the photos plus narrative, a soon as we can. 

January 2

    

   

January 3

   

    

January 4

Oops, no photos!

January 5

      

     

 

January 6

   

   

.... a replacement Christmas present for Mary , one from Gin and one from Tonique. 

  

the beach hike ...

   

   

   

 

 

 

    

It wasn't nearly so cold today, in fact, the temperature was above the freezing point most of the day and there wasn't much wind. Mary chased down Flynn to see if he had made his 2026 resolution. He had about six good ones and he said Mary could pick whichever one she wanted. So, given the choice, Mary decided to move off the food theft and counter surfing behavior as there seems to have been some improvement in the past twelve months.

The 2026 resolution would be tough for Flynn   to stick to but he said he would try his best to not crash through every door whenever it gets opened which usually results in him knocking over or running down anyone who is in the way, canine or human. All of us who have been, at times, in the path of his exit, heartily support this initiative. 

We had to say goodbye to Lyra, Charlie O, Kali and Ruger today when their humans came to pick them up. It was fun spending Christmas with them and they had lots of good times. Mary did manage to get Ruger to commit to a 2026 resolution but we think he was just patronizing her.

  Ruger told her he would do  his best to overcome the need to run out the door and bark loudly at nothing while he ran the perimeter of the property. He agreed that there was never a good reason to bark, like an intruder or a wild animal, so Mary told him that she and the neighbours would appreciate his restraint.   

Mary is still chasing the following critters who were here on New Year's Eve to try and get them to make a resolution for 2026. So far, they have managed to avoid her, slipping behind a tree or hiding under a bed when they see her coming. The rest of us have been offered an incentive, like a liver treat or two, if we can give away their hiding places. 

Keep your eyes peeled for

Lucy   

        Lyra 

               Frankie 

                              Gin and Tonique 

                                                              Inky  

                                                                                                               Hali  

                                                                      Lulu 

                                 Charlie O  

Arthur  

 

Just a few photos to highlight our day and Mary is still chasing us for our New Year's Resolutions. The new kid around here, Milo, had already finished his  and he wanted us to post it today. We think he was trying to impress Mary in the hopes of getting an extra biscuit or two.

  Milo says that he has resolved to not chew up any more sticks  while he is outside playing, so that Mary doesn't have to clean the floor during the night, when the stick remains reappear.

Good one, Milo!  The big test will be tomorrow when you come across a real juicy stick out in the yard. Will you be able to resist?  We'll be watching you.

The rest of us will have to do some brain-storming and try to come up with some of our own. Goodness knows we have lots of to work with. 

     

  

    Kali wanted to get in on the biscuit action,  so she swears that she will find a new hobby and stop trying to find a way into the fridge where all the tasty food is stored.   

Monday 

This was the sky that we woke up to on Monday morning and it was the poster child for the old adage ... 'Red sky in morning, sailer take warning'.  The early part of the day was a little warmer than it had been and there was no wind to speak of but as the day progressed, a freezing rain began which eventually turned into very heavy overnight rain and driving winds. 

So, we spent the early part of the day playing outside and enjoying the milder temperatures. Once the freezing rain started, we opted to stay inside most of the time.   

   

   

   

Mary waited until almost midnight before sending us outside to take care of our business and she picked one of the few periods when the rain wasn't pouring from the sky by the bucket full. It was still  slippery underfoot, so none of us got too energetic for fear of falling and we were tired. 

Tuesday

When we raced outside on Tuesday morning, the clouds were dispersing, blue skies and sunshine greeted us and much warmer temperatures. There wasn't much ice left on the ground and there was a strong southerly wind.  We enjoyed being outside and  not freezing our toes.     

     

   

   

Before going to bed on Tuesday, Mary informed us that she wanted a New Year's Resolution, from each and every one of us, that she could post on the DogBlog. We all looked at one another with very puzzled expressions, wondering what we could possibly resolve to change. Frankly, it wouldn't be a very productive use of our time since, what we might say we were going to do, none of us would remember  what we said next day. We'll just haul out that old urban myth about how we live in the moment and we don't attach any significance to thoughts we might have had five minutes or hours earlier, unless food is involved.  

It's now Monday evening and we'll bring you the past weekend report on our activities and any adventures or misadventures. 

When we last posted, there had been some chatter about food disappearing  from the table or kitchen counter and we had three of our pals, Arthur, Flynn and Charlie,  offer to do surveillance, in case there might be any attempted thievery. All three of them have had some past experience with this kind of felony.

Well, on Saturday, one of the three was caught red-pawed with the packaging of, what had once been, an Italian Panettone Cake. It was a Christmas gift from Lucy's humans and Mary's favorite Christmas cake. 

Arthur had struck in the midst of a distraction, grabbed the cake, still in its packaging, and took it into his room. What you see below is all that was left when Mary came back and noticed the cake was missing. Arthur was trying his best to pretend the evidence wasn't there, in full view.  He had eaten the entire cake, including the parchment paper it was baked in. In fact , Mary thinks he was going to cover the packaging evidence with the floor mat.  

   

So, that left just Charlie and Flynn to continue the job of informant as Arthur will be held in custody until further notice. 

It was another brutally cold day with wind chill making it feel like -15C so we took short walks and then enjoyed the warm Cabana. Later on, Stephanie was busy in the Cabana office when she turned around and was shocked to see Kali   standing on top of the fridge in the Cabana kitchen. Kali had jumped up on the table seen in the foreground and then jumped onto the top of the half-wall and then she hopped onto the fridge. Turns out she hadn't figured out how she would get off the fridge, to look for some food, so after coaxing her back onto the table with a biscuit, Stephanie had to move the table, to thwart any further parkour demonstrations.

What next? 

We did have one overnight-stay arrival. Hall-E    was dropped off to spend a couple of days playing with us and she quickly made friend with some of her fellow guests, like Milo.  

Lucy has a fur coat that is the envy of the other critters and she doesn't appear to notice the cold 

    

It's amazing what the cold will do to some of the well-dressed critters . Here Gin   is wearing her Strawberry Onesie under her winter jacket and still managing to look like she's going to perish. Lyra and Tonique  huddle next to the Cabana door in the hopes it will open so they can get inside where it's warm. 

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, weather-wise, so the morning outings were limited to short walks followed by a return to the warmer house or Cabana. Stephanie was here for the morning, getting some dog beds washed and then she took the rest of the day to return to the city for a family birthday celebration dinner. Desi arrived mid-afternoon to take us for some outings and we began to notice that the temperature was slowly climbing above the freezing point so we weren't in such a big rush to get back inside.  

We had our dinner and then one last long romp around the East pasture before settling down to a good nap on our favorite dog beds.  The weather forecast for tomorrow shows Yellow Alerts  for a freezing rain event so we'll have to stick close to home.

It's Friday, also known as Boxing Day, and we did our best to enjoy the great outdoors but the temperature was ranging between -6C and -8C and that north-west wind kept the wind chill temperature between -12C and -15C.  When we heard that McGuinea didn't have to go outside today, we figured our outings should be limited to five minutes, just long enough to do our business and no more. The snow that fell overnight didn't amount to a lot on the ground but, it sure was cold on the feet. 

        

    

Not a very happy-looking bunch are they? 

Our big Newfoundland friend, Lucy, arrived after dinner to stay for a week or so and her humans told Mary that she was caught stealing food from their Christmas Dinner table yesterday. This came as a big shock to all of us as we had never known Lucy to do such a thing.  Arthur, Flynn and Charlie were particularly appalled at this news and they proposed that they would keep a close eye on Lucy and report any instances of this behavior while she was here. The rest of us were a little suspicious of their offer of surveillance given that Arthur, Flynn and Charlie have past records of similar transgressions.

Now we will have to do surveillance on the three with prior records just to be sure there is no scamming going on. Would these three try to frame Lucy if any food went missing? Stay tuned to find out. 

Here it is Christmas Eve and we're happy together finding lots of ways to pass the time when it's this cold outside. We are making good use of our coats and sweaters and after Charlie's late arrival last night, we are making sure that he get's lots of good photo ops so his humans will see what he can do to liven this place up. 

Hi, everyone, it's me Charlie    and I'm sporting my very own winter coat this year. When Mary first saw me last night,  she said I looked like a Hippy and apparently this was because my hair was so long. All I know is that it keeps me warm and I think I look like a well-loved, stuffed teddy bear. 

This morning, we went for a brisk walk with Stephanie after breakfast and it was fun to see some old friends, like Inky and Hali as well as Flynn and Frankie. Gin  and Tonique are also staying for the Christmas Season and I met Milo, a busy little youngster who likes to hang out with me cause I have lots of prior experience, having stayed here many times during the past five five years.  

        

We checked out lots of hot spots and raced around after one another, until the cold wind drove us inside where we continued our games and got warmed up.  

   

 

   Merry Christmas   

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2025 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

It's Christmas morning, still cold as heck, but we are up and outside with Mary, on our way to the Cabana fridge where the Turkey has been abiding. He's a big one, weighing fourteen pounds, and the objective is to get him in the oven no later that nine o'clock. Stephanie arrives to get our breakfast started and once we're fed, she takes all of us for a walk. There are a few snow furries starting to blow around and our walks are fun, up to the point when our paws get little snow balls sicking to them. Then it's time to head back to the warm Cabana. 

Felon is very proud to show off her figure in the Christmas gift of a Festive Sweater  and Tilley, not to be outdone, dons his gay apparel while the Stonecrop Sedum blossoms are wearing their snowy white caps.

      

   

    

   

Mary is busy preparing vegetables, etc.  for the human's Christmas dinner. Here is the Menu.

Mashed Potatoes - Carrot Coins - Butternut Squash 

Sweet Potatoes - Turnip - Parsnips

Turkey - Cranberry Sauce - Gravy 

Squash Pie - Assorted cookies & sweets - Fruit Cake 

Tea 

Mike, the neighbour from across the road, arrives after Tilley is picked up by his humans. He has been a regular guest for Christmas dinner along with Joe, the Handyman, but Joe passed away in March, so Mary, Stephanie and Mike will miss his presence at the dining room table. They do toast Joe and talk about the fun dinners from past years.

Our dinner time soon rolls around and Mike heads home so we eat without a distraction. Then it's time for a walk in the windy, snowy conditions before Stephanie heads home.