Bailey in Crescent Park

June 18, 2013 Maurice 4 Comments

Today we headed south to a really lovely park called Crescent Park. It’s near Crescent Beach, but it is not connected to the ocean. There are old growth trees, and re-planted sections as well. There are lots of play areas for kids, wide open spaces to just enjoy, baseball diamonds, a turtle and duck pond, and lots and lots of trails to walk, bike or jog.

Bailey is quite funny on the leash. She goes from one side of the trail to the other, sniffing and searching. She just doesn’t want to miss one thing. I think we should have named her ZigZag, because she just can’t walk in a straight line!

On one of the trails we came across this interesting old stump… looks kind of like a face wouldn’t you say?

She certainly loves to be in the car, with the window down. She sticks her head out, lets the old tongue trail and enjoys the sights. She hasn’t reacted to passing dogs or people, and hasn’t tried to get out. I keep her leash around my arm, in case she wants to go, but so far, she’s been really good in the car.

She loves to amuse herself in the backyard. It’s darn funny to be sitting in the family room, with the back French doors open and see her go flying past, head and tail in the air, with a toy in her mouth. Seconds later, she flashes by, going the other way. Then, back she goes… We have lots of squirrels who scoot across the top of the fence, and that is a source of amusement for her too. She’s a chaser, no doubt about it.

The rain doesn’t bother her either. When it was raining, it was tough to get Max to go outside. But not Bailey. In the pouring rain, she’s got the toy in her mouth, scooting back and forth the length of the yard, amusing herself.

Here’s a little movie of her playing with one of her many toys. We’ve got a whole pile of dog toys. Most were from Max, but some were even Buck’s toys. But I don’t think these will last very long, mind you! She’s pretty hard on the toys. The pig she has between her paws in the pic to the right has already had his feet chewed off. It’s a rubber toy, and Max had it for years!

Here’s a little longer one, showing Bailey molesting her toy pig!

About Bailey

Two parks with Bailey

June 13, 2013 Maurice 6 Comments

Bailey has been adapting to her new home quite well. She’s an early riser, though, that’s for sure! She has gotten me up at six, which is about an hour before I’m really ready to get up. I was thinking she needed to go out, but nope, she just wants to get her day started!

We’ve taken her to a couple of parks and she’s loved it. Hawthorne Park was one of Max’s favorite parks. It has a great big duck pond, and Bailey loved it, too. She wanted to hop down into the pond, but it’s fenced so she tried to sneak under it!

There is also a water park there, and we started up a bunch of the various fountains for her, and she lapped up the water. Pretty funny.

Today (Thursday) I took her for a run through Sunnyside Urban Forest. It’s a great park, with lots of trails through the forest. She is not great at socializing yet – she apparently had a very sheltered first year, and hasn’t had an opportunity to meet a lot of dogs. Well, that’s going to change with us, since we’re always in one park or another.

Today she met a couple big dogs, a Golden/Mastiff cross and something that looked like a short haired Samoyed, both female. She apparently has real issues with female dogs, but both meetings came off very well. I was very pleased with how that went, and not a little surprised too!

We’ve been continuing her daily training, and we’re teaching her a new trick – she is sitting in front of us, and we pretend to get her to come between our legs, but she darts around behind us, and comes through our legs from the rear! It’s darn cute. Hopefully we’ll get it perfected so we can take a movie of it.

Anyway – all is good. Well – not all – she does have a habit of drinking with her mouth quite deep in the water dish, and then dripping all over the place! It’s kinda funny, until you see she has dripped in huge puddles all over the kitchen and stairs leading to the family room! haha

About Bailey, Commentary

Bailey's home…

June 9, 2013 Maurice 8 Comments

First a bit of news – we have decided to change Jenny’s name to Bailey. Neither of us thought that Jenny was much of a dog’s name, so we wanted to change it. It turns out that LAPS had simply named her that, it was not the name she has had all her life, so we figured, what the heck? She’s going to be coming into a new situation, so may as well start her with a new name too.

We’ve also renamed the blog, from All about Max to My Dog’s Blog… Not sure I’m entirely comfortable with that, but All about Max didn’t make much sense.

So, anyway, Saturday we picked up Bailey and brought her home with us. LAPS gave us a big bag of food, a huge metal water bowl (so big it holds a GALLON of water!), and some medicine she needs to take. She’s had surgery to ensure she is spayed, so we also got a cone for her head, which she needs to wear when we can’t supervise her.

Once in the house, she sniffed around quite intently at all the places Max used to hang out, but didn’t feel the need to mark her territory, which is a good sign. She ran around checking out the whole house, but waited to go upstairs until we went up there.

She loved the backyard and gave it a good sniff and run. We played some ball with her, and gave her a toy that is quite hilarious. It’s a rubber pig in a football uniform and squeaks. She loved it. Kept tromping on it with her paw to hear it squeak. She’s been carrying it with her since!

After dinner, we went for a nice long walk around the neighbourhood. She got quite a bit of attention from people, but she took the praise like a champ, and didn’t get a big head about it. So, a good start to things.

About Bailey

More about Jenny

June 2, 2013 Maurice 6 Comments

We have been out to take Jenny for walks. The Langley Animal Protection Services (LAPS) has an absolutely first rate facility on a lovely piece of property that includes a nice walking trail, lots of places for the animals to get exercise, a small pond, big trees… it’s just really a great place.

She’s a bundle of energy and lots of fun to take on a walk. She goes from side to side on the trail, eager not to miss a single thing. She does not pull on the lead, trying to take over the walk. She takes as much as you’ll give her, but will come back to you if you shorten the lead. She has her nose to the ground often, like she has the scent of something. She’s really curious about the world around her.

I’m sure she’s going to love all the parks to which we will be taking her.

Here’s a little movie of her playing with Pam inside the offices of the LAPS. She is on the lead, since there are some little kittens at the other end of the room, and she has some issues with cats (wow – who woulda figured a dog would have issues with cats?) There were no incidents while we were there however – she was just interested in playing with us.

About Bailey

Introducing….

May 30, 2013 Maurice 3 Comments

Pam and I have been missing the sounds of little paws around the house since Max passed. Getting another dog seemed only a matter of time. I thought we might not, given the amount we traveled but we talked it over with a dog trainer and she felt it was fine.

We’ve gone to see a few dogs, at a number of shelters, but narrowed it done to a couple of candidates. We’ve finally decided on Jenny, a young Golden Retriever. She was in the Langley Animal Protection Shelter (LAPS), a wonderful facility where the dogs are given training in a very comfortable environment. The dogs are not simply housed, they are given daily training, with the goal of solving their problems from socialization to protection issues.

We are required to do some training with our trainer, Amy. So we’ve gone through the initial phases, and wanted to begin training sessions with Jenny, but unfortunately our trainer is going on vacation, so we’re not going to be able to conclude the sessions until June 4th. But she’s quite the lovely dog.

She’s super high energy, with a let’s go attitude. And she LOVES the water… they have a small kiddie pool that has fresh water in it, and she jumps right in and lays down! We’ll need to keep towels by the doors and in the car!

She’s going to get us off the couch and back into the parks! Looking forward to getting her home with us full time.

Bonaire, Vacations

Woodwind snorkel tour

May 18, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

On Friday, our last full day in Bonaire, we took the morning trip to Klein Bonaire, an uninhabited island just off the coast of Bonaire. We had wanted to book a trip earlier on the Woodwind, a trimaran, but they have gone to three sailings a week because it’s the low season I guess. Anyway, I can not recommend this trip highly enough! WOW. The young lady who owns the boat, Dedrie (Dee for short) is so passionate about the waters around Bonaire, and it came across so clearly. She really cares about the island, and doing her part to protect the environment there. She gave great talks on the history of the island, about the creatures in the water, how to snorkel, how to apply your mask – she really was an amazing person.

We got on the boat right at the docks of the Divi resort, so it was easy for us to get there. They had a mango drink ready for us, before we even got on the boat! They quickly got a couple of sails up and we made the crossing very quickly. Along the way we got to see flying fish skimming along the surface. Those little suckers can really fly long distances! Then after a talk about the history of the island (cholera quarantine, goat/donkey sanctuary, to uninhabited protected site) we jumped in for a drift snorkel. The coral there is absolutely wonderful which is nothing unusual for Bonaire, of course.

Dee told us the names of fish or coral, then would dive down and point out them out. She would literally latch on to people, and take them over to see various things. She is a powerful swimmer, an awesome diver, able to stay deep under water for longer than I thought possible!
Also along on the trip was LeAnn, from a photo place on Bonaire called BonPhoto. Most of the pictures in this post were taken by her, with her underwater camera, fitted with a fisheye lens. She was amazingly personable as well. And she could dive deeply, and hold her breath a long time too – some of her pictures were taken at incredible depths – especially the ones of the turtles. Remarkable stuff.

After two snorkels, one in the area known for turtles nesting – we saw four turtles that day – we had another quick sail back to Bonaire and grabbed a mooring ball close to the lighthouse. They served us a hot lunch, a kind of goreng, with chicken and noodles and plantains. Then they gave us a brownie with caramel sauce and whipped cream. There was plenty to drink, and the conversations were of the fish we had seen. It was a really nice day. HIGHLY recommended if you ever go to Bonaire. Take the tour early in your stay – it will make you appreciate the island even more!

I’m including a slideshow of the pictures taken by LeeAnn of Bon Photo here – I’ve put her pictures in the one gallery, separate from our Bonaire gallery. She used a Nikon P7000 with Fisheye lens to take the photos.

In the late afternoon, we took a quick swim around the reef by the Divi. It was our last swim, so we just slowly wound our away around the place. We saw some cool stuff – the most remarkable was a permit fish. He’s quite a large fish, and while we’ve seen permit fish in the past, we’ve never seen one close up. Usually they swim away quickly, before we can even get a half way decent shot of them. This guy didn’t even care if we dove right down into his face and took a picture. He just continued sifting through the sandy bottom!

Another unusual thing we saw was this crazy jellyfish called the tamoya ohboya, also know as the Bonaire banded box jellyfish. It’s a recently discovered jellyfish, officially described in 2011, and it’s sting is quite painful. It’s quite long, eighteen inches at least, and quite active in the water. There have been only fifty sightings of tamoya ohboya, so we’re kind of in a very select group!

It’s always cool to see different things in the water, and this trip to Bonaire was certainly fun for that! It will definitely be hard to go back home after all the fascinating stuff we’ve seen here! One thing we did not want to see was a lionfish, an invasive species, not indigenous to the Caribbean. We had not seen one the whole week, but our last day, last swim, in the last twenty minutes in the ocean, we spotted one! Heavy sigh… We reported it right away to the special “Lionfish Hunters” group.

Here’s a traditional shot for us… the last sunset… I’m thinking we will be back here, sooner rather than later. It’s a great island for snorkeling of course, but the people were really terrific. The island itself is much bigger than Aruba, but with less than ten percent of the population! We both felt comfortable there, like we were “regulars”…

I really can’t wait to get back there!

Bonaire, Vacations

Three beachs, one day!

May 17, 2013 Maurice 2 Comments

Thursday was Three beach Thursday! We started by heading down south and jumping in at the Invisibles. I have no idea why it’s called that, but nothing was invisible! The water clarity was very nice, and there was lots to see. We’ve found that the way to snorkel here in Bonaire is to swim out to the dropoff, and swim against the current over the dropoff. When you are ready to get out, swim back into shore and drift back along the coral that is close to shore. That way you see “everything” and save energy!

After a couple hours, we got out and headed further south, past the salt plants. Bonaire, like most countries, has an unfortunate slave trading history, and their use in the salt industry is well documented. There are four different colored obelisks, representing the different qualities of salt available. When a ship stopped to pick up their product, they came to the colored obelisk corresponding to the salt they purchased. A flimsy temporary dock was quickly constructed. Female slaves would kneel, get loaded with heavy baskets of salt, and were pulled to their feet by the male slaves loading her. She would then carry it to the end of the shaky temporary dock to waiting crafts that were then pulled via rope to the offshore ships.

Travelling the south end of the island is on a single lane road, through wild lands, passing by one of many lighthouses on Bonaire, dotted with lots and lots of wild goats, donkeys, horses, flamingos, parrots and other birds.

The herds of goats are everywhere, and you better be ready to brake for them crossing the road, or simply milling about! It makes driving quite an experience! The roads are ok, not great, but the goats certainly add another dimension.

The parrots we saw are called Lora Parrots, a rare parrot, seen in very few places other than Bonaire. It used to be on Aruba, but is now extinct there due to poaching and poisoning. They estimate fewer than one thousand are left in the wild.

We dove in the water at Lac Cai, near the mangrove trees. It is supposed to be an amazing snorkel, but this was the one disappointing place we entered the water in Bonaire. Later, we discovered that we had missed the route through the mangroves to the great snorkeling! Ah well – next time we’ll find it.

We headed back to the Divi resort, and took a final dip in the ocean. And I’m sure glad we did! What an amazing snorkel it was! We swam over to the big main docks, where huge tugs are docked. Under that dock was an amazing world. Huge tarpons glided by, big barracuda hid under the tugs, huge schools of barjacks stalked the baitballs, and the pillars were lined with coral that was really amazing to see. Colorful and unique, teeming with tiny creatures, the pillars were a world all to their own.

Leaving the dock we went by a small pier. Under the pier was a huge snook. I’ve included this movie, because it’s kinda funny… about sixteen seconds in, you’ll see the movie take a big jerk… well it’s because I smacked my head on the pillar holding the pier up! And trust me on this one – it hurt! haha

Common snook movie…

Keeping close to the shore, we were in VERY shallow water – about two feet deep, and what did we spy? A turtle! He was probably getting some sun! He lazily wandered around us, taking his time. He was completely unafraid, completely unconcerned. We followed him around as he lazily swam around the beach. Just love to hang around a turtle!

Turtle movie with a barracuda too, from right in front of the Divi Flamingo Resort…

There was really so much we packed into this day. It was certainly busy, but oh so wonderful. So many great shots… so I remind you once again that the posts do not contain a link to all the pictures we took. You can access the gallery for Bonaire by clicking here or you can get to the gallery by clicking the gallery link on the menu line at the top of every page.

This last little movie is of a parrotfish being cleaned. I’m not sure how the fish know where to go to get cleaned, but they kind of “hover” and little fish dart out and nip off the stuff that is bothering the “victim.”