A rotten day with a very nice ending

I had a bad day yesterday. It’s not often I get really, really angry but yesterday I did.

First the reno people who were supposed to come back to fix a problem didn’t show – we’d agreed I would be home for them on this particular day and I didn’t get so much as a phone call. Good thing I have a 10% holdback on their payment still.

Then I had a hassle over a potentially-tainted can of dog food. Total run-around. Wasted about four hours or more trying to find out what to do. I had two cans of Evanger’s Chunky Chicken canned dog food blow up in my face when I opened them, sending dogfood everywhere. I tried to do the responsible thing, to get it tested. The petfood company wasn’t interested – they claim there is absolutely nothing wrong with their dogfood (despite the fact they are being investigated by the FDA); the pet store wasn’t interested – they said they’d tell the rep about it, but he might not be around for ages so wouldn’t keep the opened cans; the Canadian Food Inspection Agency wasn’t interested, dog food not being within their jurisdiction; the only certified lab on the island only tests plant material so having it tested myself wasn’t an option; The FDA never responded to my emails; Health Canada referred me to Agriculture Canada who referred me to the Pet Food Association of Canada who advised me “There is no agency that should be notified.....The product can be disposed of in your regular garbage or compost."

Shock! I could have tainted dogfood and there is absolutely no way to protect the public.

Anyway, all I can say here is IN MY OPINION (just so I don’t get slapped with a libel suit), IN MY OPINION don’t feed Evangers to your dogs. IN MY OPINION, you may be risking their lives.

The day got worse: Next I received an email from a group I thought was working with us on the gas box issue and turns out they are not. Let’s just say some harsh words were exchanged. Which led to someone else tearing a strip off me for publicly addressing the issue on a forum to which I belong. (An aside: the gas box issue is heating up, and I keep meaning to write more about it here but – it is stressful. And I don’t like writing about stressful stuff. However, this week we have made the news in the Province, the Times Colonist, Abbotsford Today, as well as articles, editorials and letters in the two local papers. The publicity is great, but it does bring a certain amount of stress with it – like reading stupid comments from stupid people who either think ALL cats should be euthanized or who believe that simply spaying/neutering all cats will eliminate the need for euthanizing ANY cats all and therefore the gasbox doesn't need to be eliminated. Okay, I shouldn’t call them stupid. Uninformed. Better? Hmmm....I guess my evening didn’t quite eliminate ALL the stress.....)

I hate conflict. Have I told you how much I HATE conflict? It’s probably the main reason I live alone with my dogs. They have to do things my way, whether they want to or not. And they don't mind if I get snarky once in a while. They love me anyway.

On the advice of a friend, I stepped away from the computer and took my dogs for a walk. On the walk, I bumped in Mary and Tarben - my very favourite bulldog:




Next we bumped into Bonnie, mama of the three wolfhounds:



And then we met a lovely couple with two precious poodles ages 15 and 17 – happy little muppets (the dogs, not the people – though the people were happy too) out for their evening stroll. It is always good to meet senior well socialized dogs who have lived with their families all their lives, and are clearly well loved and well taken care of. And these two were particularly precious.


I breathed in the scent of maples turning red,



I watched the sky turn rosy, I listened to the water lap at the shore,






I came home much more relaxed, and settled in for an evening watching a dvd of the entire second season of Lynn Johnston’s For Better or Worse television cartoons – good, wholesome family fun with some thought-provoking messages thrown in.

As someone once said, some days it’s just not worth chewing through the restraints.