Dogs, cats, pigs, and friends

A trip to the mainland always involves some of my least favourite things - like traffic, and being away from home, and traffic, and constantly figuring out changed and poorly signed routes, and traffic.  But that is balanced out by the opportunity to see some of my favourite people and pets and piggies.

A five day trip last month was no exception.  I wasn't off the ferry for more than fifteen minutes before new routes had me lost, and endless traffic had me chomping at the bit to return to my island. However, eventually I found the restaurant where my family and friends were waiting for me to join them for lunch - it has become almost a tradition for us to meet at the Riverhouse Pub near Deas Island Park on my way to or from the ferry.

After lunch, I headed out to my friends Ann and Ken in Abbotsford, who always offer Mitzi and me their self-contained lower level as a base while I take off hither and yon, and never fail to not only stock the fridge in 'my' space but also share many an amazing meal with me upstairs. In return, I let them beat me at whist at least once per visit.  They feed my stomach, I feed their egos. And we share a lot of laughs.  Mitzi isn't quite so happy about the visits - she is quite the homebody and even though our mainland space is familiar to her, she'd still much rather not travel at all:

Still, they have a big back yard that is frequently visited by cats, and there are few things that sniffer-dog Mitzi loves more than tracking the route a cat or two has taken.

Sniff sniff sniff
One grey, one orange, one black and white cat...

Which way did they go?

On Friday, I headed out to visit my friend Deb and her dog Lily and cat Hugo, at their new condo in South Surrey.

Hai!  I'm Hugo!
I hazn't seen you for a while!

You're not going to monopolize my mama, are you?

After a delicious lunch, Lily informed us it was time to go for a walk in the woods near her home:

C'mon!  Hurry up!  We've got a ball to chase!

Oops, sorry mom, I didn't mean to lose it. I know it's down there somewhere!
Find it, find it, find it! 

Dogs!  You don't see me losing my toys on some silly walk! 

Saturday saw a visit to Emma and her dad.  Emma, who turned twelve this week (Happy Birthday, Ems!), is doing well after a fun summer of swimming and lazing about in the interior.  She is a water dog through and through.  Her three favourite joys in life are food, swimming, and her dad.  I'm not sure what order she would place those in.  I'd like to think that I'm in her top ten still, and from the way she greets me, I think I am.

Emma (in front) and her best buddy Abby.
She who stares the hardest gets the first treat. 

On Sunday I spent time at Hearts on Noses Sanctuary with Janice and the piggies.  It was raining, so even the herd I fostered - Scotch and Soda and their ten 'babies' (who are now nine years old!) - was reluctant to come out of their nice cozy houses without a little added incentive.

Oh, okay, I guess we'll come say 'hi' if you're going to feed us apples.

Once they were out, they followed me around for a while - probably hoping for more apples - while I greeted my other porcine  - and canine - friends.

Who's out there?

Oh, look, someone left these apples near my door!

Did Santa Claus come early?

Whisper, one of my three velcro pigs, stayed with me the whole visit and introduced me to his new friend Sugar Ray. Sugar Ray, like a person with their head in a good book, was more interested in having his head in a good pumpkin than having his photo taken.

Pumpkinhead,,. aka Sugar Ray

Whisper doesn't mind sharing

Janice introduced me to some of the pigs who were new since my last visit, like Pete who carefully supervised Janice's apple-toss technique as we doled out treats to everyone:

Pete, not impressed with a throw where the apple doesn't land at his feet.

Chilco gets an apple too!

And what would a visit to Hearts on Noses be without a
photo of my pal Rose, with her beautiful feathery ears?

Coffee with my friend Luanne, dinner out with Ann and Ken at the Spaghetti Factory, some quiet time to read, little walks with Mitzi, and soon the five days were over and we were headed back home.  Allie greeted us with long stories of how Mary, our kind neighbour who takes care of her, was "too stingy with the Temptations and where the heck were you anyway?! ", and Mitzi bounced all over the house before running into the bedroom to snuggle down in her familiar space for a long winter's nap.

There's no place like home!

My world in black and white

Back in November, a friend on Facebook asked me to participate in a five day challenge, publishing on facebook one black and white photograph each day for five days.  The rules allowed for the photographer to take a colour photo and change it to black and white, which is what I did.  The hardest part of the challenge was deciding which five photos to post.  I knew I'd have no problem finding five photos of dogs which would look great in black and white,  but decided to challenge myself at another level by deliberately choosing photos from different categories. As it happens, I ended up starting and finishing the challenge with dog ones, but diversifying for the second, third, and fourth photos.  These are the five I ended up posting:  

Day 1:  This was a photo I took for Bully Buddies rescue several ago. I call it "I'll be your Best Friend". 

I'll Be Your Best Friend
(c) Jean Ballard 2009

Day 2:  One of my favourite photography subjects, second only to dogs, is the elderly. In this photo, my friend Pearl is having a great laugh over some silliness we got up to.

Laughter is the best medicine
(c) Jean Ballard 2013

Day 3:  As one who avoids big cities like the plague, I seldom do urban photography, but I took this shot on a rare visit to downtown Vancouver BC last fall.

The Urban Jungle
(c) Jean Ballard 2014

Day 4:  Day four's contribution contrasts sharply with Day three's urban shot - a young First Nation's man spearfishing at Swallowfield, one of my favourite hiking spots near Crofton BC. 

Spearfisher at Swallowfield
(c) Jean Ballard 2010

Day 5: I had trouble deciding what to post for the last day of the challenge, but decided to return to the subject of dogs as I love how removing the colour from this photo makes it look like a pencil line drawing. It is my favourite of the black and whites I'd selected for this challenge: 

Little Dog with Big Bark
(c) Jean Ballard 2013

I thought of this challenge again today when I looked at some photos I took on this morning's walk with Shiloh.  It was just after daybreak on a somewhat foggy morn.  I took the photos in colour, but when I downloaded them to the computer, I realized this morning's world was actually black and white - no photo editing required:  

Osborne Bay on a Foggy Morn
(c) Jean Ballard 2015

I do enjoy black and white photographs, but prefer my real world to have more colour.  Thankfully, as I opened the gate to my backyard, colour emerged - in the form of this little orange cat who has taken to visiting my garden a couple of times a day:  

The Visitor
(c) Jean Ballard 2015

Mainland Trip: Part one - A dog and two cats

Last week, I went to the mainland to see my family in Vancouver.  Before heading to my brother's, however, I made a quick side trip out to the Fraser Valley to visit Emma and her dad.  They showed me Emma's favourite trick - catching pieces of kibble mid-air.  Emma was very skilled at this;  I was less skilled at catching it on camera.  Instead I ended up with this:

Later, Emma and I went through her paces (the commands I had taught her as a pup) in their beautiful back yard where the trees were in bloom:

My dogs could take some lessons from Emma.  She has a far better 'stay' than all of them put together.  Or perhaps she just knows how beautiful she is and likes to have her picture taken:

Emma
April 2014

Then, on to my brother's for a couple of days.  The day before I left the island,  I purchased two catnip toys for his cats, Rina and Clancy.  Unfortunately, Allie  jumped up on the table, opened the cloth bag, pulled out the package, ate through the plastic wrapper, and absconded with one of the toys (I found it yesterday, underneath my couch).  So Rina and Clancy were expected to share:

Clancy:  Num num num

Back off, Rina - it's mine!

Rina:  Auntie Jeeeaaaaan......

Rina:  Maybe my toy is still in Auntie Jean's purse

What?  You only brought ONE?

Clancy:  Pfffttttt!

Nom nom nom

Rina:  I can't believe she only brought ONE.
And  Clancy won't share!

Rina soon got over it, though, and forgave her brother for hogging the toy.

Friends

I enjoyed their company and the distraction they provided as I sorted through the last of mom's belongings, including all 28 photograph albums.  Clancy was more outgoing and adventurous than Rina, but both proved very photogenic:

Clancy:  Hey Auntie Jean, lookit me!

Selfie!

Rina:  My brother's crazy.

Rina and Clancy

Rina:  Is she finished yet?
Clancy:  I think she's looking at the view. 

It was difficult to choose my favourite shot, but I think this one of Clancy and the photoalbums is a top contender:

Clancy
(c) Jean Ballard 2014

Stay tuned for Part Two - birds, ducks, and a big surprise at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

Never Get a Tortie Cat!

Tortoiseshell cats, or torties as they are affectionately known,  are often high spirited, obnoxious troublemakers.  While tortoiseshell refers only to the coat colour and not to a specific breed itself, any tortie owner knows they are indeed a breed apart.  They are the feline equivalent of the stereotypical red headed, freckle-faced child - mischievous, hot tempered, but incredibly endearing.  Anne of Green Gables on four furry feet.

Allie is the quintessential tortie.  A devil in fur. A thorn in my side.  As likely to lash out and slash you as to nuzzle your chin and meow for treats.

For the past several days she's been under the weather (just one of several under the weather pets and people in my life right now).  At first I thought 'hairballs', as she had thrown up a few times in recent weeks, and so I pulled out the hairball medicine and a fresh pot of cat grass. She's an indoor cat, so lives in a pretty safe environment.  Not much to cause her harm here.

Then I came home Sunday to find her totally spooked by something, eyes big, slinking under furniture and hiding out behind the toilet.  I knew it wasn't the dogs' fault as they were all with me.  And so I watched her carefully.   Noticing she wasn't jumping, climbing, pouncing, talking, kneading, biting, or even eating, I wondered if she had fallen somehow and hurt herself.

She would eat and drink when I put food or water right in front of her, but mostly she just hid under a blanket on a chair in the corner of the living room.  I moved the litter box from the bathroom to her side, put an x-pen around the whole area to keep the dogs from getting in her space, and continued to monitor her.  She'd pee at night, she did a very small poop one day, but she very definitely wasn't her usual self.

So I made an appointment to take her to the vet.  That is a decision not made lightly - she is every vet's worst nightmare, and they are no happier to see her than she is to see them.

An hour before the appointment, I pulled out the travel crate, walked over to the lump under the blanket, and picked her up.  She took one look at the crate, stretched all four limbs out as wide as possible, extended claws and fangs to grab onto anything within her reach - drapes, blankets, edges of crate, and any part of  the only person in the world who gives a damn about her, and with a quick twist of the body and a large chunk of the gloved hand that feeds her, she flew across the room hissing and growling and standing her ground.

The chase was on.  No amount of Temptations, sardines, cajoling, swearing, chasing, blanket tossing, or pleading was going to get her within my reach.  After half an hour of trying to get her,  I ended up cancelling the appointment.

I'll just let nature take its course - if she can race all around the house trying to avoid letting me put her in the carrier, then she's not as close to death's door as I feared.

Allie, there are thousands more where you came from -  if you die through your own silly fault, you can be replaced!

Okay, I don't really mean that, but if anyone wants a cat with attitude, I might have a deal for you.

Crofton Cat Alert

Before I start documenting our camping trip, I need to post this very important warning for Crofton cat owners, and an accompanying sad goodbye to a very fine cat.

Today I learned that there has been someone using what appears to be a pellet gun to shoot cats in my neighbourhood.  At least three have been shot in the past couple of weeks, two injured and one killed.  Given that others have gone 'missing', it is possible there are more deaths.  The area affected is between Robert Street and Pauline Street, from Bertha to Queen.  It may, of course, be wider than that.

Sadly, the cat who was killed was one I know well and have shown on this blog a few times - Tux, the wonderfully friendly cat belonging to my friends.  He failed to come home one evening, and was found dead the next day under a bush a few houses down, a bullet in his chest.

My deepest condolences go to Lorelei and Wilf.

The shootings have been reported to the RCMP (who told them to call the SPCA); the SPCA (who told them to call the RCMP), and Coastal Animal Services.  They have also been reported to the provincial SPCA hotline.

If you live in Crofton and see or hear anyone shooting at the animals, please call the police. Animal welfare may not be their responsibility, but the use of firearms in Crofton is.  One only needs to express concern that a child might be hurt and they have to respond.

Here's to Tux, a very fine cat. You will be missed.   Run free at the Rainbow Bridge, Tux.

Tux on pagoda

Hi Auntie Jean! Got any treats?

What's that moving in the grass?

Tux in his back yard.

Cat on an old park bench

I'm popping into a friend's place this week to take care of their old dog, Zoe,  while they are working the advance polls for the election.  One of their cats, Tux, always comes to greet me and to sit in the garden with me while I encourage the dog to enjoy some outdoor time.  I have taken tons of pics of them - still to be edited - but tonight I'll just post a couple of my favourites:

Tux, on a hot summery day, spies a bug in the grass.

Zoe reluctantly plods after the Camera Lady,
her finely-tuned nose telling her a treat awaits.