Wordless Wednesday 9: Moses & Kimbo

You know, I could’ve written a blog post or two in the past couple of weeks.  I really could’ve.

In fact, lots of blog-worthy things have happened.  And I still fully intend to blog about them.  Like Petland Canada’s announcement, for example.  Or Toronto’s awesome and unanimous decision to ban retail pets sales.

And if you follow me on Twitter, I would have spammed your news feed with exciting posts about both of those events (my apologies), so I’ve been around and aware, just not blogging.

It’s not like I have an overly good excuse, either.  I’ve been enjoying a life of luxury reading books (can’t believe I hadn’t read The Book of Negroes earlier!) and enjoying the sunshine (29°C this late in September?  Yes, please.).  I do not apologise for that.

And I don’t even have a blog post for you now.  Nope.

So here: enjoy some more adorable puppy photos, from Homer and Kimbo’s visit a few weekends ago.

Moses & Kimbo

Play time!

Vertical play is exhausting.

But higher ground has an advantage.

Or does it?

Uncle!

Truce.

I assume I have sufficiently made amends.

Eight Weeks Later

Eight weeks ago today, this is where we were at:

Moses at the vet after surgery to remove the cyst on his spine.

But now check out where we’re at!

Up and at 'em on a first official walk!

That’s right!

And eight weeks post-op is the milestone we’ve definitely all been waiting for (especially Moses, I imagine), because it means we can begin easing into a walking routine!

So Moses and I went out this afternoon for his first walk in eight weeks.

Still waiting for the fur to finish growing back.

For the next two weeks, we’ll start out with two 5 minute walks daily, and once those two weeks are up, we can slowly start to increase time based on his progress.

Walks resume just in time for fall weather.

And even though five minutes is ridiculously short, it’s still better than nothing, and it was great to get back out with the big guy.

Was going through surgery expensive and stressful?  Yes.  But it was worth it.

And unlike our short pre-opt walks, there was no tripping or scraped knuckles.  He may be a bit clumsy still, but the improvement has been great to see.

I even made a short video to commemorate the first walk back:

 

What a good day.

Wordless Wednesday 8: Two Chows and a Newf

This edition of Wordless Wednesday features our wonderful house guests over the Labour Day weekend.

This is Kimbo.

This is Homer.

Homer and Moses actually go way back to 2008, as dog school classmates.

Homer and Moses, Fall 2008

Kimbo is a new addition, and probably one of the calmest, cutest puppies I’ve ever met.

Hangin’ out.

Moses was pretty happy to have some company.

Hey, what’s that you have there?

Mind if I….

… Yeah, you don’t mind.

I tried to take a couple of group shots.

They weren’t really working with me at first.

There we go.

Ha! Something delicious in the air?

I was pretty happy to have our canine guests, too, since it’s been a while since I’ve been on a nice, long dog walk, and it’s still a couple of weeks until we start easing Moses back into it.

A nice evening walk with a couple of Chows.

And it wasn’t until my last walk of the weekend with these guys that a neighbour’s breed profiling brought in the startling reminder that Chow Chows are often considered a “bully breed”.  I had literally forgotten and was surprised – his comments took me completely off guard.

Sadly, even Wikipedia says Chows have “aggression towards strangers or other animals”.  There are at least three municipalities in the U.S. that have Chows listed as a banned breed.  And I don’t think I really need to go into the long list of things that are wrong with BSL.

Just looking at Homer and Kimbo, and trying to reconcile them with this vicious breed stereotype left me dumbfounded.

Oh yeah, a real menace to society.