Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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A snowy weekend here in Toronto

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We woke up to snow here in Toronto this morning. Oh yes, we’ve had some snow on the ground pretty much since the start of the year, but unlike most other areas we haven’t been getting hit heavily with snow … well … until now.

In December it was the cold cold weather that was my biggest complaint. We barely had any snow … not even when New York was buried in it .. we barely seemed to have any, yet we were freezing. I mean freezing- – 27 Celsius (-17 F) or more with the windchill, brrr. My thyroid is acting up lately too (or maybe it’s S.A.D.) so it’s making me really intolerant to the cold so I’m freezing even inside the house .. so you can imagine how cold I felt when it was -27 Celsius outside. I might as well have been in the arctic in the dead of winter.

I’m not sure how much snow we’ve had this week, but it’s snowed a fair amount today and we’re expecting more through the weekend and I think there’s another big storm headed our way on Tuesday. I wouldn’t be surprised to see my jogging enthusiast neighbor moving around the neighborhood on Crescent Moon Gold 12 Snowshoes if the snow keeps up!

You know what’s kinds of strange about all of the snow we’ve had so far this winter? So far not one snow fall has been sticky snow .. you know, the kind of snow that’s good for making snow balls?

How do I know that?

Well .. my dog, a Labrador Retriever, really loves snow (and water, and swimming etc) and when she was a puppy I discovered that if I picked up snow and threw snow balls at her she thought it was one of the greatest things in the world. she’d try to catch each snow ball. It’s our little game every time we go outside and there’s fresh snow on the ground … that and she almost always has a roll in fresh snow.

So each time we go outside I pick up some snow and try to make a snow ball to throw at my funny black lab but it’s just not snowball snow. instead I’m just throwing handfuls of snow at her. She still thinks that’s fun, but not as much fun as snowballs.

Do you play in the snow? My dog loves when I take her out because she knows that I’ll play with her in the snow .. even if the snow’s not quite up to par. I have to remind my husband to throw some snow at the dog every once in a while …





My dog cracks me up

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My Labrador Retriever is such a Ham. She had her dinner a little while ago so her tummy is full and she’s a happy camper.

She’s lying on her dog bed playing with her nylabone. A few times a day she rolls over on her back, with her bone in her mouth and starts kicking up her legs and barking. I guess she’s really happy to be playing with her bone … but it’s kind of weird too because it comes out of nowhere. It’s also noisy since Midnight has a very loud bark!

I know I’m biased but I also happen to think my Lab is pretty smart. Last night it was raining fairly hard here in Toronto, so when my husband took Midnight out in the evening to do her business he happened to mention that he’d dried off her feet (on the front carpet) as he brought her in. Well Midnight heard the word dried and she immediately went over to her crate and jumped up so her front feet were touching the top of it and she used her nose to point to the towel that’s folded at the back of the crate. Yep … she knows if she’s really wet we’ll use the towel to dry her off. Of course, Midnight doesn’t really want to get dried off … she wants to play with the towel. Everything is a game to her.

My husband just went out with our dog and I decided to try teaching her a new trick before they left. We always keep her leash on top of her crate so I asked her to “bring it’ to me. It took a while before she got the idea of what I wanted her to bring to me, but with a little help she eventually brought me her leash. We gave her a cookie for her efforts. I’ll give it another try later this evening or tomorrow to re-enforce the idea. She’s pretty good that way, she learns new things fairly fast.

Now if I could just teach her how to search for cheap auto insurance since we’re in desperate need of less expensive insurance that would be great … but I think I’m going to have to do that job! LOL

Do you have a dog? Do you teach your dog new tricks? Is your dog a fast learner?

Our dog could live at the beach – no problem!

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I’ve been really lazy about posting the pictures that I’ve taken lately. I mean really lazy!

I’ve had some pictures on my computer that date back to October that I hadn’t cropped or done anything with, let alone uploaded to my Flickr account!

If you’re a regular reader or if you’ve browsed through my blog you already know that I like to take pictures of my garden, my dog and events that I go to here in Toronto and elsewhere. I often post them when when I blog.

Anyway, I spent some time on the weekend working on my photos and uploaded some of the backlog to my Flickr account. Now they’re ready for posting. Of course I still have to go through my most recent photos ie the ones I’ve taken since my garden started coming back to life in March and get them ready for posting too.

Maybe I’ll spend some time doing that this week or on the weekend. Speaking of the weekend … I think we’re going to have to cut our grass this weekend! I don’t think we’ve ever cut our grass as early as April before! But it’s been green since March and it’s really growing now.

While we’re at it I think it’s about time we put out our patio furniture too! The weathers been beautiful so we might as well get our table and chairs out so that we can enjoy the garden and the beautiful weather in comfort.

Would you like to see some of the pictures that I’ve been holding on to for a while and not posting? Ok, well here’s a few of my beautiful Labrador Retriever Midnight at the beach and lounging at home.

Can you believe that on March 7th we had a day that reached 19 Celsius (66 F)? Yeah, here in Toronto! I know that probably doesn’t sound that warm to those of you who live in warm climates but that’s downright hot for the “Great White North” in March. LOL Well, my brother was visiting from Vancouver and we decided to get outside and enjoy the day so that’s how we ended up taking our dog to Cherry beach.

Here’s a shot of here in action trying to fetch a stick as it lands in the water:

Our lab chasing a stick into the water

Another action shot as our Lab, Midnight, races into the cold waters of Lake Ontario:

Black Labrador Retriever running into the lake

Midnight finally coming back to shore. She’d whine for us to throw a stick or even a rock into the water for her to fetch:

Our Lab coming out of the water splish splash

And here’s a picture of Midnight playing with some of her new doggy friends on the beach:

Our dog playing with some friendly Rottweilers at Cherry Beach, Lake Ontario, Toronto

Those Rottweilers were twice as big as here but she got along with them great.

Finally here’s a shot of Midnight in one of my favorite poses. I call it here “My feet smell terrific” position. LOL Does your dog sniff (and chew) it’s own feet too?

Midnight our Black Labrador Retriever looking adorable on the couch

How can I get my dog to let me cut her nails?

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I think it’s time to bring our dog to the groomers again. Midnight is a Lab, short haired and seems to be fairly clean, but man does she need her nails done.

She won’t let me trim her nails at all. It’s a huge fight from a dog that normally lets us do just about anything to her. She used to let me cut her nails when she was a puppy and in her first year, but all of a sudden last summer she didn’t want any part of it. Maybe something happened at the groomers that scared her off?

Anyway .. her nails are so long that I’m afraid just about every time I ask her to shake hands or when she gets excited and tries jumping up at me. Why? Well it’s because her claws dig into me and scrape my skin. Most days I get at least one fresh scrape on my arms, hands or legs.

I don’t heal well either. The scratches she leaves on me take a week or more to heal even though it’s really just a light scrape of the skin. By summer when I get a bit of color I’ll have scars all over me from our dogs claws scratching me. Hmmm I wonder if I could use some fade stretch marks cream to fade fine scars? Might work.

Anyone have any ideas as to how I can get my dog to let me cut her nails again? I have special nail clippers and one of those nail grinder thingies and she doesn’t want anything to do with either of them.

Our Lab is turning into such a ham!

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My dog is such a ham! She’s a 2.5 year old Labrador Retriever and she’s adorable. Well, we think she is!

She’s calmed down a lot in the last 6 months or so, although she barks more often for some reason. When she was a year old we thought she might never calm down! Labs always want to be near you and do things with you and when Midnight was younger she was always in our face wanting to play or wanting to go outside and so on. There were plenty of times that I wished we could just flip a magic switch to make her calm down or find a click here button on her to switch her into lower gear. LOL

She still follows us around whenever we move about the house, usually with her favorite bone in her mouth just in case she can convince us to play with her … but she’s not quite as instant and in your face as she used to be.

Midnight is becoming quite cuddly too. I knew she was affectionate, but I never thought she’d be a lap, chest or in my case – shoulder dog. Yeah … guess I should explain that last one … When Midnight wants my attention – usually when I’m lying on the couch working on the computer and trying to watch TV at the same time, she’ll jump on the couch and climb over me to come and sit on the couch by my head. Unfortunately she’s not a tiny little dog so when she sits down and makes herself comfortable she often ends up sitting on my shoulder … or even my head!

Hmm maybe that’s why my shoulder’s been hurting lately … Midnight’s kind of heavy … no not overweight, but she’s a muscular dog with perhaps a few extra pounds.

In my husbands case she’ll jump up on the couch that he likes to relax on and climb onto his chest and lie down. When she does lie on him she always lies down so that she’s facing me. If I talk to her while she’s lying on my husband or get up to go in the kitchen she jumps off him and comes to me. My husband thinks she’s totally fixated on me.

Midnight also talks … she sounds like a Wookie (remember Star Wars?). She’ll lie down beside one of us and we’ll pet her for a moment or two and then go back to what we’re doing and that’s when she starts talking … letting out little groans and moans to tell us to keep petting her.

Yes … she’s kind of demanding, but we love her.

For those of you with dogs … is your dog affectionate and cuddly or do you have a more solitary independent dog? Have you noticed new aspects of your dogs personality emerge as the years go by?

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